It’s been a long time coming since an American motorsports series such as IndyCar were last shown on Free to Air in Australia in 2008 on the Seven Network, after these open-wheelers no longer race on the streets of Surfers Paradise in Gold Coast, Queensland.

There was also every race in Champ Car/IndyCar back then for the North American races other than the Gold Coast, having been tape-delayed on Tuesday mornings at 12 am/1 am either on Nine or Ten. Although both networks did cover the annual Indianapolis 500 race live through the 1990s and early 2000s.

Fifteen years on, the Nine Network brought it back this time as one-hour highlights of every race on Thursday 2-3 pm via their digital channel 9Go. It comes after their subscription streaming partner, Stan Sport, who recently snatched the Australian IndyCar TV rights off Fox Sports/Kayo, will air every practice, qualifying, and race, live without ads and on-demand.

And fans will not have to wait long now to subscribe and tune in to Stan Sport for tomorrow’s season-opener at a Street Circuit in St. Petersburg, Florida, 4 am AEDT.

We would’ve loved to see Nine simulcast the annual Indy 500 live with Stan Sport on 9Gem in late May, but then not many people here will stay up all night & watch it in the early hours of Monday AM. The only way Nine will air an IndyCar race live is if the IndyCars return for a weekend racing here like they did in the past, but someone local has to promote it where none of them are willing to take this step forward any time soon.

For now, it’s great to hear fellow Aussie Leigh Diffey commentating for host broadcaster NBC Sports throughout the 2022 IndyCar season, including the Indianapolis 500, both on Stan Sport and 9Go.

Update as of September 2025

Stan Sport is still airing the races as always on top of mid-week to next weekend’s highlights of each round via free-to-air on 9Go between the start of March to the end of August. The only difference right now is the change of domestic rights holder where FOX Sports (not the Foxtel one here) are airing the races including the Indianapolis 500 off NBC Sports.

Same with the World Endurance Championship and Formula E where every race and replay comes first as a Stan Sport exclusive followed by the next weekend’s hour-long highlights on 9Go. Although there’s a bit of live & free coverage (also 9Go) when it comes to annual 24 Hours of Le Mans in France that takes place in June but only for the first two hours from 12am-2am AEST like it has been since 2023.

Unless there’s an Australian round happening all of the sudden which is unlikely for the foreseeable future, there’s no way Nine would find a spot for an IndyCar to air live via free-to-air when the races are held usually on Monday morning.

Now there’s 1-2 rare Saturday ones but they would add little value though when the Indy GP at the road course would start close to 6am while the 1st Iowa doubleheader oval Saturday night weekend for example isn’t as significant as the Indy 500 or even the Season Finale race. If IndyCar does want to finish off on a Saturday night in the near future and there’s a Aussie or Kiwi fighting for the championship, this might be worth a shout but that’s my take.

Ironically, there was one before back in 2014 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana and Will Power won the Drivers’ Championship for Team Penske while his brother Damien (a stand-up comedian) actually made the race look great through a series of sarcastic posts at the same time of supporting his brother on Twitter.

So yeah, one can hope but this is the best way we can tune in for your IndyCar fix in Australia.