INDIANAPOLIS — We now know where and when the 2024 NTT INDYCAR SERIES races will transpire and occur. With that said, what’s left on tap ahead of next spring’s season opener. Here’s a look.

Rookie Test At IMS

They’ll soon be on track action at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. As customary as of late, the NTT INDYCAR SERIES will allow the upcoming rookie class to knock out the Rookie Orientation Program in October.

That date is Oct. 11. Kyle Larson is expected to headline the list with now looking like Kyffin Simpson, Linus Lundqvist, Marcus Armstrong and Tom Blomqvist joining him.

For what was originally going to be a quiet session with Larson has now grown to 5 drivers likely pacing the 2.5-mile oval next month.

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More Rides To Be Filled

There’s not many seats open in the series at the moment. Chip Ganassi Racing made the shock decision on a few weeks ago to promote Kyffin Simpson to a fifth full-time NTT INDYCAR SERIES entry in 2024. The question now is, does this come from Honda’s already existing allocation or is this a new one?

See, there’s rumors that Andretti Autosport could downsize from 4 full-time cars to 3. If so, it makes sense to shift Honda’s resources from Andretti to Ganassi in this new effort. If Andretti remains a four-car team, then where does this come from or is Honda willing to expand past 15 full-time entries?

Right now, Honda has 11 of the 15 filled.

Chip Ganassi Racing (5): Alex Palou, Scott Dixon, Marcus Armstrong, Linus Lundqvist R, Kyffin Simpson R

Andretti Autosport (3): Colton Herta, Kyle Kirkwood, Marcus Ericsson

Meyer Shank Racing (2): Felix Rosenqvist, Tom Blomqvist R

Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing (1): Christian Lundgaard

However, I don’t get the sense that Graham Rahal is going anywhere which would push this to 12. I also don’t foresee RLL downsizing either, especially since they’re in the leaders circle which makes 13 rides set, 12 of which with drivers. With how well Juri Vips did in his two-race stint at the end of the season, I have to think he’s the favorite to take the 30 ride full-time.

That leaves 2 engine packages left for Dale Coyne Racing who I don’t see them downsizing either. Right now, they have two seats open. Who gets them?

Then, what does Andretti do?

For the Chevrolet camp, Team Penske and Arrow McLaren Racing will each remain at three cars. Ed Carpenter Racing’s plans are still being made. I don’t see Rinus VeeKay leaving and I also don’t see Ed Carpenter stepping away from ovals. Does he run a second full-time car? I think it’s up to if BitNile comes back or if they leave and go with Conor Daly. Then, if BitNile does leave, who can bring funding?

I’ve heard Devlin DeFrancesco’s name mentioned at both here and Coyne. What he brought budget wise to Andretti could easily be taken at either team and they’d require significantly less too. However, if DeFrancesco brings enough, he could in theory fund two cars at either team leaving them flexibility to hire another driver to not bring funding.

ECR makes the most sense. BitNile funded two cars. DeFrancesco could step in and do the same. But, Christian Rasmussen and Oliver Askew may have the front row seat to landing there too. That could also affect Romain Grosjean too. If DeFrancesco does go to Coyne, they could afford Grosjean to make a comeback too.

AJ Foyt Racing will remain a two-car team and have an alliance with Penske. I don’t think either driver leaves. Santino Ferrucci and Foyt have hinted on social media last week that they’d be back together in 2024. Benjamin Pedersen has funding to stay too.

Which leaves the final piece to this puzzle being at Juncos Hollinger Racing. They have two cars in leaders circle and I don’t see anyway they let that go. Prior to the season finale weekend, Callum Ilott made mention that he would likely be returning to the team in 2024. But, after how the final race went and subsequentially handed after, maybe these two just split. I know they want to keep Agustin Canapino and Ilott may be furious with how JHR didn’t have his back after the race nor after threats were made on social media either. With how the Argentinean fans treated him in 2023, does he want to risk that occurring again in 2024? Even if Juncos wants Ilott back, he may just want to distance himself from them.

Another interesting thing here is if they get an alliance with McLaren done. McLaren needs more space and won’t get it until they move into the current Andretti building. However, Andretti isn’t moving from their already existing building until their new one is done. Until we reach that point, McLaren can only do so much with how much space that they’ve got. Juncos, another Indianapolis based team, makes sense to partner with. They could use the support and they have the space.

