{"id":70856,"date":"2025-07-17T20:57:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T20:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/70856\/"},"modified":"2025-07-17T20:57:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-17T20:57:08","slug":"nascar-boss-brushes-off-roger-penske-f1s-threat-with-bold-claim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/70856\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR Boss Brushes Off Roger Penske &#038; F1\u2019s Threat With Bold Claim"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dom-traversal_domPTag__RMrin\">Formula 1 grabs headlines with its movies and recently with a potential Apple deal. IndyCar\u2019s new Fox deal, along with aggressive promotion, has led to an increase in viewership. But what about NASCAR, which has emerged as America\u2019s top racing series? How is it growing and gaining popularity compared to other motorsports? If you are a stock car racing fan, then you know the answer. The NASCAR Commissioner, Steve Phelps, has also explained how the sport has proven remarkably effective in maintaining its viewership dominance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dom-traversal_domPTag__RMrin\">In a recent <a class=\"es-hyperlink-new\" href=\"https:\/\/puck.news\/nascars-steve-phelps-f1-and-indycar-are-not-competitors\/?utm_medium=website&amp;utm_source=website_internal&amp;utm_campaign=web_link_2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">conversation with John<\/a> Ourand, Phelps didn\u2019t just dismiss F1 and Roger Penske\u2019s buzz; he laid out a clear case for NASCAR\u2019s surprising viewership dominance. He also revealed how its Sunday races still triple F1\u2019s American audience.<\/p>\n<p data-article=\"true\">ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n<p>Why NASCAR isn\u2019t chasing F1 or IndyCar<\/p>\n<p class=\"dom-traversal_domPTag__RMrin\">When asked if F1 and IndyCar, with their recent talks and media deals, are considered competitors to NASCAR, the 62-year-old replied, \u201cI don\u2019t think so. They\u2019re in a different subset. If you go back five or six years, motorsports were struggling. F1 wasn\u2019t doing very well. IndyCar wasn\u2019t doing very well. We were in a slow, steady decline for about a decade. But since 2019, that\u2019s changed. We celebrate F1\u2019s success. We celebrate IndyCar\u2019s success on Fox this year. It\u2019s a positive thing if motorsports are growing. If you consider that we\u2019re the top of the heap of motorsports domestically\u2014and we are, by a wide margin\u2014it\u2019s a good thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img id=\"img-tag-node-img-loader-0\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Steve-Phelps.jpeg\" fetchpriority=\"high\" style=\"position:absolute;z-index:0;width:100%;height:100%\" loading=\"eager\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"article-image\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"dom-traversal_domPTag__RMrin\">Phelps highlighted that NASCAR\u2019s audience is different from F1\u2019s, with only a 6% crossover. On the other hand, the crossover with IndyCar is higher, around 20%. He emphasized that F1 focuses on restricted access, whereas NASCAR prioritizes accessibility.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dom-traversal_domPTag__RMrin\">\u201cWe are different brands. F1 is all about restricted access. Ours is all about accessibility. Our fans can stand on pit road, where the cars are. The other part of accessibility is about the cost to attend a race. Going to an F1 race is incredibly expensive. Fans can get NASCAR race tickets for $30 to $50. Typically, parking is free. Fans can walk in with a cooler filled with their favorite beverages. That doesn\u2019t mean that one is better than the other. It just means they\u2019re different, with different audiences and different accessibility. We lean into the Americana that we are.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-article=\"true\">ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n<p>Who\u2019s winning the race for viewers?<\/p>\n<p class=\"dom-traversal_domPTag__RMrin\">F1 seizes global headlines and IndyCar sees a viewership surge, while <a class=\"es-hyperlink-new\" href=\"https:\/\/www.essentiallysports.com\/nascar-news-did-nascar-really-win-over-formula-one-or-are-they-riding-a-facade\/?utm_medium=website&amp;utm_source=website_internal&amp;utm_campaign=web_link_2\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"noopener\">NASCAR remains America\u2019s most-watched<\/a> motorsport. It\u2019s not just about raw numbers; a significant shift in audience demographics is also in progress.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dom-traversal_domPTag__RMrin\">On June 1, 2025, NASCAR\u2019s race from Nashville on Prime Video got 2.06 million viewers. This was more than F1\u2019s race (Spanish Grand Prix with 1.17 million) and IndyCar\u2019s race (Detroit Grand Prix with 1.06 million) on the same day. Overall, NASCAR\u2019s first two races on Prime Video got 2.39 million viewers on average. F1\u2019s average for the year so far is 1.33 million, and IndyCar\u2019s is 1.77 million (their best since 2016).<\/p>\n<p data-article=\"true\">ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n<p>Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n<p class=\"dom-traversal_domPTag__RMrin\">A big win for NASCAR on Prime is its younger audience. Their viewers were about six years younger (median age 56.8) than NASCAR viewers on regular TV (62.8). This means more young adults are watching NASCAR on Prime Video. Even though the Nashville race had lower numbers than before, getting younger fans is a big deal for NASCAR\u2019s future. As NASCAR successfully attracts a younger audience on Prime Video, will this demographic shift strengthen its long-term dominance against its increasingly popular rivals?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Formula 1 grabs headlines with its movies and recently with a potential Apple deal. IndyCar\u2019s new Fox deal,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":18722,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[1406,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-70856","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nascar","8":"tag-nascar","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114870579786399280","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}