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Formula 1, Alpine-Renault and Jack Doohan: From his 22nd Birthday to first day back at work this week in Enstone

by Sports Benches

This week was a huge week for Alpine-Renault’s No.7 Jack Doohan from celebrating his 22nd birthday the other day to turning up straight at work aka pre-season duty for his first seat fit in Enstone with a new-look hair cut. 

I guess he will want to go a bit more faster then who would want to stick what worked well him in the past – probably to match his personal best on raw pace through one lap, especially when it comes to a full race weekend which is very important for Jack.

Then there’s him stopping by at the office with the man currently running the show that knows about the history of Enstone all too well even though he’s not really Team Principal these days – Flavio Briatore.

Looking forward to the new car reveal soon (A525 chassis) + pre-season testing while Jack is on it working hard every day & always be in the points soon with Pierre.

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Thoughts on FOX Sports set to build around their IndyCar commentary team with F1’s Will Buxton from the UK who could be the 2nd foreign Indy 500 caller after Leigh Diffey

by Sports Benches

2025 is already in full swing with FOX Sports currently finalising their final steps for their full season IndyCar broadcast presentation ahead of their announcement early next week that includes the prestigious Indianapolis 500 race during May.

As it stands, it seems FOX would want Englishman Will Buxton onboard as their lead anchor/commentator who is very popular with Formula 1 worldwide and previously the US over the past decade at the former Speed Channel (a previous FOX Sports property now known as FS1 since 2013) and later NBC from 2013-2017 rather than Allen Bestwick or even making Mike Joy get his Indy 500 wish – the network’s current NASCAR commentator.

I guess the legendary Mike Joy is currently age 75 with two decades of calling the Daytona 500 under his belt since FOX first got into NASCAR back in 2001 as he would be great to call another 500-mile race in the form of IndyCar at Indianapolis but then the network decided to go with a fresher look that resonates with today’s viewership of the sport – nothing against him.

Although the good news is that Mike Joy is indeed going to the Indy 500 but he will most likely be there as a welcome guest of FOX Sports or in a special behind the scenes host/reporting role.

Back to Will and yes, he will have to travel to the US from his home in the UK and back if he was going to be part of FOX Sports’ IndyCar full season coverage.

At the same time, looks like he will receive a very decent salary on top of his usual F1TV duties that requires him to be present almost every race worldwide while being given the chance to call the Indianapolis 500 race – potentially as the 2nd foreigner to do so after his former Speed & NBC Sports F1 colleague in Australian Leigh Diffey who called the last several Indy 500 races when NBC was the sport’s most recent rights holder from 2019 up until last season before FOX just took over.

If he accepts that role, then kudos for him as US motorsport fans know him pretty well with Will usually an exceptionally good pit reporter but he’s also a great host too as you currently see on F1TV over the past few years when ESPN/ABC replaced NBC back in 2018 and has called the junior Formula 1 feeder series races before during the early 2010s in the previous GP2 & GP3 Series (now known these days as Formula 2 & 3 respectively).

So yeah, no problem as he will see IndyCar a perfect fit that can align with FOX’s IndyCar broadcast presentation; not only that, he will possibly have his F1TV colleague James Hinchcliffe by his side who has an excellent on-air rapport with Will no doubt and so would Townsend Bell having previously filled in for him as pit reporter a few times for NBC’s then Formula 1 coverage.

That’s probably the main reason why FOX wants to keep it up with the times by having a mix of F1 and IndyCar known talent where they know everything about open-wheel racing even when some events go very left rather than picking someone legendary who has been to a whole lot of races across America before.

Interesting…and the best part about this is that every IndyCar event will still be live and on-demand on Stan Sport this season for at least another three years along with hour-long highlights of each round via free-to-air on 9Go coinciding with the sport’s next contract expiry of their new domestic TV rights deal with FOX Sports.

