IndyCar has a new lead announcer for the 2025 season

One of the biggest questions surrounding the 2025 IndyCar season, the first under the sport's new multi-year agreement with Fox Sports to be the exclusive home of the series and the Indy 500, was the broadcast booth.

That question has now been answered.

Townsend Bell and James Hinchcliffe have both been hired as driver analysts after serving in the same roles at NBC Sports. Additionally, following several weeks of rumors, British motorsport journalist and presenter Will Buxton, who is best known for his work in Formula 1, has indeed been signed to be the lead announcer.

IndyCar on Fox, whose X (formerly Twitter) account already has more than twice as many followers as IndyCar on NBC even before Fox has aired its first race, put out the following graphic.

Fox grabs Bell, Hinchcliffe from NBC, names Buxton to lead role

Buxton is effectively set to replace Leigh Diffey, whom NBC retained by making him their lead announcer for the NASCAR Cup Series before the 2024 season ended. Diffey, who replaced the late Bob Jenkins on the IndyCar side following his post-2012 retirement, replaced Rick Allen on the Cup Series side last August.

From that point until the end of the 2024 IndyCar season, Kevin Lee, who had been a fill-in/reserve for Diffey since 2015, joined Bell and Hinchcliffe in the NBC Sports booth.

Prior to the move to Fox, Bell had been a driver analyst in the IndyCar on NBC booth since 2013. Hinchcliffe joined the booth in 2020 and returned in 2022 following another season of full-time IndyCar competition in 2021 and had been with the team ever since.

The entire 17-race 2025 IndyCar schedule is set to be shown on Fox (as opposed to Fox Sports 1), which was one of the main reasons why IndyCar took less money to sign with Fox Sports rather than remain with NBC Sports.

The 2025 season is scheduled to get underway on Sunday, March 2 with the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, which is set to be shown live from the streets of St. Petersburg, Florida beginning at 12:00 p.m. ET.