The owner of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Roger Penske, will collect a very nice check for the annual Brickyard 400 as part of NASCAR’s new $7.7 billion, seven-year television and media rights fees contract.

As a NASCAR Cup Series team owner that has won the past two NASCAR Cup Series Championships, Penske can expect to see an increase in money that goes to the team owners from the new media rights deal.

But as the owner of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, IndyCar and the Indianapolis 500, Penske hopes to see a nice increase in the next media rights deal.

Penske believes with the recent NASCAR media rights deal, the addition of The CW televising the entire NASCAR Xfinity Series for $115 million per year, and ABC/ESPN’s Formula One deal, IndyCar deserves a bigger check for its media rights.

“As you know, we come up in 2025,” Penske said. “We’re in discussions. We have a great media partner in NBC, and we expect to be talking.

“Other people have come to us.

“I think NASCAR, it was great to see that with The CW and obviously with ESPN and Formula One, so we hope we can draft in behind them.”

Penske Entertainment President Mark Miles flew to the West Coast last Thursday (December 14) to continue negotiations for the next IndyCar television contract. Miles told me last week that he intends to announce IndyCar’s next media rights deal before the 108^th Indianapolis 500 in May.

Currently, IndyCar’s deal is with NBC, including a healthy portion of the schedule televised over the air on the main NBC network, a few races on NBC-owned USA Network and one race on Peacock, NBC’s streaming channel.

Peacock also live streams all IndyCar practices and qualifications. NBC televises a major part of Indianapolis 500 qualifications including the Last Chance Shootout and the “Fast Nine” run for the Indianapolis 500 pole.

In a meeting I had with Miles in his office on December 6, he acknowledged that NBC “checks all of our major boxes” in terms of network coverage, secondary channel, and its own streaming platform.

But Miles said there are several networks that have shown interest in IndyCar. Those are believed to be The CW and FOX, which has a very long history with NASCAR that continues in NASCAR’s new media rights package.

As the owner of IndyCar, Penske would like to see more money coming into the series in its next media rights deal and believes the latest deals with NASCAR and Formula One justify that increase.

“I think there’s a time period going on where people are moving from linear TV and certainly network television,” Penske said. “Believe me, if NBC and FOX and the other partners didn’t believe that there was value in what they put together, NASCAR wouldn’t have gotten $7.7 billion, so I have to go along with the experts on that.

“To me, it’s a great move. I think putting a package together today in this environment is amazing and getting more people interested will give us even more capability. I think from a sponsor standpoint, we’ve been able to attract sponsors because of the existing television package. It was obviously not all on network, and I think we’re just going to have to see how that all plays out.”

Part of NASCAR’s new media rights deal includes a streaming partnership in the summer with Amazon Prime Video, which also includes TNT and Discovery’s Max.

“I can’t tell you, but the money that was committed behind the streaming and those types of non-linear TV has been amazing, so it’s going to work,” Penske continued. “I think we are seeing people today looking at it. Their timeframe when they can look at an event and all of this will play out and how they can take that content and spread it not just on race weekend, but they can spread it across the next week and even go back in the archives with it, so I think that’s going to be great.”

Although IndyCar has lagged behind NASCAR in terms of ratings for the past several decades, it has the most famous race in the world on its schedule – the Indianapolis 500.

It remains an event that major networks view as a Crown Jewel.

The 2024 season will be television on NBC in the final year of the current contract. One of the major storylines in the 2024 Indianapolis 500 will be the addition of 2021 NASCAR Cup Series Champion Kyle Larson competing in Chevrolet for Arrow McLaren and Hendrick Motorsports.

“We are so excited to see Kyle Larson come to the speedway,” Penske said. “I know Rick Hendrick (Larson’s NASCAR team owner) talked to me about running Larson and we hadn’t had the success for a couple years.”

Team Penske did not win the Indianapolis 500 in 2020, ’21 and ‘22 before Josef Newgarden gave Penske its record-extending 19^th Indy 500 win on May 28.

“I think that his (Larson’s) skill and his fan base in the Midwest is amazing, and he went out there and did his rookie test – bang, bang bang,” Penske continued. “Kurt Busch has run there (Indy 500).

“Think about the other people who have come from Formula One – Jimmy Clark, Graham Hill and other people like Nigel Mansell have been successful.

“I think that he (Larson) comes with a tremendous amount of talent and it’s something that he wants to do.”

Ryan Blaney, the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Champion at Team Penske, approached the team owner about the possibility of competing in the Indy 500 one day.

“I was like, ‘Whoa, slow down a little bit,’” Penske recalled. “We’re good to have everybody come to Indy, but if we can have the double and really play up Memorial Day at both Charlotte and Indianapolis it’ll be great.

“The interest from the fan base with Kyle Larson coming, we can see it already in our ticket sales. He’ll be a great asset to Indianapolis and the 500.”

Larson’s Indianapolis 500 effort should increase interest in an already big race. That would be great news for current IndyCar partner NBC.

As for future media rights deals, Penske and IndyCar believe they have the metrics and data points that can justify an increase in rights fees for the next media rights deal that will begin in 2025.