NTT IndyCar Series Gets Injection of FOX Sports Flair With Drones, Ghost Car, Pointers, Heads Up Display

NTT IndyCar Series Gets Injection of FOX Sports Flair With Drones, Ghost Car, Pointers, Heads Up Display The broadcaster taps its quarter century of expertise in motorsports By Jason Dachman, Editorial Director, U.S.

Friday, February 28, 2025 - 1:40 pm

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Over the past 25 years, FOX Sports has helped revolutionize the way motorsports are covered on television through its Emmy Award-winning NASCAR broadcasts and a variety of other racing properties. This weekend, a new chapter in FOX's racing odyssey will begin in St. Petersburg, FL, when the network launches its 17-week slate of NTT IndyCar Series broadcasts - all of which will air on the FOX broadcast network.

IndyCar coverage will get the Ghost Car technology seen on FOX Sports' NASCAR broadcasts.

We've been covering NASCAR for 25 years, notes Mike Davies, SVP, technical and field operations, FOX Sports. There's no question that motorsports has always been in FOX's DNA. Think back to when [legendary FOX production executive] David Hill worked with [NASCAR founder] Bill France to re-create NASCAR as a television product [when FOX acquired the rights in 2001]; I think there's a similar opportunity for us here with IndyCar.

IndyCar viewers can expect to see many FOX signature production elements throughout this season, including live drones and in-car cameras, Ghost Car and telemetric pointer graphics, and aggressive audio deployment to capture the sounds of the track. Also new is a Heads Up Display on in-car graphics showing telemetry data (similar to what is seen in Formula 1 broadcasts).

Indy is one of the most respected racing leagues in the world, Davies adds. To be part of it is something we've wanted for a long, long time. We couldn't be more excited. That said, IndyCar is totally different [from NASCAR]. We're going to see a lot more road courses, very different cars, and a whole different kind of technology behind it all. That offers some real opportunities and some real challenges, too. But we're looking forward to taking them on, and we're confident we'll rise to the occasion.

Established Infrastructure: Partnership With IMS Productions FOX Sports is teaming up with IMS Productions, IndyCar parent Penske Entertainment's in-house production arm, to produce all races this season. As it has done for several years, IMS Productions will continue to provide all onsite facilities and much of the below-the-line crew. Meanwhile, FOX's IndyCar operations are led by George Grill and Matt Battaglia, who oversee all of the broadcaster's motorsports operations, including NASCAR.

IMS Productions has their own operational infrastructure, trucks, and facility in Indianapolis, says Davis, [With] other [properties], we would have had to conjure up the entire operation from scratch. An enormous amount of work was already done by the experts at IMS, who have been doing this for a long, long time. We are overlaying the production prowess of FOX Sports on top of the operational expertise of IMS productions, which is going to be a great mix.

FOX has brought in its own on-air talent (led by Will Buxton, James Hinchcliffe, and Townsend Bell) and front bench (led by producer Pam Miller and director Mitch Riggin) to put the FOX Sports stamp on the IndyCar broadcasts. In addition, FOX will rotate in a triumvirate of its top A1s to mix the audio: Jamie McCombs, Kevin McCluskey, and Sean Peacock, along with submixer Robert Sweeney, will bring the Emmy Award-winning FOX Sports audio ethos to IndyCar broadcasts.

IMS Productions, led by President Kevin Sublette, upgraded much of the gear aboard its HD5 mobile unit prior to the launch of IndyCar on FOX this season. IMS will be supported by several of FOX's longtime vendors, including NEP Specialty Capture (formerly BSI) for in-car cameras (13 in-car cams will be deployed at St. Petersburg this weekend) and CES Power to drive the production compound.

We're looking forward to working with a new mobile unit, says Davies, but, most of all, we're looking forward to working with the people at IMS Productions and building this partnership. I think both of us want to create something new and different. We've got our NASCAR ways, and Indy has their own ways. Together, I think, we can collaborate to create something really special.

Graphics Lead the Way: Ghost Car, Car Pointers, Heads Up Display In terms of graphics, FOX will bring in the Ghost Car overlay of AR technology seen on its NASCAR coverage (as well as on MLB coverage) to visually compare two cars' performance, car-pointer graphics to help fans keep pace with the action, and a new Heads Up Display feature on in-car graphics containing key telemetry data and technical information about the car itself.

FOX has been working with IndyCar to add car tracking similar to that seen in its NASCAR coverage. In a joint effort by FOX, Indy, and SMT, the cars will be equipped with SMT's GPS Vectors to provide accurate GPS positional data for every car. The data will be used for car-pointer graphics, the Ghost Car overlay (with four AR-calibrated cameras available), broadcast analytics that will allow FOX to show detailed analysis of the cars in a 3D environment, and the Heads Up Display feature.

I think there will definitely be some similarities [to NASCAR on FOX], says FOX Sports SVP, Graphics Technology and Integration, Zac Fields. We have been doing racing for 25 years. However, we will be looking to highlight the speed of the cars and quality of driving with our new tools. It's always exciting to launch a new sport, but IndyCar is special because we feel like there is a lot of room for innovation.

In addition to taking the lead in delivery of data for graphics, SMT is helping drive the rendering for Gh

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