NASCAR's Chicago race spoils IndyCar's party as Mid-Ohio viewership drops nearly 40%

IndyCar's viewership dropped for another race weekend in a row despite the series finding a third race winner of 2025 in Alex Palou's teammate, Scott Dixon. The Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio was up against NASCAR's race on the streets of Chicago on Sunday, July 6.

Reporter Adam Stern of Sports Business Journal revealed the viewership numbers for IndyCar's Mid-Ohio race. The 90-lap race broadcast on FOX from 1 pm ET had an average viewership of 775,000 viewers, which was nearly 40% less than the 2024 Mid-Ohio race, which averaged 1.25 million viewers on NBC.

Last year's event hadn't clashed with NASCAR's street race in Chicago, while this year's race partially did. However, the surprising part was that even NASCAR witnessed a major slump in viewership.

The 2025 Grant Park 165 at Chicago, dominated by Shane Van Gisbersen, averaged 2.1 million viewers on TNT Sports. This was a steep step down from the 2024 edition, which averaged 3.9 million viewers and the inaugural edition in 2023, which had 4.6 million viewers.

F1 was the only series out of these Big 3 that witnessed a rise in viewership. The British GP averaged 1.5 million viewers on ESPN2 and peaked at 1.8 million between 11:30-11:45 am ET. Lando Norris took his first win on home soil to lead a McLaren 1-2, with Nico Hulkenberg securing his first career podium after 239 race starts.

In IndyCar, Scott Dixon grabbed headlines by securing his 59th race win in the series at the Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio. He exploited a rare error by the reigning champion and teammate Alex Palou with six laps to go to win his first race of the season.

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IndyCar viewership remains volatile despite FOX's big promises

NTT IndyCar Series Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio - Source: Getty

When IndyCar announced replacing NBC with FOX as its exclusive broadcasting partner for 2025, the latter promised a 30% increase in Total Audience Delivery (TAD) year-on-year. After race nine of the season at Road America, which averaged 781,000 viewers, the overall increase compared to the same time last year stood at 33%.

However, that number has dipped below 30% after race 10 at Mid-Ohio had a disparity of 475,000 viewers compared to 2024. The downward trend has continued after the 109th Indy 500, which averaged 7.05 million viewers, the highest since the 2008 edition of the race.

While the Detroit GP and the race at WWTR, which were the two races immediately after the Indy 500, recorded a YoY increase in viewership over NBC's 2024 numbers, the absolute numbers fell race-on-race. Detroit averaged 1.06 million viewers, and the WWTR race averaged 1.01 million viewers.

The next race at Road America fell on both accounts, dropping to an average viewership of 781,000. A part of this drop can be attributed to Alex Palou's outright dominance. The Chip Ganassi Racing driver has won six of the ten races so far. He leads the championship by 113 points over Kyle Kirkwood, with seven races remaining in the 2025 season.