It was not much of a drop, but NASCAR’s annual stop at Kentucky hit a record-low.
NASCAR Sprint Cup racing from Kentucky earned a 1.9 final rating and 3.2 million viewers on NBCSN Saturday night, down 5% in ratings and 1% in viewership from last year (2.0, 3.2M), down 17% and 11%, respectively, from 2014 (2.3, 3.6M), and the lowest rated and least-watched Sprint Cup race from Kentucky (dates back to 2011).
Brad Keselowski‘s win tied the lowest rating for any Sprint Cup race this season, matching Kansas on Fox Sports 1 in May. Since the current NASCAR TV deals began last year, seven races have failed to score at least a 2.0 rating (excluding rainouts), compared to zero such races over the course of the previous TV deal (2007-14).
Kentucky was the ninth race this season to hit a multi-year low in ratings and/or viewership (excluding rainout years), joining Michigan, Charlotte, Richmond, Bristol, Texas, Fontana, Phoenix and Las Vegas.
Though low overall, Saturday’s race was the most-watched program on NBCSN since last year’s Martinsville race (3.4M) — topping Games 2 and 3 of the Stanley Cup Final (2.5M and 2.8M, respectively).
Head-to-head, NASCAR on NBCSN topped competing coverage of Major League Baseball on FOX (2.1M) but trailed the U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials on NBC (3.4M).
(Sat. numbers from NBC Sports, with additional info from ShowBuzz Daily)