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Thoughts on Flavio Briatore finally securing Franco Colpainto onboard but initially as reserve driver that puts Jack Doohan under all sorts of pressure at Alpine-Renault

by Sports Benches

As far as it concerns Jack Doohan, it seems Alpine has finally snapped up Argentine Franco Colapinto but only as a reserve driver for now – probably on loan from Williams I guess that covers just 2025 rather than a permanent deal. Update: It seems he’s onboard on a multi-year deal then, so that means he’s under Alpine now rather than Williams unless Williams inserted some clause in his contact if and when Carlos Sainz Jr. or Alex Albon leaves at some point.

He was under the radar of Flavio Briatore for some time who was impressed by his driving ability when he was unexpectedly a replacement driver for Logan Sargeant at Williams late last season – despite the fact he crashed out during the last 2-3 races of the year that cost them additional money for repairs. At the same time though, Alpine has already sorted out a replacement for Esteban Ocon which was Jack Doohan over Mick Schumacher. But then once the Colapinto hype has begun over scoring points, Flavio thinks he has other ideas to keep him in F1 at his team.

In case you missed it, Flavio likes having someone who has raw pace & can score points, as Colapinto is the one he thinks can form a formidable part for his Alpine F1 team’s masterplan. That means, we will need to get behind Jack 100% so he can score as many Top 7-8 points as possible for the first few years of the new year, especially with the home Australian race being his first shift around the corner.

If not, he could be sacked right on the spot unfortunately after the Miami Grand Prix as per rookie contract clause. Flavio wouldn’t mind making wholesale changes midway during the season when one isn’t doing so well, even though he’s only the team’s executive advisor (a la Director of Football role) to Renault’s boss Luca De Meo rather than being Team Principal.

15th on debut isn’t bad for Jack to be honest at Abu Dhabi having been thrown into the deep end after Esteban Ocon decided to sit out the season finale in order to begin his next ride with Haas early for pre-season testing. But again, he has to be a good match to Pierre Gasly who has been doing the heavy lifting as their No.1 driver as of late, especially with the upgrades working well in their favour. 

Now Jack may not have the same capabilities as his compatriot Oscar Piastri but he has scored points and podiums before at junior formula level.

There’s absolutely no reason why he cannot be able to make the most out of his time at the highest level when there’s only 20 odd spots fighting for competition and Jack being the only guy not doing well knowing he might not make it to full season with Franco ready to return to Formula 1 through the gifted help of Briatore by taking over Doohan’s seat if things don’t work out after the first odd races.

So his full support is very, very crucial in the hope of scoring Top 10s almost every race and if he can do that, then there shouldn’t be anymore pressure throwing against Jack & we could see the very best of him by the time Alpine becomes a customer team to Mercedes in 2026.

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Formula 1: A new year with the home Australian GP next up for Jack Doohan to deliver results in a bid to keep his ride after a year of testing/track work at Alpine-Renault

by Sports Benches

The first day of the new year (2025) also sees the first start season for Alpine’s new driver Jack Doohan from the Gold Coast in Queensland. He does look a bit like Alex De Minaur from Tennis by the way albeit with a much younger age difference than him and also has the natural Grand Prix roots that stems from his dad’s legendary two-wheel motorcycle career in Mick. 

He’s coming off a huge 2024 on the reserves for the most part where he’s been clocking hundreds and thousands of track work on top of his unexpected season-ending debut at Abu Dhabi last month and now it’s up to Jack to deliver right from the word go ahead of his home Grand Prix in Melbourne (Albert Park) come March. 

At the moment, he’s under the watchful eye of Flavio Briatore, even though he isn’t the Team Principal nowadays. However, he is still tasked to turn around Alpine’s fortunes at this same Enstone place he held several times before through Benetton in the 90s and Renault for most of the 2000s, and yet he’s not taking any prisoners for any excuse or emotion if Jack or even Pierre does not deliver at least the first few races of 2025. 

There’s a reason why Flavio has been sniffing around Franco Colapinto despite him crashing out the last few races of 2024 when he was thrown into the deep end unexpectedly for the axed Logan Sargeant at the time & scored a few points on offer with Alex Albon at Williams. 

