Cause of IndyCar broadcast outage at Thermal Club revealed

IndyCar has revealed why the broadcast of the Thermal Club Grand Prix on FOX was interrupted on Sunday.

The championship has revealed that the outage was caused by a technical problem, with a circuit breaker failing in the TV compound.

Extreme heat is believed to be the root cause of the issue.

Around lap 28 of 65, IndyCar’s official feed on FOX and other international channels stopped working, prompting widespread criticism on social media.

FOX initially started showing commercials on the channel, before broadcasting the clashing NASCAR Cup Series race at Homestead-Miami, which was already being aired on Fox Sports 1.

The signal was restored around lap 40 after a gap of 20 minutes.

The outage was widespread, with it being reported that those at the track also lost visuals and timing data.

During the interruption, Fox’s official IndyCar handle on X (formerly Twitter) wrote: “Our INDYCAR production truck has an electrical issue. We are working to get it fixed as quickly as possible.

"In the meantime, we have NASCAR bonus coverage on FOX and FS1 until the INDYCAR truck is back online.”

There were no major changes at the front of the race during the blackout, although fans did miss several pitstops.

The race was eventually won by Chip Ganassi’s Alex Palou after he passed longtime leader Pato O’Ward with less than 10 laps to run.