Plus, don’t discredit sponsors already signed in anticipation of Alex Palou coming over. NTT Data was likely one. They were on the 6 car in some races this season. Other deals were made and those deals expected Palou to be in the seat. Does some of that allocation get moved to Juncos to help?

There’s been no update yet on if this alliance even takes place or not because as hot as this rumor was for a while, it’s cooled some. But if this deal does take place, maybe McLaren has a say on who is in those seats too.

Which leaves only a handful of seats really even open.

Rides Open

• No. 15 RLL Honda (All signs points to Graham Rahal being back)
• No. 30 RLL Honda (Juri Vips has front row seat for this one).
• No. 18 DCR Honda
• No. 51 DCR Honda
• No. 29 Andretti Honda?
• No. 20 ECR Chevrolet
• No. 14 AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet (I can’t see a scenario anymore that Santino Ferrucci isn’t in this ride)
• No. 55 AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet (I don’t see Benjamin Pedersen not being back in 2024 now)
• No. 77 JHR Chevrolet
• No. 78 JHR Chevrolet (Could see Canapino back).

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TV Negotiations

NBC Sports unveiled a few weeks ago that the 2023 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season was the, “most-watched INDYCAR season in 12 years (since 2011). It was also, “NBC Sports’ most-watched season on record, and the most-streamed season ever.”

That comes in at a perfect time. With the current TV deal set to end at this time next season, to have a record setting viewership season is a great chip to take to the negotiating table.

According to NBC Sports, the 2023 season averaged a Total Audience Delivery (TAD) of 1.32 million viewers across NBC, USA Network, Peacock and NBC Sports digital platforms. This ranks as the most-watched season for the INDYCAR SERIES since 2011 (1.39 million viewers, NBCSN/ABC) and the best in NBC Sports history, up 2% vs. last year’s then-record viewership (1.30 million viewers, NBC/USA Network/NBC Sports Digital). TAD is based on data from Nielsen and Adobe Analytics.

Half of the season’s 16 races on television delivered a TAD of more than 1 million viewers, tying last year for the highest mark since 2008. NBC’s 13 races posted a TAD of 1.47 million viewers, up 4% vs. last year’s coverage on NBC (1.42 million, 14 races).

Overall viewership was led by the 107^th Running of the Indianapolis 500, which delivered a TAD of 4.93 million viewers across NBC and Peacock. The race also had a 13 share (percentage of homes watching television at the time of the race), its best in 15 years (2008; 13 share).

Led by comprehensive streaming coverage on Peacock, including the platform’s exclusive presentation of the Honda Indy Toronto on July 16, the 2023 season ranked as the most-streamed INDYCAR season on record with an Average Minute Audience (AMA) of 58,000 viewers, up 15% vs. 2022.

Locally, Indianapolis led all markets with a 3.26 rating for the season. Following are the Top 10 markets for the 2023 NTT INDYCAR SERIES season.

RANK	MARKET	RATING
1	Indianapolis	3.26
2	Knoxville	1.82
3	Louisville	1.52
4	Greenville	1.39
5	Ft. Myers	1.36
6	Dayton, OH	1.30
7	Milwaukee	1.23
8	Cincinnati	1.20
9	Detroit	1.18
9	Richmond-Petersburg	1.18

That comes after last season to where the first year of this new TV contract delivered the most-watched INDYCAR season in six years (since 2016) and NBC Sports’ most-watched season on record, an increase of 5% compared to 2021.

A gain in 2022 over 2021 and another a gain in 2023 over 2022.

In late July, NASCAR announced that beginning in 2025, the Xfinity Series will move to The CW in a lucrative new contract. The deal runs through 2031 and reportedly pays $800 million in total.

That’s a massive deal that will pay dividends for the series. However, my brain got to thinking then, could this indirectly help the NTT INDYCAR SERIES in their next batch of negotiations?

With these 2023 numbers, it certainly doesn’t hurt.

They’re operating on their second contract with NBC Sports which is worth far less than what the Xfinity Series is going to get moving forward. That deal ends next season though as the negotiating window may open up this offseason.