But let’s hope that isn’t the case as it’s a long time coming for Jack who is the first Alpine F1 Team Academy driver to race for them following a sound Formula 2 & 3 career at junior level. With that being said, scoring Top 7-10 finishes would be a great start then work his way towards being Top 3-5 over time – even with a Mercedes engine if he does stay after this season.

That’s all we want from the 21-year-old who will do whatever it takes to forge a successful long-term relationship with Alpine’s Team Enstone, having seen Enstone witness Renault’s stunning 2005-06 championship campaign led by Spaniard & still racing Fernando Alonso. Keep an eye out for him with testing next month before it’s lights out and the way he goes in a bid to build on his 15th-placed debut finish by turning into a pattern of Top 10 points like Gasly did through the 2nd half of 2024. Best of luck to Jack & his new No.7 race number that looks so good on his A525 Alpine-Renault chassis.

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Thoughts on Stan Sport staying on with IndyCar for another three years despite the change of domestic rights holder under Fox in the USA ahead of the 2025 season

by Sports Benches

So there we have it with IndyCar ahead of next year at least on Australian TV & Stan Sport is not going anywhere for at least the next three years according to SpeedCafe today amid the change of domestic TV rights contract from NBC to Fox from six months ago, who will now be carrying the races going forward (all races LIVE on free-to-air in the USA) under the next multi-year deal, so case closed.

It’s been a long while as per International broadcasting contracts to align with IndyCar’s domestic TV component, which the sport will come back to revisit them once each of the domestic TV rights deals cycle has been settled from time to time. 

I’m not sure about the UK and Ireland market but it still says Sky Sports F1 (their parent company is Comcast that owns NBC) for now as you never know before Round 1 of next season at the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida in March 2025.

Don’t forget the hour-long IndyCar highlights will also still be on 9Go & 9Now just days to a week after each round depending on your local TV guides during the day albeit with a different broadcast feed from now on via FOX. Plus, Leigh Diffey is still contracted with NBC and has recently became their NASCAR Cup commentator anyway back in late August, so no doubt we will hear a new race announcer – probably Allen Bestwick, Kevin Lee or even Mike Joy (I’d say Indy 500 only so he can get his wish at least once in his career despite being age 75).

Although mind you, yes, it’s going to be a bit weird seeing the FOX Sports broadcast presentation at it goes across Stan Sport & 9Go. But don’t think it’s that much of a big deal since the FOX we’re getting from is from the states in America and not the Australian part from Foxtel even though they’re both tied-up under News Corp. 

We’ve seen this happen many times before with Seven’s NFL coverage when 1-2 of their Sunday Afternoon match-ups on Monday mornings during the season has the full FOX broadcast feed including some Playoffs as well as the Super Bowl in rotation once every few years — as I’m sure Nine/Stan won’t be fussed about it too much as long as they’re happy broadcasting IndyCar and that’s the bottom line with the news coming today.

And who knows if Stan will get to NASCAR someday? when Nine Entertainment Co. is currently interested in acquiring the Supercars rights off Fox Sports/Kayo via Foxtel and Seven and the current rights contract will expire in 12 months’ time. 

Not giving a verdict for this but all we want is a bit more free-to-air coverage like every Sunday race live on top of the current 6-7 big race events – that’s all.

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Formula 1 News: Thoughts on Damon Hill leaving Sky Sports F1 after 13 years following the end of this season

by Sports Benches

Just heard the news about 1996 World Champion Damon Hill who is set to leave Sky Sports F1 at season’s end. He has been there providing punditry from day one since the network’s first foray into Formula 1 back in 2012 after BBC were no longer able hold full rights at the time that ended decades worth of live full season coverage on British free-to-air television.

But the TV landscape of live sport has changed ever since anyway with Sky holding and still has full season rights while the BBC initially carried half of the live packages over the next couple of years before Channel 4 took over the free-to-air several years later. 

