IndyCar chief hints at INTERNATIONAL expansion

IndyCar chief Mark Miles has discussed the possibility of IndyCar expanding internationally, confirming that talks regarding the matter are ongoing.

Earlier this month, the racing series announced a historic media rights deal with Fox Sports for the 2025 season.

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The new media agreement has been hailed as 'game-changing' and will reportedly provide an unprecedented increase in exposure for the series, with FOX Sports set to show all practice and qualifying sessions, as well as extensive, multi-platform coverage of the Indy 500.

When recently discussing the above deal, Miles was also quizzed on another intriguing topic when it comes to the future of the series.

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Will IndyCar expand internationally?

Earlier this year, a non-points scoring race in Argentina was ruled out, but it has been confirmed that talks regarding international events continue.

"International needs to be defined from my perspective," Miles told Blackbook Motorsport. "IndyCar has and will continue to be a North American series. So we race in Toronto – as a US citizen, I don’t think that’s international for these purposes."

"We could very well go to Mexico, and Mexico analogous to Canada, we would drive to it. Frankly, Indianapolis to Mexico City is 100 miles less than Indianapolis to LA. We’re working on that and it’s possible we could get there. But from the way we think of this as a North American championship, it isn’t any different than Portland.

"The idea of creating something new that would be more of an international series in the months available to us after the IndyCar championship is decided continues to be something that we think about and work on."

Miles, though, was quick to reassure fans of the sport that talks over future international plans were not a cash-grab.

"I want fans to know that, if we do it, it’s not that we’re going to pick a race somewhere and chase the money as a one-off thing," he explained.

"We would want to have a number of events that are tied together through some sort of points or money, certainly with sponsorship, and it comes together as a separate international series.

"We continue to have conversations with places that are interested. We had our track guy visiting a South American opportunity last week, and we’ll see.

"It’s hard enough to find one great event where you know you have a base of IndyCar fans and there’s brand recognition and some recognition of our drivers. To find three or four of them and to introduce them at the same time is a long putt, but we’re working on it."

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