With the Xfinity Series garnering similar ratings to INDYCAR and them getting that much of a bump up in pay, what can this do for INDYCAR in their next set of negotiations?

The Xfinity Series competes in 33 races for which INDYCAR is nearly half of that with 17. So, there’s a per race factor in this process, but still, I don’t think a deal like this could hurt INDYCAR when Amazon was reportedly bidding for some NASCAR races. Plus, INDYCAR has the 100 Days to Indy Show on The CW already which if they’re actively adding more and more sporting programs, wouldn’t them taking a shot at getting an INDYCAR contract be beneficial to the network too?

They have a streaming platform and cable so it could hit both markets and I’m not saying INDYCAR is going to get $800 million, but at least they can get double to what they’re making now, if not WAY more.

There’s more value in INDYCAR in that you have the Indy 500 carrot you can dangle too.

“We certainly had every intention of renewing INDYCAR,” NBC Sports’ President, John Miller said in announcing the lately renewal with the series in 2021. “We’ve had a great relationship with them that goes all the way back to 2009 when NBC SN was originally called Versus, and then it became NBC SN, and all we had were the cable races.

“And we made a pretty strong pitch to Mark and the INDYCAR leadership that we felt that we could do a lot for the sport if we could have it all under one umbrella. And they went with us starting in 2019, we showed them what we could do with the 500. We’ve shown consistent growth.

“I think you’ve got some of the brightest young races and most competitive racing out there. Week-in, week-out, we see great rating wherever we have an INDYCAR race on with recognizable names who are becoming bigger and bigger stars out there.

“We find that it fits into a very good, tight two-and-a-half hour, three-hour window which we think is important.

“Actually Indy narrow fits very nicely into our schedule. There are 17 races that we can accommodate, as opposed to there are some other properties that we have like the Premiere League which lasts for ten months which basically goes from August to May.

“So every property is different. We look at them and evaluate them in a variety of different ways but we certainly saw the ratings growth. We saw it was getting younger. We see the way advertisers and marketers are gravitating towards this sport. We see the way they are gravitating towards the property itself and the tracks, and we felt this was the right — right sport to make a bet on.”

If he’s saying that in 2021, imagine what he’d say in 2024 with a contract up for negotiation.

There’s another layer to this too and that’s with the NASCAR Cup Series contract also being bided on as well, there’s a chance that NBC Sports could lose NASCAR all together. The Truck Series has an exclusive deal with Fox Sports for their entire schedule. Now the Xfinity Series moves onto The CW for an entire season.

The Cup Series is going to get another bump in pay and we know Amazon, The CW, ESPN/ABC and maybe even a few others are trying to move in on Fox Sports and NBC Sports’ deal. What if they do?

That could leave INDYCAR as the only motorsports left for NBC Sports which in turn gives NBC Sports a lot more money to throw INDYCAR’s way out of desperation, especially if INDYCAR opens dialogue with those other networks too.

You would think that they may want to renew this agreement earlier so INDYCAR isn’t seeking out other networks to bid on them.

Mark Miles said in the last time they negotiated, that they did look outside of NBC Sports, but it’s also going to take a lot to supplant INDYCAR away from NBC Sports too.

“We did, as we said before, take the time to understand the marketplace, and what the interest of others might look like, but you know, for us, whether it’s this media partnership or important sponsor relationships, the incumbent is always going to win ties, and there wasn’t a tie,” Miles said. “NBC, it ended up in the agreement that really offered a superior choice.”

Miles and Miller have a long history of working together than spans three decades, so you can see that this is an important deal for all sides.

Which further means that INDYCAR which has the Indy 500 and 16 other races that feature similar ratings in those events in comparison to the Xfinity Series and NASCAR’s version of AAA is getting $800 million spread across seven seasons.

INDYCAR has a lot to offer by virtue of that.

Which is why I feel like this means that the next TV deal puts the ball in the court of NBC Sports. They’re a great partner for INDYCAR but INDYCAR is on the verge of a breakout and a massive TV contract is just what the series needs to propel them further forward.

We keep talking a 3rd OEM, but when you race in front of practically sellout crowds everywhere you go, have the most competitive series in the world and now can muster dare I say $200 million TV deal, this series is set for a massive breakout.