Now as of the 2019 and 2024 contract extension deals by Sky, Channel 4 still has the local free-to-air rights until at least 2026 but can only air the British race live and everything else being highlights.

This is much like the model we have here with our Formula 1 coverage where all races are currently behind the paywall on Fox Sports/Kayo (although every practice/ qualifying of all other races including race highlights are free-to-view on Kayo Freebies) & the annual Australian race live via free-to-air on Network 10. This is despite 10 still having a great relationship with F1 that way goes back to 2003 off the Nine Network despite cutting back awful lots of coverage over time – this goes from full season coverage to half season live coverage to then the Australian race live + highlights and now just the Aus race live.

Speaking of 10, Damon Hill was actually part of their comprehensive Australian Grand Prix on-air presentation over the last two years at Albert Park – including race day commentary alongside Richard Craill and journalist Tom Clarkson. 

This was when Australian F1 legend Mark Webber no longer able to devote time on 10 when he had to be there for current Aussie F1 driver Oscar Piastri who currently drives McLaren-Mercedes as his agent while Channel 4 paid him more than well enough to be part of their commentary/punditry team at times throughout the year. Don’t know if his exit from Sky was his decision or by the network themselves but it looks like 10 will have to find another new analyst to replace Hill going into 2025 since he will want to slow things down back in the UK.

We could either see Jolyon Palmer or maybe James Hinchcliffe onboard since they are from F1 TV. Maybe Jenson Button since he now calls the US home these days in California and it wouldn’t be too much of an issue for him to fly over to Melbourne for 10 as long as he doesn’t have anything else with going on. If not, maybe Anthony Davidson or even Karun Chandhok as outside picks if they would be willing to go there in-person?

As we know by now, Sky sometimes pick studio hub locations at selected Grand Prix events in London when the current F1 calendar year is so jam packed & not all races will be on-site going forward considering the cost of travel, hotel accommodation, production setup, etc.

But again, just playing around with speculation as still too early to tell ahead of the next Australian race who will be opening the next Formula 1 campaign in March 2025.

And let’s hope Jack Doohan will still be able to make it towards the grid on time as a full-time Alpine-Renault driver on debut amid rumours of him being dumped before he could even touch a Formula 1 car for the rising Argentine Franco Colapinto, who has been making an immediate impact, since he unexpectedly replaced the crash-prone Logan Sargeant very recently at Williams. For now, we wish Damon Hill the best of luck with his next chapter in 2025.

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What if Alpine F1 Team via Renault kept their engines but have Dallara take over its chassis contract for 2026 in Formula One like in F2/3?

by Sports Benches

Okay, there’s no way everyone from the powers at Renault/Alpine can be swayed to change their minds, having recently decided to be a customer team one month ago that will take effect from 2026. 

Yes, no engine switch announcement just yet but they’re still widely expected to use Mercedes engines.

It’s a shame after Renault made their own Formula 1 engines for nearly 50 years but no secret though that their recent engine that dates back from the hybrid era from 10 years ago hasn’t reaped any championships at all – not even a few odd wins here & there was enough to justify their latest failures when comparing to Mercedes-Benz, Ferrari and even Honda.

If there’s one thing Alpine could’ve saved that engine for sure and that’s when if they’d rather stop making their own chassis by luring Dallara over to prise that big chassis contract away from Haas. 

That way, Dallara would help them out with the chassis & in turn Alpine still gets to keep making engine whose 2026 version will unfortunately go unused & be put into waste behind closed doors.

What does it mean for Haas since they’re now technically tied-up with Toyota? They can always find another chassis builder to replace Dallara or get Toyota to do it while Haas can still use Ferrari engines.

There’s 1-2 already out there in the form of a Formula 2 and Formula 3 car where Dallara manages the chassis and engineering side of things while the engine is still at the heart of Mecachrome – a French engineering company who has close ties with Renault/Alpine. 

Imagine if there’s a carbon copy of this Dallara/Mecachrome F2 car being made into F1 together but used only for Alpine? 

