I let diehard racing fans ask me anything. These are my 5 favorite questions

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5月 2, 2025

A Reddit AMA brought many impressive questions for IndyStar motor sports insider Nathan Brown. This is an excerpt of that discussion.

It was truly fitting that during my first Reddit AMA on the r/IndyCar page, while wading through so many questions touching on the future of the IndyCar schedule, that we got a little 2026 schedule nugget dropped right in the middle. Though nothing Earth-shattering, St. Pete, long IndyCar’s season opener seemingly with no plan to change that next year, will be held March 1.

I suspect that means we’ll have one off weekend in between Race 1 and 2 (Arlington, March 15) on the calendar, but it still leaves more than one pivotal question as to next spring’s IndyCar slate. I dove into all that, and much, much more during my Reddit AMA — from my Indy 500 dark horse, to who is at risk to get bumped, how to enjoy your first Indy 500 and what I’d change in IndyCar if I held the keys to the series.

Here are my five favorite questions from the AMA and my answers. Read the full Reddit AMA here.

Edited for brevity and clarity.

What is the vibe within the series right now on Fox’s presence in the series? Happy with the growth/presentation/etc.?

What is the relationship between the series and Fox? There’s been a lot of complaints such as lack of timing graphics in qualifying, poor race coverage (focusing far too much on the leaders and missing midfield action), among other things. Is this being communicated and addressed, or is this what we can expect going forward? It’s expected that Fox would have room to grow in Year 1 but some of the things missing seem like they should have clearly been addressed prior to go live for the season.

If you’re talking the powers that be on both sides — meaning Penske Entertainment and Fox Sports — I think there’s as much synergy and communication as IndyCar has had in that relationship. Led by Fox Sports CEO Eric Shanks’ lifelong love for the Indy 500 (PS: Look for a profile on him in a couple weeks from me at IndyStar), I think there’s an extra level of passion and willingness from both sides to pull out all the stops — from Fox’s use of its pro sports analyst talent in creative ways, to drivers and the series lending their time to make appearances or hop on shows to get the word out.

There’s a frustration on both sides that, from a technological standpoint, this new chapter has been far from seamless. From the 20-minute broadcast blackout at Thermal to the nearly three-hour testing delay last week at IMS, IndyCar has had as many of those major blunders as you’d hope to see in a single season. Now, some of this comes from both sides’ dedication to taking technology to the next level. Thermal’s issues were, in part, due to bugs within new production trucks Penske Entertainment purchased via IMSP this offseason in order to allow for higher resolution in the broadcasts. What we saw at IMS last week, I’m told, came rooted in soft launch of new network technology that better syncs up, protects and streamlines everything from timing and scoring to team data and communication around the track, and that system was tested the night before without issue. Wednesday morning, it suffered a failure in one section of the system that essentially called for a bunch of unplugging and plugging back in — as well as tons of waiting and additional troubleshooting — to find the proverbial kink in the hose.

As far as other glitches we’ve seen the first three race weekends, I’ve been led to believe this is neither an IndyCar or Fox issue, but reoccurring issues in the way in which IndyCar’s timing and scoring is delivered to Fox. Unfortunately on things like that, you often times can’t really find your bugs until you put them to work.

Past the technology issues, I think things like the data that seemingly is critical to the experience of watching qualifying to how races are covered will get better with time. After all, so many people outside the booth have very little IndyCar or even racing experience. I think also, unfortunately, we’ve had races to start the year that haven’t featured a ton of passing at the front outside pit sequences due to just one caution called on Lap 1 of the first 255 of the year. You haven’t had a ton of truly riveting action with a win on the line outside Alex Palou hunting down Christian Lundgaard and Pato O’Ward during the final stint at Thermal. And so I think with more exciting racing will come more exciting and engaging coverage.

The thing to keep in mind is IndyCar hasn’t added in a new network that hasn’t previously covered it before in nearly two decades. During the various iterations of ABC, ESPN, NBC and NBC’s various cable channels, those folks had familiarity with the sport for quite some time. While I’ll say I was given the sense that too many things were being thrown together too last-minute this offseason (finalizing contracts with folks from IMSP and finalizing deals for its pit reporters among them), that’s partially a product of a lot of Fox football folks transitioning over into IndyCar mode after the Super Bowl, which of course is an all-hands-on-deck type of event.

In short, I think the start to this relationship could’ve gone more smoothly, but some of the missteps are a product of attempts at making things better in the long run, and I think there’s enough passion on both sides to get the ship moving in the right direction consistently here soon.

If you get the keys to the series, what would be the 3 things you’d want to change?

