How IndyCar on FOX is looking to build upon its St Pete rollout

03/10/2025 03:05 PM

The first IndyCar on FOX broadcast at St Petersburg last week produced a big bump in viewership and a range of new features. IndyCar on FOX producer Pam Miller says her team is locked in on amplifying all that went well, and fixing some of the new-product glitches that developed throughout the weekend.

With a brief respite until IndyCar heads to The Thermal Club next week, Miller shared her thoughts with RACER on how the first race went, and what's in store for the second.

MARSHALL PRUETT: Other than some complaints about timing and scoring and graphics issues, the overwhelming response I’ve seen from fans has been positive. What takeaways do you have from this first big weekend covering IndyCar?

PAM MILLER: I’m just really proud of everybody on our team. I think that our whole group really worked hard to bring a new experience to the viewers. And we took chances. We went outside our comfort zones. We tried things, and we tried to make sure that we set the tone from the beginning that we’re going to try new things. We’re going to try to bring fresh perspectives, introduce the characters. I was really proud of how all of it came together, and how everybody gelled.

It really only took the Friday for everybody to see how it was going to flow. Once we went on the air Friday, everything just took off. We stayed true to our plan, and everybody was really excited. I don’t think any of us have really come down for the from the adrenaline rush. It’s been pretty cool. But it was really fun to see everybody’s energy come together at one time, and everybody worked just so hard all weekend to make sure that we checked our boxes and we set our goals and that we went for it.

PRUETT: Enthusiasm was one of the big themes that I felt across the broadcasts. I liked the balance and mix of people bringing the sport to fans in the booth and on pit lane. And I also will admit that I loved the change of tone in the booth, knowing in past years, it could get a little argumentative and a little off-track between commentators at times. It looked here like everyone was in sync and really focused on what was happening on the track. Was that a directive from you to make this a focused product?

MILLER: I would say that was a group effort with the talent and myself and Mitch Riggin, our director, that we wanted to all be on the same page with storytelling. The main goal was to make this easy for the fan at home, the hardcore fans that love the sport and have been there for every single race for the past 50 years, and the new fans that are just learning about the drivers, maybe from the ads they saw in the off season, or the buzz around the sport or some other place. We wanted to make it understandable, digestible and also, most importantly, entertaining.

And the way to do that was to introduce people on a reset to the sport. Who are the drivers? What are the cars about? What is the technology about? Bring it all together so that nobody felt overwhelmed, and people could get excited about it and show the scenes around the town, scenes of fans, boats, beach, art, food, culture, all these things come together, and it that that whole philosophy was bought in by all of us, and I think that that’s what you saw with that booth.

The chemistry in the booth has been from the start. Putting them in a room, even back in rehearsals, has been dynamic. And I think that they showed it in the race. They were generous to each other, they shared the conversation, they understood the goal. And I think you saw that, and I think you’re going to continue to see that progress. They like each other, they’re funny, they enjoy each other’s company away from the track, and I think that’s going to show more and more.

PRUETT: What were some of your takeaways from St. Pete on items to tune up before Thermal? And we didn't see much on the hybrid or push-to-pass usage side. Are those being teed up for rollout?

MILLER: We’re going to work on getting some of our technology up to speed. What you saw in St. Pete will never be what you see in the end (at the season finale) in Nashville; it’s all going to progress. We’re going to add more as time goes on. We have goals to add some of the things that the hardcore fans are used to and the new fans are going to learn about, and that’s a progression, I think, that will evolve a little bit more with our pit reports and our storytelling and our cadence, as far as just making sure that we cover a good balance of what that strategy is and what’s happening on the track, and get more stories on the air. Those are the main tweaks right now.

Every race is going to be different, and there’s going to be adventures, and we’re going to learn that we want to maybe place this camera over here, or try something over there. I think that’s all a work in progress. To your point, we know this is a great starting point, but it’s not where we want to end up. Our team has a progression plan in place for the first season,  and then for the second season, we can take that starting point and keep it growing. We never want to stay stagnant.

I think fans will see each race that it will change and be different and more spontaneous. And there are ways we can bring people in that will bring in different eyeballs, and those are places to be more creative and try things and say, 'Okay, maybe we want to try that in a practice or qualifying first, and then bring that into the race.' So that’s where our head is at. How can we progress? How can we keep making things better, add a little bit more here and there and keep moving forward?