For the second straight year, NASCAR’s Chase For the Cup opened with its lowest rating ever.
NASCAR Sprint Cup racing from Chicagoland, the first race in the Chase For the Cup, posted a 1.6 final rating and 2.7 million viewers on NBCSN Sunday afternoon — down 16% in ratings and 17% in viewership from last year (1.9, 3.2M) and down 30% and 27%, respectively, from 2014 on ESPN (2.3, 3.7M).
Excluding rainouts, the race ranks as the lowest rated and least-watched Chase For the Cup telecast ever (118 races dating back to 2004). The previous lows were a 1.8 and 2.9 million for last year’s New Hampshire race. The six lowest rated and least-watched Chase races have aired on NBCSN, which is only in its second year broadcasting NASCAR.
Sunday’s race also delivered the lowest rating and viewership ever for the Sprint Cup at Chicagoland (dates back to 2001). Even the 2013 race, which experienced multiple lengthy delays and eventually moved from ESPN to ESPN2, pulled a higher rating (1.8) and virtually the same audience (2.689M to 2.691M). In its first year on cable ten years ago, the race had a 4.2 rating and 6.8 million viewers on TNT — with the caveat that it did not face the NFL.
In addition to those low marks, the 1.6 rating is tied as the lowest for any Sprint Cup race in at least eight years.
Seven of the past eight Sprint Cup races have hit multi-year lows in ratings and viewership, a slump that began at Kentucky in June. Notably that was the last race of the season to feature Dale Earnhardt Jr., who has been sidelined by a concussion ever since.
(Wknd. numbers via ShowBuzz Daily 9/20)