I’d stop trying to reinvent the wheel with our behind-the-scenes docuseries and adopt the “shoot everything during the season, air it toward the end of the offseason and have 10 episodes” model that allows you to know the full scope of the story you’re trying to tell before you have to start putting the pieces together. Otherwise, you end up with a situation like a year ago where three of your six episodes are packaged before “Push to Pass-gate” becomes a thing and is such an obvious major storyline that you can’t properly tackle in such a condensed model. And more episodes would give you the freedom to either dive into the lives of more drivers or really hone in on a select group and follow them throughout the year through the championship. No matter who my broadcast partner is, I wouldn’t solely host the show’s debut on a relatively unknown streaming platform.
I’d move mountains to ensure we have a tentpole event in the northeast. Right now, outside St. Pete, the race farthest east in the U.S. is Mid-Ohio, leaving a massive swath of the country without a race that’s within driving distance. It’s a highly populated, diverse and in some pockets, racing-loving area of the country, and IndyCar’s left it unattended. It’s not without some effort in the last decade or so, with Baltimore petering out and Richmond and Boston never fully getting off the ground, but it’s a dire need nonetheless.
Even if you have to promote them yourself and rent the track, I’d get another at least medium-sized oval on the calendar, and Homestead would be my pick. For the most part, Penske Entertainment has limited its pursuit of additions to the schedule to places where it’s either wanted or at least can co-promote a race, and with two companies, NASCAR and SMI, owning and/or operating so many ovals across the country, if they’re largely unwilling to play ball, outside SMI’s willingness to throw IndyCar a lifeline on Nashville Superspeedway with the downtown Nashville race on Broadway fell apart, then you’re going to be waiting a long time. IndyCar already does this with Iowa and Nashville. I think it sorely needs a pre-Indy 500 oval, and if it takes some creativity and risk to take another shot at Homestead, I think it’s worth a shot.

What are some steps you think IndyCar could take in the next 1-2 years to keep growing the series?

Penske Entertainment has got to fix the spring, pre-May portion of the schedule. There should never be two consecutive weekends without racing, and we’ve had it three times this year, and it’s been an issue the entirety of the Penske era. The addition of Arlington and (likely) Mexico City will help, but IndyCar needs an oval pre-Indy 500 to give both diehard and novice fans a taste of that exhilarating racing action that only comes on ovals. I’d suggest taking a hard look at Homestead as the track, according to a report from The Athletic’s Jordan Bianchi, is primed to host the 2026 NASCAR season finale. Though some sort of championship race rotation seems to be in play, especially if Homestead consistently falls in the NASCAR playoffs, a spring post-St. Pete date further down south in Florida would be a heck of a way to kick off the year. Imagine a year that has St. Pete, Homestead, Arlington, Mexico City, Long Beach and Barber all before we get to May. All of a sudden, you’ve doubled the number of races you have pre-May and you’ve developed a consistent rhythm ripe with storylines entering the biggest month of the year, instead of feeling as if your season is constantly restarting with each spring race weekend.
Take the Arlington model elsewhere. Running around a pro sports stadium isn’t exactly a novel idea in racing, let alone IndyCar, but IndyCar’s never attempted something quite so lavish and flashy in recent memory. Penske Entertainment officials legitimately want this to rival F1’s Miami Grand Prix, and though I think that’s a bit overzealous, there’s reason to think that a solid street course model in a major U.S. market around pro sports stadiums could be replicated in other places, particularly in the northeast. It’s smart, too, to rope in the teams and stadium owners themselves. IndyCar gets their brand recognition, sponsor base and list of ticket-buying customers to market to, and the pro sports teams get to activate in a major way in their communities and attempt to one-up each other. I don’t know that there’s another ready-made option in the northeast that doesn’t follow this model, so Arlington’s Year 1 success could pay major dividends for the sport moving forward.

All in all, I think the schedule and expanding the markets in which IndyCar races will play a major role in the series’ growth.

Who do you think is an under-the-radar driver that could be at the front this May?

I’m fully willing to admit that a four-time Indy 500 winner probably never flies “under the radar,” but after a 7-year stretch where he’s only really run toward the front late once (his historic fourth win in 2021) and now two years into a 500-only role with Meyer Shank Racing, I’m not sure Helio Castroneves has or will get nearly the level of consideration he should. Even myself, I think there’s six drivers (Penske’s trio, Ganassi’s Alex Palou and Scott Dixon and Pato O’Ward) who immediately make my shortlist, and you probably should add at least the three full-timers from Andretti Global, which gets you to nine.

But as long as Honda and Ganassi can be back within the same ballpark as Chevy, which they certainly weren’t a year ago, I think a car with Helio’s race craft and experience and Ganassi engineering could be dangerously competitive come May, while only barely cracking the list of a dozen or so cars that, on paper at least, would be your favorites.

Going based off your previous reports there seems to be a very high likelihood of Mexico coming to the schedule next year. At this point can you give us a percent chance it happens? And when can we expect any potential announcements?

I haven’t been led to believe there’s any serious doubt that this race will happen, but a deal is never done until we have a press release and press conference (And IndyCar’s history over even the last decade have proven even that’s not always enough). I think there’s a 90% chance IndyCar is racing at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez next spring, and if you really want to see that come together, I’d root for Pato O’Ward this May.

The latest I’ve been told from a reporting standpoint was Mark Miles’ comment to me two months ago that he believes “we’ll get it done and we can be racing there in 2026.” As far as announcement timing, I’ve gotten the indication that the track operators want to get through their mid-June NASCAR date before hashing out the final details for an IndyCar deal. I also believed they’d want to figure out their next F1 contract before anything IndyCar related, but that’s now been buttoned up and announced earlier this week. If I had to pick a month, I’d guess by late July or early August.

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