Veteran NASCAR analyst gives IndyCar a reality check after Long Beach GP viewership surfaces
The 2025 IndyCar race at Long Beach was the 50th anniversary of the street circuit, yet the Grand Prix only managed to average 552,000 viewers. Veteran NASCAR analyst Larry McReynolds came out and shared his thoughts on the American open-wheel series' viewership numbers.
FOX Sports PR’s official social media account revealed the viewership numbers for the 2025 Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. The tweet detailed how the race averaged 552,000 viewers, which was an 80% increase compared to the 2024 race, where it averaged 307,000 viewers on the USA network.
Danielle Trotta and Larry McReynolds discussed the same on the SiriusXM On Track podcast, and came to the conclusion that the viewership numbers just north of half a million isn't anything to write home about, especially since the race was being broadcast by a media group as big as FOX. Their comments were shared on X by NASCAR writer Kyle Dalton.
“Now they're on the big network, but only got just north of half a million people. Is that a win for IndyCar? Is this glass half full or glass half empty? How do you look at that?,” questioned Danielle Trotta.
“Well, it's a different floor than I work on. But if we had a race on FOX, I don't care if it was on Christmas Day and we didn't bust a million, I gotta believe there'd be a lot of disappointed people walking around. Yeah, to be on the mothership and only have a half a million, just north of a half a million, that's not, I don't think that's what my bosses are looking for,” replied Larry McReynolds.
IndyCar signed a contract with FOX last year, which gave the media group the exclusive broadcasting rights for the American open-wheel racing series starting in 2025.
While it got off to a great start at St. Pete with over 1.4 million average viewers, the number has only declined in the subsequent races. The second race at Thermal Club averaged 704,000 viewers, and the recent race at Long Beach dropped to 552,000 viewers.
IndyCar Long Beach Grand Prix viewership compared to other sporting events during the second weekend of April
Many came out and pointed at IndyCar's strategy of scheduling the Long Beach Grand Prix alongside NASCAR's Cup Series race at Bristol and the Masters Tournament. Both of those events, and the F1 race at Bahrain, attracted significantly more viewers than the IndyCar race.
While the American open-wheel race only managed half a million viewers, the Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway averaged 2.054 million viewers on FS1. The first major golf tournament of the year, The Masters, held at Augusta National Golf Course, left both NASCAR and IndyCar in the dust with an average viewership of 12.99 million viewers.
The Bahrain GP also averaged above a million viewers at 1.3 million viewers, which was an 18% increase over the 2024 F1 race in Bahrain.