Maybe at least that would help them improve in some way to be a decent midfield team at best if not running Top 3 in the long-run to meet their so-called 100-race plan.

Also, it would be easy enough for someone – who is so well used to driving this Formula 2 car – would go on to have an easy transition into Alpine’s F1 team if hired, with this Dallara made Formula 1 car alongside Renault’s engine in it.

Australia’s own Jack Doohan (son of 5 x 500cc world champion Mick Doohan) is a great example who had some success with the Dallara F2 car over the last 1-2 years, even though he may never have won a championship so far in his career. 

He is set to be promoted to Alpine F1’s squad ahead of their final season as a works partner for Renault next season alongside Pierre Gasly on a one-year deal, so not a lot of time. But if he impresses and gets to stick around for a second year, then surely he’d thrive big time.

If the powers at Renault see this, hope this would be worth considering if they can keep the engine but let someone else handle the chassis side of things at the hands of Dallara like they always do together in Formula 2 & 3. But in the real world, they’ll just move on as Renault might start making Formula 1 engines again if these next PU rules make sense. 

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Thoughts on Australian Jack Doohan son of former 500cc World Champion Mick now set for his big break in Formula 1 next year with the Alpine F1 Team alongside Pierre Gasly

by Sports Benches

This is the moment we’ve been waiting for all year long as the Alpine F1 Team have finally settled their 2nd seat to replace the Haas-bound Esteban Ocon today for their upcoming 2025 Formula One Season alongside Frenchman Pierre Gasly and it’s none other than our Aussie own Jack Doohan from the Gold Coast, Queensland. His big announcement today won’t impact Alpine’s future plans that much in the meantime going into the new engine rules era from 2026 at Enstone when it’s looking more and more likely now that they will ditch their own Renault engines by becoming a privateer outfit with Mercedes-Benz. 

Then it remains to see what happens after that if Alpine still wants to be a Formula 1 outfit after 2026 as they could either be morphed into Hitech since Oliver Oakes has just taken over the Team Principal job at Alpine or else Andretti can take over for at least $1 billion dollars & they can finally race Formula 1 when the sport doesn’t feel confident about expansion at this time.

Great to hear that Alpine has made an excellent choice by bringing Doohan into a full-time race seat where he might not have collected a season championship so far in his career but he too can do well across qualifying and race day with a few wins under his belt as proved in Formula 3 and Formula 2 in the past. Don’t forget he’s also the son of former legendary 500cc motorcycle Grand Prix champion Mick Doohan as sure he has the family racing calibre to make his mark albeit at the different highest levels of Motorsport in four-wheels of Formula 1 rather than two-wheels which is MotoGP.

Yes, Mick Schumacher was also in the mix having also took part in a top-secret test recently for Alpine alongside Doohan where they were both family friends for a long time with Mick being named after Jack’s dad while Jack was given a go-kart by Mick’s dad Michael who won so many World Championships throughout his career as hope is all well with him following his unfortunate skiing accident a decade ago.

But again, even though Mick first came into F1 with the Formula 3 and 2 championships, he didn’t set the world alight when he was at Haas a few years ago & if he wants to go back at the top-level again, then taking the risk at Audi which is currently Sauber in the short-term under Ferrari engines would be his last best hope ahead of its big break in 2026 with fellow German Nico Hulkenberg.

At the end of the day, it’s up for Doohan to score regular Top 7-10s with some podiums or even 1-2 wins onboard since there’s only 20 Formula 1 seats to battle upfront nowadays. Let’s hope he does well with our best backing from Australia as he will be the third driver there on the grid alongside McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and also Racing Bulls’ Daniel Ricciardo if Riccardo can keep his ride within the Red Bull family next season.

Depending on Sergio Perez’s performance later this year, we could see Ricciardo going back to Red Bull again or else he will be given the flick with NZ’s Liam Lawson getting a full-time ride after all in Ricciardo’s current spot at Racing Bulls.

