Folks, we are almost starting to feel bad for Fox Sports now. The 2025 NASCAR season is not going well for them. First, they got backlash for how the Clash at Bowman Gray Stadium was broadcast. Either the frame was too tight, or they only showed a single driver for a long time. Fans were hoping to see better coverage. And just when fans were trying to put that behind them, Fox Sports disappointed NASCAR fans yet again ahead of the Daytona 500. There was just one commercial for NASCAR’s biggest race. On the other hand, they had several commercials for the new IndyCar season. And the bias was too blatant to ignore. But now, they have also disappointed IndyCar fans!

FOX has bagged the right to the whole IndyCar season, along with the iconic Indy 500, for the first time. And the world had to be told to tune into FOX to watch the 2025 season. But they could have given some of this importance to NASCAR. And like the commercial blunder was not enough, FOX even skipped to show the Air Force Thunderbirds flyover ahead of the Daytona 500. This was a rookie mistake, as pre-race events at Daytona are sacred. Now, with the latest blunder, they have swung the axe to their own foot!

FOX stepped into two boats and flipped ’em both

This year, the broadcasting giants failed to please the IndyCar fans as well. The 2025 season for the open-wheel series kicked off at the Firestone Grand Prix at St. Petersburg Racetrack, and Fox had promised to bring new graphics. However, FOX’s international audience did not receive the in-car performance overlays placed on the inside of the aeroscreens. Also, the GPS tracking pointers, which call out the car and show things like real-time speed, were absent.

Still, the broadcasters were prompt with their clarification. In an X post, they wrote, “No leak this time! Check out these updated @IndyCaron FOX graphics that you’ll see starting this weekend at The Thermal Club. *New Headshots *Redesigned HUD *Larger more informative Pointers.”  But the IndyCar race at Thermal brought a different set of problems.

The Thermal race and NASCAR’s recent Homestead Miami race were broadcasted at the exact same time! How can two of America’s biggest races come on air at the same time? It was bound to affect the viewership of the events. But the broadcasters remain undeterred by this.

This was their clarification: “When IndyCar is on the West Coast, going head-to-head with NASCAR is unavoidable because we can’t start the IndyCar race at 9 a.m. PT /12 p.m. ET (too early out there) before NASCAR (at 3 p.m. ET). We cannot air IndyCar on Sunday nights in the spring because of FOX entertainment programs airing in prime time.” 

This poor planning has come to bite FOX in the face. Look at the difference in viewership between their first two races of the season. St. Petersburg got 1.4 million, which is obvious, given all the hype and commercials. And it was a 45% jump from the previous year on NBC. And then, the Thermal Club race saw only 704,000 people tuning in, which was a 50.3% drop! It basically became a viewership battle between open-wheel racing and stock car racing, and it looks like NASCAR won that battle!

Also, this won’t be the only IndyCar race to suffer. The Long Beach race is technically a West Coast race. It’s scheduled during NASCAR’s Bristol race weekend on 14th April. And according to Fox, Long Beach will start about 90 minutes after Bristol. That is still better than what happened during the Homestead Miami race. Thankfully, this would be the last race of the season when we’ll see such a clash. However, while IndyCar suffered on the weekend, NASCAR topped all motorsports!

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Homestead Miami was the highest viewed

Folks, the Homestead Miami was not to be missed, and it looks like no one did. Kyle Larson almost got a sweep, winning the Truck Series race and the Cup Series race. In fact, he was in contention to win the Xfinity Series race, too. But Sam Mayer got in his back on the final restart, and he had to settle for a P4. Anyway, the point is that the Homestead weekend was a popular one. In comparison, the Truck Series saw a 12% jump, and Xfinity got a 46% from their previous years.

And the Cup series generated an average viewership of 2.46 million on FS1, the highest audience for a race at the circuit since 2021. The Cup Series race was also the highest viewed race of the 22nd- 23rd March weekend. Formula One had their Chinese Grand Prix on ESPN, it had 824,000 viewers. In the same breath, the NASCAR Truck race of Friday night on FOX featured 906,000 viewers. And finally, the NASCAR Xfinity race of Saturday on The CW reached 1.160 million. And we already discussed how much IndyCar got.

It’s strange how NASCAR on FS1 got almost triple the viewership of IndyCar, which was on FOX’s main channel. And this year, Homestead Miami was the 6th race of the season, unlike last season when it was COTA. So even in those terms, the Homestead Miami race was more popular. NASCAR journalist Jordan Bianchi shared some data. He wrote, “up 3 percent vs. last year’s sixth race of the season (COTA), and up 5 percent (from) last year’s race at Homestead, which aired on NBC.”

What did you think of last weekend and the goof-up Fox made? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below.