2026 Indy 500 finish Credit: imagn images via Reuters Connect
By Matt Yoder on

One of the most thrilling races in the history of the Indy 500 unfortunately wasn’t enough to lift ratings from a year ago.

Felix Rosenqvist passed David Malukas on the final straight and won by .0233 seconds, the closest finish across the famed yard of bricks in the 110-year history of the race. Rosenqvist made an audacious move outside teammate Marcus Armstrong through the third and fourth turn and was somehow still able to catch a slipstream from Malukas and win the sprint to the line.

This year’s Indy 500 also set a record with 70 total lead changes shared among 14 drivers, proving why the greatest spectacle in racing has earned its moniker.

However, this year’s excitement fell just short of last year’s viewership totals. The 2026 Indianapolis 500 was seen by an average of 6.635 million viewers. While it was the second-highest viewership for IndyCar’s flagship event since 2012, it was unable to match last year’s mark of 7.05 million viewers. That was good enough for a 17-year high viewership in the race’s first ever airing on Fox.

However, the news is still mostly good for IndyCar and for Fox. The rating is historically strong compared to recent years and the IndyCar series is up overall on the network this year with an impressive average of 2.3 million viewers per race. That’s the best start to an IndyCar season since the CART-IRL split that tore apart finally came to an end in 2008.

As the NBA has also found out this season, there is power in having live sports aired on broadcast television in the streaming era when it comes to audience reach and potential. And IndyCar’s deal that sees every race air on Fox has certainly seemed like it has paid off for America’s open-wheel racing league.

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