Looks like F1 is growing across the Trans-Tasman in both Australia and New Zealand with as many as four drivers on the grid and with Doohan, it remains to be seen which race number he could take ahead of his F1 race debut next season.

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Thoughts on Leigh Diffey expecting to call his last IndyCar race at the Iowa Speedway doubleheader this weekend before the Olympics and most likely NASCAR later on

by Sports Benches

This weekend’s IndyCar Series race doubleheader at Iowa Speedway will be Leigh Diffey’s last race on the call after just over a decade, even though there’s six events left on the calendar this season before NBC Sports will bow out on a high with Fox Sports set to take it from here going into 2025 and beyond where they will show all races live including the annual Indianapolis 500 race on free-to-air. We all know he will be calling Track and Field during the 2nd week of the Summer Olympics over in Paris, France in early August for the network, which is a position that is so legendary since he first called the races at a Olympic event four years ago in Tokyo, Japan on top of various top-level races like the World Champs in the past.

Lots more to come when he will be back calling the Olympics Track and Field once again for the 2028 edition in Los Angeles followed by his hometown reunion for the Brisbane edition come 2032 – the time when NBC’s current Olympic contract will be expiring by then unless they renew for a lot more down the track from the last time the network signed their big Olympics renewal with the IOC that dates back to May 7th, 2014. There’s even more exciting news for Leigh post-IndyCar – even though it still hasn’t been made official but close to 100% likely – is that he will be well and truly expected to replace Rick Allen as NBC’s lead NASCAR Cup Series announcer once the Olympics is done alongside Steve Letarte and Jeff Burton. This won’t affect his other commitments such as Supercross and the early season IMSA races when NBC is not doing NASCAR, although he might miss the a rare Cup race or two for the World Championships in Track & Field if required during the odd years.

We don’t know when he will be begin calling the NASCAR races again but most likely when the Playoffs start around September with Leigh getting the promotion. Meanwhile, Rick Allen – who is currently calling the Cup races at the moment – will only keep his Xfinity Series gig for The CW – whether if it’s just the short term under NBC’s production just for the Playoffs or on a permanent basis ahead of its first full-time season next year with all races also free-to-air.

Seems like having a three-man booth suits the network’s style more off the back of good banter and chemistry that Leigh forged with James Hinchcliffe and Townsend Bell in IndyCar rather than the four-man group they’ve done with NASCAR for several years until the end of last season. Then at a time when they’ve renewed their commitment to air NASCAR for another few years not long later but only at Cup level; like the Premier League, NBC would want to go differently without Dale Jr. & now Rick.

For now, things won’t be the same without Leigh calling the open-wheel races at all once he wraps up NBC’s IndyCar coverage at Iowa with Kevin Lee expected to take the baton until the finale at Nashville Superspeedway. He’s been great presenting/calling these races firstly with Formula 1 of course before he got the chance to call the Formula 1 & IndyCar races for NBC at the same time back in 2013 while being the first overseas announcer to call the Indianapolis 500 when NBC had full rights to IndyCar for another few years from 2019 until the end of this year. We’re glad that he’s had one hell of a ride to see it for himself and the wider motorsports community as we can’t wait to hear what Leigh soon enough after the Olympics.

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Thoughts on NBC Sports losing another property after Roland Garros with IndyCar now likely to be on FOX Sports next year

by Sports Benches

Well, the next IndyCar broadcast rights deal is set to wrap up soon and it looks like FOX Sports will be taking over for the next couple of years rather than stick around with NBC Sports following its 14-16 year commitment that began with its parent company Comcast’s takeover of the then Versus cable channel back in 2011 (original 10 year deal to air the cable races began from 2009-18). NBC has been great all along when Versus became NBC Sports Network a year later and then NBCSN throughout the 2010s before they were able to get the full rights including the Indianapolis 500 off ESPN on ABC towards the end of the decade and into the early 2020s up until now – even though NBCSN ran its course at the end of the 2021 with USA Network, CNBC and Peacock (streaming only) becoming the network’s main sports subscription content channels since then.

