Written by Archie O’Reilly
It is an important period of change for IndyCar as it heads into next week’s season-opening race on the streets of St. Petersburg.
The era of FOX Sports coverage gets underway with its all-network television coverage of races in 2025 after a transformative off-season of promotion, with the series also now under the guise of a new president in Doug Boles.
“This will be a season of unrivaled exposure for IndyCar,” said Boles, who is also president of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. “With phenomenal support of our sport across multiple massive platforms - including Super Bowl LIX - FOX Sports has proven to be a superb partner and promoter.
“With the season approaching, we know their unique style of engaging and innovative broadcasts will continue to raise the bar and drive an unparalleled growth opportunity for IndyCar.”
As always, there are a host of on-track competition amendments ahead of the new season…
Multiple race lengths extended
In a bid to elevate the on-track product even further under its new broadcast deal with FOX, reducing the chance of some of the existing fuel-save-dominated races, IndyCar has added laps to six races across five tracks in 2025.
April’s Grand Prix of Long Beach has had five laps added to extend the race to 90 laps. The July event at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course has also been extended to a 90-lap race, with 10 laps added from the 2024 edition.
The Iowa Speedway doubleheader weekend, which provided two underwhelming races in 2024, has seen both races extended by 25 laps to make a pair of 275-lap races.
The following weekend, the Toronto street race has also been extended to 90 laps - five laps up from 2024. The season finale at Nashville Superspeedway will now be a 225-lap race, increasing by 19 laps from 2024.
Minor hybrid updates for 2025
The 2025 season will be the first complete hybrid-powered IndyCar season, which includes the debut of the system in the Indianapolis 500 in May.
The biggest hybrid alteration for 2025 will be the ability for drivers to start or restart their 2.2-litre twin-turbocharged V6 engines on pit lane. In Portland in 2024, Andretti Global’s Colton Herta was penalised for an unapproved hybrid restart after stalling in the pits on Lap 91.
Drivers will also maintain the ability to restart a stalled car on all non-oval tracks, as has been the case since its introduction at Mid-Ohio last July.
The additional weight of the hybrid system has been a concern for drivers, though the series notes that 12 of the 14 on-track passing records that were broken in 2024 came after the hybrid introduction.
“From the mid-year integration of the hybrid power unit to the on-track passing records and another championship decided at the final race, 2024 was truly a phenomenal year for IndyCar,” said Mark Sibla, IndyCar senior vice president of competition and operations.
“This is a testament to the hard work by the teams, drivers and naturally our partners Chevrolet, Honda, Firestone and Shell. As our attention turns toward 2025, we will continue the series’ energy, momentum and incredibly close competition on the track. We are excited to get the new season started.”
Tyre talk
Weekend tyre allocations on all road and street courses aside from the Thermal Club and Indianapolis Motor Speedway, weekend tyre allocations will now include five sets of alternate and five sets of primary tyres.
This sees the addition of one set of the softer alternate compound and reduces the allocation of the harder primary compound by one. Teams are able to use the tyres as they see fit, so long as one set of new alternates is reserved for the race.
Alternate tyres will also be available on an oval once again for the Nashville finale, which produced a record 653 on-track passes for the series at the track last year.
Split and high-line practice sessions
IndyCar trialled split opening practice sessions across a number of tracks in 2024, which will expand to all road and street courses in 2025, aside from 4.014-mile Road America.
Split Practice One sees all cars receive an initial 45-minute all-car session before two 10-minute split group sessions determined by odd and even-numbered pit boxes. Reflecting the procedure in qualifying, the clock will stop for the first red flag of each split segment.
“I think it’s fantastic,” Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward said of the format in August. “Obviously the first part of it is all together, but it’s good to have a chance with the red [alternates], at least get a few laps together where you know that you’ll get the track distance or track respect that you would want.
“The reality is 27 cars just don’t fit around a 58-second lap. Everybody wants a two or three-second gap. The math just doesn’t do it. The grid is way too big for the track lengths we race at during the calendar.
“This is a necessity I would say for 80 percent of the tracks. Obviously at Road America we don’t need it. But in places like [Portland], all the street courses, it’s 100 percent a must.”
All short ovals will have high-line practice sessions in order to try and rubber-in and give drivers the confidence in the upper groove of the tracks.
Restart rules reviewed and revamped
IndyCar has completed its annual review of certain procedures and rules ahead of the season, with many pertaining to race starts and restarts.
In a bid to reduce the chance of race-start incidents and waved-off starts, such as in the second race in Milwaukee last year as Linus Lundqvist sent teammate Marcus Armstrong into pole-sitter Josef Newgarden after misjudging a waved-off start, there will now be a mandatory pair-up location for drivers with one lap until the green flag.
On oval restarts, IndyCar is extending the beginning of the restart zone to give the leader wider discretion on the choice to accelerate, with the end of the restart zone remaining the same. At Gateway in 2024, a large late-race crash was triggered by Newgarden opting to accelerate late in the restart zone and those being miscalculating.
The restart line on road and street courses remains unchanged, with drivers required to remain in single-file and unable to pass until reaching the designated restart line in the final corner.
Other procedural changes include a multi-stage pit lane speed limiter being expanded to pit entry at Gateway, Iowa and Nashville Superspeedway, preventing cars from overextending from the apron onto the race track after the pit-commit point. It has previously been utilised at pit in at Road America and pit out at Gateway and Nashville.
Additional EM Motorsport light panels, which were introduced in 2022, will be used across all circuits to give better warning of conditions, especially around blind corners. Drivers will also be alerted of yellow-flag conditions on their cockpit dashes.
Indy NXT set for full season on live TV
Under the new broadcast deal with FOX Sports, all 12 Indy NXT races will be broadcasted live on television via a combination of FS1 and FS2. The 2024 season averaged the most starters since 2009 with 19.5, and with the addition of Chip Ganassi Racing after a hiatus since 2007, it is expected that the 2025 season may match or exceed that number.
In 2025, the chassis will feature updated and stylised rear wing end plates featuring LED rain lights. The total purse remains at $1.4 million, of which $850,000 will be received by the champion to be applied to a rookie oval test, an Indianapolis 500 Open Test and Rookie Orientation Programme, entry for the 2026 Indy 500 and entry for a further race.
“This will be a season of incredible and unprecedented exposure for Indy NXT,” said new Indy NXT series director Richard Buck. “The continued integration of this series with IndyCar has clearly raised the quantity and quality of Indy NXT.
“The championship has never been more fierce and difficult to win but it will prove to be all the more gratifying for the driver advancing to IndyCar.”
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