ABC Gets Exclusive Rights for Indianapolis 500 Until 2018

It was announced today that ABC will retain its rights to show the Indianapolis 500 until 2018. 

Also in the agreement is that ABC/ESPN will cover four additional Izod IndyCar Series races throughout the season as well.

ABC has covered the Indianapolis 500 since 1965.  Under the new rights, ABC will get to air the 100th Running of the Indianapolis 500 in 2016.

The remaining races on the Izod IndyCar Series schedule in years 2012-2018 will be shown on NBC Sports Network (formerly Versus).  That contact also is up in 2018.

The problem is that's what ESPN isn't giving IndyCar the time of day now.  Lets hope Randy Bernard can get something changed because ABC/ESPN isn't giving IndyCar any pre-race or post-race shows at all.  They're also not giving them any publicity during the week but the occasional commercial.  This is an outrage and lets hope this stops.

After the NASCAR race at Pocono this past weekend the lead story on Sports Center was NASCAR.  Let me tell you how much coverage the Izod IndyCar Series race got at Mid-Ohio on SportsCenter...none.  They couldn't even get a spot on the ticker at the bottom of the screen.

Lets hope this new deal had some stipulations in it.  There's absolutely no reason that IndyCar isn't getting as much if not more attention than NASCAR is right now.  That's the main thing hurting IndyCar right now is viewership.