Now IndyCar is expected to swap networks by airing all of the races live on FOX throughout the year and free-to-view as well since the network will only be able to show five free-to-air NASCAR Cup races including the Daytona 500 with the rest (nine races) being on cable via FS1 from next year to at least through 2031. It looks like it’s the beginning of an end from NBC as they will be left with the second-half NASCAR Cup races and Supercross/Motocross racing while they still have IMSA SportsCar Racing at the moment whose existing seven-year deal also expires at the end of the year. With NBC losing a bunch of sports lately such as the MotoGP at the start of the year and the Roland Garros Tennis tournament a few days ago to TNT Sports, we wouldn’t be surprised if IMSA SportsCars ends up on TNT’s hands next year – who also has a great line-up of sportscar racing through Motor Trend – like the World Endurance Championship and the 24 Hours of Le Mans (this weekend).

Looking at FOX picking up IndyCar, congrats to them on picking up a top-level open-wheel series with the most money offered than NBC which has the historical Indianapolis 500 value alongside some great competition on-track. Things won’t be the same next year when it comes to airing the annual Coca Cola 600 NASCAR event after 24 years (2001-2024) but they can continue airing the biggest day of motorsports by airing the Indianapolis 500 event earlier on at midday rather than late afternoon to night. They’ve also aired the Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix race in the past throughout the 2000s and early 2010s but that was through the former Speed Channel cable network as it never was on FOX unlike NBC and now ABC these days.

Who will be commentating the big Indy 500 race and all other races throughout the IndyCar season? We know Mike Joy has been commentating the Daytona 500 for so long but it looks like Adam Alexander will be the favourite to take over – who hails from Indiana and also started his media career there – before he made the step up on Fox Sports for a long period of time, having also just wrapped up co-hosting its flagship weekly show NASCAR Race Hub with Shannon Spake following its final 90-min episode this week. We will also expect to see a few people from NBC coming over like Townsend Bell and Kevin Lee but we can definitely see Jamie Little returning home alongside Adam as the one of leading pit reporters. She used to be around at the 500 when ABC was airing the races until FOX hired her to replace Krista Voda after ESPN/ABC lost the NASCAR rights at the end of 2014 & Jamie’s been great with FOX ever since including calling a couple of Truck & ARCA races now.

On the NBC side post-IndyCar, it seems more and more likely now that Rick Allen is still expected to hand over the main commentary duties to Australia’s own Leigh Diffey after the Olympics while staying on to call all other Xfinity Series races at the end of this season including the last few Playoff events on The CW. While it won’t be the same for Leigh to not call the Indy 500 anymore having been the first overseas caller to do for a few years now, but at the same time, he’s getting the chance to be front and centre for the network’s NASCAR coverage. He’s done Formula 1, Rugby, IMSA SportsCars, Supercross and whole bunch of other sports before including being the network’s leading track and field caller for a few years now that began from the previous Summer Olympics back in 2021 in Tokyo, Japan. Calling the Daytona 500 would’ve been great since it’s the greatest race there to kickstart the season every year but it looks like FOX is staying for a bit longer until at least 2031.

And lastly what does it mean for its International coverage including Australia? As it stands, Stan Sport via Nine Entertainment Co. currently holds the exclusive rights there that started back in 2022 with every practice, qualifying and race LIVE, ad-free and on-demand including every hour-long race highlights during the following weekend via free-to-air on 9Go. This could have a huge impact going forward as should IndyCar end up on FOX in the US, we will expect to see IndyCar moving back to Foxtel through Fox Sports and Kayo Sports’s streaming service. It looks like these die-hard motorsports fans who subscribe to watch the Supercars and Formula 1 races will be able to watch IndyCar on the same platform again, which is going to be great news without having to subscribe to another subscription service. You never know including Europe, Asia & Africa but this is going to be a possibility with FOX already having a few International affiliate cable channels in Australia, Mexico & Argentina.

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