Even A Weather Delay Couldn't Keep Indianapolis 500 From Bringing In Solid Ratings

The ratings are in for the Indianapolis 500, and they're solid, especially considering there was a four-hour weather delay, and the series is in the final year of its current television deal with NBC.

This year's 108th Running of the Indianapolis 500 was a doozy, and those who stuck around through hours of rain delays were treated to a wild race. And a lot of them stuck around. According to NBC, this year's race averaged  5.344 million viewers across NBC, Peacock, and NBC Sports digital platforms. That's an 8% increase over 2023 and 10% over 2022.

The usual local live blackouts for the race in Central Indiana were also lifted because of the weather, and that helped deliver an 18.15 household rating and 54 share in that neck of the woods.

It ended up being NBC's biggest Sunday sporting event since the Detroit Lions-Tampa Bay Buccaneers playoff game in January and was the most-streamed IndyCar race ever.

The race was worth the wait. I mean, the first 25 laps of the race alone saw some lunacy with a crash in the first turn that put three cars out of the race and then two engine retirements after that as drivers tried to deal with having the mental side of being out of the car longer than expected and dealing with a fairly green track thanks to the rain washing away a good bit of rubber that had been laid down over the last couple of weeks.

Then there was the thrilling last-lap battle for the win between Josef Newgarden and Pato O'Ward.

Josef Newgarden's second straight Indianapolis 500 win saw solid ratings despite a four-hour rain delay. (Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images)

This is a big result for the series which is in the midst of cutting a new TV deal as their current one with NBC ends after this season.

Still, the Indy 500 is an outlier for the NTT IndyCar Series viewership and typically juices the average TV audience for the series.

Through six races this season it has 1.95 million viewers. Five of those raves have been on NBC while one was on USA Network. That's up from 1.94 million last season.