Danica Patrick is returning to TV screens next weekend when she joins coverage of the Indianapolis 500 — Fox Sports will include her in its pre-race broadcast on Sunday, May 24.
Patrick is the marquee name in this brief announcement. She remains the only female driver to have won an IndyCar race, after taking victory at the 2008 Indy Japan 300, and she finished third in the Indianapolis 500 in 2009. Those results sit alongside a string of early milestones: in 2005 she became the fourth woman to qualify for the Indy 500, led laps that year and finished fourth, and earned Rookie of the Year honours in her first IndyCar season.
Her record before she left full-time competition is part of what makes any return to screens noteworthy. Patrick joined Andretti Green Racing in 2007, recorded 10 top-10 finishes in 2008 and ended that season sixth in the drivers' championship. She later won pole position at the 2013 Daytona 500 and finished eighth in that race, and she retired from full-time racing in 2018 at the age of 36.
This appearance comes with a clear broadcasting contrast. Patrick was not included in the Sky Sports team for the 2026 season. By comparison, she previously provided insight for Sky Sports across multiple race weekends over the past few years, mainly during race weekends in the Americas, but she will not appear at any race weekends for Sky Sports this season.
That split — historic racer on Fox for the Indy 500 while absent from Sky Sports' 2026 lineup — is the tension in play. American viewers will see her voice and presence on a high-profile U.S. broadcast at the sport's most iconic oval, even as she has no scheduled appearances with the Sky Sports team this season. The immediate practical result: Patrick's return to television will be seen most broadly in the United States on May 24.
Fox Sports has not framed this as a comeback to full-time broadcasting; the network lists Patrick as part of its pre-race coverage for the Indianapolis 500 next weekend. For fans that mix sporting memory with spectacle, that will include the small, inevitable detail of what she wears on race day. The danica patrick indy 500 outfit will be visible on screen and discussed by viewers alongside her analysis.
The broadcast will also be a reminder of how Patrick changed the record books. She became the first woman to win an IndyCar race with the 2008 Indy Japan 300, and she remains the highest-placing woman in Indianapolis 500 history with her 2009 podium. Those facts are the reason networks still turn to her when the calendar hits oval weekend.
On Sunday, viewers tuning into Fox's pre-race show will see Patrick back in the live sports moment that helped define her career — and they will judge the broadcast, and perhaps the suits and jackets she chooses, against the racing history she built between 2005 and her retirement in 2018.
