The MAVTV 500 at Auto Club Speedway is being heralded as one of the most exciting races in the sport's history, which was reflected by a more than 100 percent increase in overnight television ratings.

The 250-lap event telecast on NBCSN, which featured an Indy car-record 80 lead changes among 14 of the field's 23 entries, drew a 0.37 overnight rating as reported by Nielsen -- up from a 0.18 rating in 2014.

"We put on a heck of a show for the fans, that's for sure," third-place finisher Marco Andretti said. "It's definitely crazy. ... You've got guys that just don't want to back off, guys going forward, guys going backward, inside, outside. I find it quite fun but it is extremely dangerous, but that's what we sign up for."

Ryan Briscoe, whose late-race incident with Ryan Hunter-Reay ended the race under caution, echoed Andretti's sentiments.

"It was a really exciting race, to say the least," said the driver of the No. 5 Arrow/Lucas Oil Schmidt Peterson Honda. "We passed a lot of guys out there so it was fun to be up front. Coming through the field a couple times - it was awesome. I was really enjoying myself."

The race featured a total of 3,173 on-track passes -- 2,537 for position -- which accounts for 51 percent of the total on-track passes (6,248) through 11 races in the Verizon IndyCar Series season.