Phoenix Thriller Delivers Big Ratings Jump for FOX

Race fans have spoken with their remotes: INDYCAR’s return last weekend to Phoenix Raceway was a hit.

The Good Ranchers 250 drew 1,247,000 viewers on FOX on Saturday, March 7, a thrilling race won by two-time NTT INDYCAR SERIES champion Josef Newgarden of Team Penske. That viewership marked a 95 percent increase of the 639,000 average viewership for Saturday races last year on FOX and a 77 percent increase over the number of viewers of the second race of the 2025 season, at The Thermal Club.

Viewership peaked Saturday at 1,468,000 from 5-5:14 p.m., when Newgarden earned his first victory of the season in a race that featured 565 on-track passes, an INDYCAR record at the 1-mile desert oval.

The Phoenix broadcast also was highest-rated Saturday race in the NTT INDYCAR SERIES since June 2020, when the series made its season debut at Texas Motor Speedway in a pandemic-shortened season while most of the country was socially distant due to health-related restrictions.

Ratings also were up an astronomical 391 percent from the broadcast of the last INDYCAR SERIES race at Phoenix, in 2018.

FOX’s coverage of the NTT INDYCAR SERIES continues this Sunday with the inaugural Java House Grand Prix of Arlington in Arlington, Texas. Race coverage starts at 12:30 p.m. ET Sunday on FOX, FOX Deportes, FOX One and the FOX Sports app.