Fox Sports has announced that its broadcast of the 2025 IndyCar season opener on Sunday bro⛎ke a 14-year record for TV viewership.

The corporation said that the St Petersburg Grand Prix averaged 1.4 million viewers across TV and streaming, the highest for an IndyCar event outside of the Indy 500 siꦑnce the 2011 Las Vegas race in which Dan Wheldon lost his life in a fatal accident.

Fox also stated that its viewership peaked at 1.82 million from 2:15-2:26 pm, a little over two hours afterಌ the scheduled start at midday.

In all, the TV audience for Sunday’s race was up 45% compared to last year’s St Pete race, when NBC garnered 974,7𝕴00 viewers.

Fox Sport has been heavily investing in its IndyCar coverage after taking over the series’ broadcast righ꧅ts from NౠBC. 

It has signed renowned Formula 1 presenter Will Buxton as lead commentator to partner current IMSA racer and formerܫ IndyCar driver James Hinchcliffe.

It also produced commercials💖 tha🧸t aired during NASCAR Playoffs and Super Bowl with the aim of gathering new audiences.

However, Fox also received criticism from certain quarters for its broadcast of the St Pete race. Several viewers on X (formerly Twitter) complained about issues with TV graphics, with the timing tower disappearing dur♈ing certai🎀n key moments - including immediately after qualifying.

Some also felt 🐽more information should have been made available on TV to enhance the vie💦wing experience.