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The IndyCar Series will open its 2009 racing season with three consecutive races on Versus, before moving to ABC, which will televise five, including the May 24 telecast of the Indianapolis 500.
ABC will be televising the Indy 500 for the 45th straight season. Versus will televise the final eight races, including the finale on Saturday, Oct. 10.
All the races on both networks will be televised in high definition.
IndyCar announced its new TV rights deal with ABC and Versus in August. Versus replaces ESPN as the cable rightsholder. Last year, ABC televised seven IndyCar races and averaged 2.7 million viewers per race, up 10 percent over the previous year. ESPN televised four races and averaged 707,000 viewers, up 27 percent over the previous year, while ESPN2 averaged 892,000 viewers for five races, up 53 percent over the prior year.
Across all three networks, the IndyCar races averaged 1.7 million viewers per telecast for 17 races, up 21 percent over 2007.
The rights deal with Versus, as previously announced, calls for the network to televise at least 13 races per year for the next 10 years. Versus will also televised a one-hour preview show on the day before each race.
