The Demographic Blind Spot In the Fox Corporation-Penske Entertainment (IndyCar) Transaction
Last week the North American motorsports world was shaken by the news that Fox Corporation had acquired one third of Penske Entertainment for a sum rumored to be around 130 million USD.
The name “Penske” is at least familiar to motorsports fans the world over, but those not following motorports series in the US and Canada may not know that Penske Entertainment owns not only the IndyCar series but also the Indianapolis Motor Speedway (among other assets), home of the historic Indy 500 race.
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.
Behind the headlines lies a deeper truth: IndyCar is stagnating because the audience on which it’s built its house is shrinking, and no amount of investment will make a significant difference unless this fundamental, structural issue is addressed.
Want More Insights Like This?
Subscribe to Return On Racing — the weekly newsletter from Vaucher Analytics covering actionable motorsports strategy, cost breakdowns, and sponsor intel.
In less than 500 words.
IndyCar’s current demographics are catastrophic from an expansionary perspective
Interestingly, the driver lineups don’t reflect any generational gap between IndyCar and F1.
The average age of both grids is nearly identical: 28 for IndyCar (excluding drivers entering only the Indy 500), 27 for F1.
Median age? 26 and 27, respectively.
In other words: IndyCar isn’t short on youth.
Herta, Malukas, O’Ward, Siegel, Rasmussen; these are exactly the kinds of drivers who could absolutely star in large social campaigns and brand activations, perhaps even a Netflix-style docuseries down the line.
But in IndyCar they’re not, because the fans watching them are decades older.
“Through its “Defy Everything” marketing campaign in 2022, attempts were made to court an audience that would bring the average age of its base of followers down by a meaningful amount.
Those efforts, which have yet to bear fruit, carry on into 2024 as IndyCar’s largest block of fans continues to be found among followers who are either approaching or past the age of retirement.”
Consider IndyCar’s own data:
70% of IndyCar fans are over 55
45% are over 65
Compare that to F1, where 87% of live viewers fall between 25 and 44, and the problem becomes obvious: IndyCar has the right drivers to connect with new fans.
But where are these new fans going to come from?
You can’t build growth around who’s already watching
If growth were going to come from hardcore, long-time fans, it would’ve happened by now.
Shifting the demographic makeup of IndyCar is the fundamental problem to tackle and so far efforts have stalled.
Presumably Fox Corporation have underlined this issue (at least internally) and have a plan to address it, but that’s unclear.
If IndyCar wants to survive, let alone thrive , it has to break from its base and capitalize on the resulting escape velocity.
And yes, that may alienate purists, but the alternative is at best a continued IndyCar stall, and at worst a fading into obscurity of IndyCar as its fans are not replaced.
To do this well, IndyCar and Fox should start with a communication plan
Proper change management requires a communication plan, and Fox and Penske Entertainment owe it to IndyCar’s dedicated fans to prepare them for drastic changes as the series shifts its decades-long courtship to a new set of people.
This plan would tell them why the changes are necessary, and crucially walk them through how these changes will contribute to growing the audience, which is the only path to getting what they expressed right after the deal was announced: a bigger calendar, better coverage, and of course long-term survival.
“Build it and they will come” is not a strategy on which Fox can gamble its 9-figure investment. The prudent way forward is to:
Start engaging with new audiences via expanded digital outreach (which Zak Brown, CEO of McLaren Racing, said recently is currently lacking in IndyCar).
Identify through this outreach where the newly primed audiences are and use this data to plan and initiate race schedule additions
F1 provides a perfect case study
F1’s growth in the U.S. wasn’t random, it was highly strategic. F1 and Liberty Media:
Built a foundation to justify Drive to Survive, which in turn served to emotionally hook casual viewers
Picked race locations to maximize buzz in a market, the US, that was key to its expansion plans (Austin, Miami, Vegas)
Built a fan funnel, and then monetized it intensely
IndyCar needs the same playbook to an extent (even if on a smaller scale), almost starting fresh with the same fans currently powering F1’s cultural ascent.
This doesn’t apply only to IndyCar, but all motorsports series looking for growth
Growth plans are not simply numbers on a page, they have to be built from the ground up, starting with solid assumptions and resting on specific, clearly defined audience segments.
Until you know who you’re trying to reach (where they spend time, what they care about, what turns them into paying fans), every marketing dollar is guesswork and every calendar expansion is a shot in the dark.
Fox won’t save IndyCar, but it won’t be able to do anything unless it makes headway into its biggest structural flaw
IndyCar has spent years chasing relevance without fixing its core audience problem.
The deal with Fox is a chance to change that, but only if IndyCar and Fox are willing to fundamentally rethink who they’re trying to reach, and how.
Want to take your motorsport business strategy to the next level?
At Vaucher Analytics, we help race series, teams and manufacturers turn their on-track assets into brand capital.
Book your 30-minute discovery call by contacting us today:
Through our website’s contact form, or
Via email at contact@vaucheranalytics.com
Main image credit: Sydney Rae via Unsplash