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.
