FOX buys $125m stake in IndyCar amid F1 broadcast rights battle

Less than a year into its broadcasting deal with IndyCar, Fox Corporation has purchased a one-third stake in Penske Entertainment — the company that owns both IndyCar and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

While specific details of the deal were not disclosed, Wall Street Journal reports that Fox’s investment sits somewhere between $125 and $135 million.

FOX buys one-third of company that owns IndyCar

The Fox Corporation has purchased one-third of Penske Entertainment, the company that owns the IndyCar Series and the sport’s most iconic circuit, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Those familiar with the deal believe that the transaction is valued at somewhere between $125million and $135million, but as of yet, that remains unconfirmed.

The investment follows FOX’s acquisition of IndyCar’s American broadcast rights in anticipation of the 2025 season, and the multi-year deal “has been extended” as part of the investment agreement.

Thus far, the broadcast deal has worked; FOX brought in a hefty promotional budget, which has resulted in a 31 per cent increase in viewership year-over-year compared to 2024’s broadcast numbers on NBC.

Part of this has to do with the fact that every IndyCar race now airs on FOX proper, which is part of any basic television package in the United States. By contrast, previous broadcaster NBC confined some events to its streaming service, Peacock, with others exclusively airing on NBC Sports.

“This partnership is built on long-standing trust and a shared vision of the future,” said Roger Penske, series owner and head of the formidable Penske empire, in an official statement.

“FOX sees the incredible potential across our sport and wants to play an active role in building our growth trajectory. Lachlan Murdoch and his team, starting with Eric Shanks, are committed to our success and will bring energy and innovation to IndyCar.”

Eric Shanks, CEO and executive producer at FOX Sports, continued, “We’re thrilled to join the IndyCar ownership group at such a pivotal time for the sport.

“IndyCar represents everything we value in live sports — passionate fans, iconic venues, elite competition, and year-round storytelling potential. This investment underscores our commitment to motorsports and our belief in IndyCar’s continued growth on and off the track.”

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IndyCar ownership: A complicated history

Motorsport fans familiar with the history of American open-wheel racing will know that the only constant in the sport has been its instability.

First sanctioned by the American Automobile Association (AAA)’s Contest Board, American open-wheel championship consisted primarily of the Indianapolis 500, with occasional efforts made to link together a series of AAA-sanctioned events.

This lasted until 1955, when the contest board withdrew entirely from auto racing as a result of that year’s Le Mans disaster, where over 80 spectators were killed. At that point, a man named Terry Hulman was in charge of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and he organized a new sanctioning body — the United States Auto Club (USAC) — to oversee the running of the Indy 500 and a handful of other events throughout the year.

However, in the late 1970s, team owners like Roger Penske, Dan Gurney, and Pat Patrick grew disillusioned with USAC’s leadership. Seeing how Formula 1 had grown exponentially after prioritizing professionalization, standardization, and increased commercial opportunities, Gurney penned a “white paper” that asked USAC officials to take its “championship” seriously. When USAC refused, those team owners fractured off into its own series, called Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART).

USAC and CART operated independently, coming together once a year to compete at the Indy 500. But when Hulman’s grandson Tony George took over at IMS, he founded the Indy Racing League (IRL) series in an effort to unseat CART and prevent CART from racing at the 500. The two organizations changed shape over the years, but coming into the 2008 season, both joined forces in an effort to stave off bankruptcy.

That unified series became known as IndyCar, and it was owned by the Hulman family until 2019, when team owner Roger Penske purchased both IndyCar and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway under his Penske Entertainment brand (a subsidiary of his overall Penske Corporation).

It is unclear exactly how much Penske spent; the deal is said to have been between $250 and $300 million, with an additional $30 million invested in IMS’s facilities shortly thereafter.

What does FOX’s partial acquisition of IndyCar mean?

FOX’s partial acquisition of IndyCar represents a major trend in the American sports broadcasting space, in which broadcast companies purchase a stake in the sports they air in a sort of mutually beneficial relationship.

For example, ESPN — owned by Disney — is in talks with the National Football League regarding swapping a 10 per cent stake in the sports media empire in exchange for the NFL Network and RedZone channels.

ESPN also owns a piece of the United Football League and has a minority equity investment in the Premier Lacrosse League.

Why? Sports broadcasting deals are extremely lucrative these days, involving multi-million dollar promises that can be challenging to justify in their own right. By investing in the sport as part of its broadcasting deal, those broadcasters therefore more directly benefit from the success of the series in question. Further, it reduces the possibility that a rival broadcaster can step in to offer a “better” deal.

IndyCar itself will benefit from the legitimacy afforded by the FOX name’s legacy, as well as by the ongoing investments FOX makes in the series.

Questions of ownership in IndyCar have been furiously circling in recent years, as fans and pundits wonder if Roger Penske should be allowed to own the sport, its biggest event, and one of the most successful teams actively competing in it. Further, at 88 years of age, Penske is nearing the end of what has been a massively successful decades-long domination of the American motorsport scene. It is fitting that he begins to consider what will happen to his empire after he’s gone.

How does the IndyCar deal compare to others in the motorsport space?

The $125million to $135million figure cited as FOX’s investment is small potatoes compared to other major valuations and deals in the motorsport space — particularly in Formula 1.

IndyCar is one of several series to have benefitted from an increased interest in motorsport as a result of Netflix’s popular docuseries Drive to Survive, but it still remains a more niche undertaking.

For example, F1 is negotiating its current US broadcast rights and is said to be looking for a broadcaster to pay $150million per year for the privilege of airing Formula 1. That’s millions in excess of what it cost FOX to purchase an ownership stake in an entire race series.

Currently, Apple TV+ and Netflix are said to be interested in acquiring F1’s US rights in a streaming-only deal, though current rightsholder ESPN is not opposed to renewing its contract should it be able to negotiate the price.

Further, Aston Martin’s Formula 1 team alone has been valued at $3.3billion, with Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings said to be interested in selling its minority stake in the team for $146million. While these valuations are currently under review, they’re still light years ahead of the IndyCar deal.

Indeed, when Liberty Media purchased Formula 1 in 2017, it did so for an enterprise value of $8billion.

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