IndyCar, Fox, Penske, Should Pay for Alex Palou’s Rumored Red Bull Formula 1 Seat
I usually stick to commenting on confirmed news stories rather than rumors, but I’ll make an exception for the reports coming out of the motorsport world today, August 25th 2025.
The story itself is exceptional, but what I find more compelling is that it sits right at the heart of a dynamic that I’ve written about often: the lackluster performance of IndyCar relative to the juggernaut that F1 has become.
Red Bull Racing’s reported interest in Alex Palou, IndyCar’s four-time champion could be seen as zero-sum, a potential loss for the the defection of IndyCar’s brightest star to Formula 1, thus weakening the former even further in favor of the latter.
The contract situation is messy: Palou is locked into Ganassi through 2026 with out clauses, McLaren’s lawsuit over a broken deal is still in play, and generally the financial hurdles to release him would be significant.
But let’s step back and think big, on a scale as big and crazy as the possibility of Max Verstappen and Alex Palou would be.
Instead of resisting the move, IndyCar should embrace it.
The Vaucher Analytics State of Motorsport 2025: IndyCar
Every motorsport season tells two stories.
There’s the one played out on the track: the wins, losses, and moments fans will remember for years.
And then there’s the one that unfolds behind the scenes, where commercial deals, political maneuvering, and long-term strategy shape the sport’s future.
The very fact that this article can be written in mid-August, with two races still left to run, is itself part of IndyCar’s problem: the season comes and goes in a flash, followed by a six-month void that leaves little space for new stories to develop or late-comers to find their way in.
That’s only the tip of the iceberg, but nevertheless the 2025 IndyCar season delivered plenty of on-track action, in keeping with what it’s known for as the place where open-wheel finesse mixes with just a hint of NASCAR chaos.
But the off-track story is where the series’ long-term fate will be decided.
The Demographic Blind Spot In the Fox Corporation-Penske Entertainment (IndyCar) Transaction
Though Fox Sports (a division of Fox Corporation) had made waves in 2024 by acquiring the broadcast rights to IndyCar from NBC Sports, this deal nevertheless made an even larger impact because it was a significant step further, with a media company actively taking a stake in a motorsport series.
IndyCar fans see this as a win: their broadcast partner is now financially invested in the heritage brand’s growth.
On the surface, they’re right.
Fans are correct to presume that Fox Corporation will bring even more of its expertise and funds to bear, but enthusiasm alone won’t fix the foundation.
Motorsport Merch Is Lazy, And It's Costing Teams Millions
Motorsport, from Formula 1 on down, is unabashedly capitalist, in its operations, its scope, and its sheer spectacle.
At every race, the money is on display in every second of coverage. The scale may vary, but only from “kind of expensive” to “ludicrously expensive.”
Merchandise sits comfortably within that ecosystem. It’s not just a revenue stream, it’s capitalism in pure form: the sublimation of self through consumption.
For fans looking for connection, merch is the perfect outlet: an easy, visible way to say this is who I ride with.
So if the emotional buy-in is this strong, the question becomes obvious:
Why are teams still neglecting that loyalty with lazy, uninspired merch?