Miles: Longer Off-Season Poses Possibility For 'International 'Series'

Source: Joe Skibinski/Penske Entertainment / other

SPEEDWAY, Ind. — This week IndyCar announced a massive new TV broadcasting rights deal with FOX Sports that will see every race on the IndyCar schedule airing on network television.

With the announcement of the deal, the series has also finalized its 2025 schedule, which will come to an end on August 31st, 2025 with the planned season finale race on the oval at Nashville Superspeedway.

That may have many long-time IndyCar fans asking a few questions since it’s obvious that August 31st is a rather early end to the season compared to how long the season has run in the past. Penske Entertainment CEO Mark Miles told Tony Katz Today on WIBC that that is actually by design.

“Our last race, the finale in Nashville, will be the last weekend before the first game of the season for the NFL,” Miles said. “It’s just axiomatic that if our sport continues after (NFL) regular season games start, audiences decline.”

Miles said you see the same thing with NASCAR, which also airs races on FOX for the first half of their season. Miles said for the betterment of exposure, it is simply best to not compete with the NFL head-to-head.

Still, Miles acknowledged that it does leave six months free to do something before the start of the next season.

Miles said they are not planning to simply keel over cold turkey once the NFL season begins. He said there are plans in the works for an ‘international series’ of sorts that may include running races overseas once the IndyCar season in North America has come to an end.

“We think there is an opportunity to create an international series,” Miles said. “I don’t know what its size or shape would be, but if you were to draw it out it could be three or four races. We know there are a lot of IndyCar fans in South America, Europe, and Australia.”

Miles said the series would not be a part of the North American championship but could be a series of races put together through international sponsorship deals and prize money. It would be a separate stand-alone series but with current IndyCar drivers.

Miles said going international would expand IndyCar’s exposure in other countries and might get more eyes on the North American regular season.

“If we could do that those races would be on in the US too, but they would be branded and presented differently,” Miles said. “It’s not something that’s going to happen overnight, but we think it might be a good strategy for the off-season.”