After a rough end to the 2007 season, NASCAR is looking for a fresh start with its biggest event on Sunday.
The Daytona 500 has drawn consistently high ratings for several years. Since NASCAR began its current television format in 2001, the Super Bowl of stockcar racing has drawn double-digit ratings six out of seven years. By comparison, the event did not draw a double-digit rating even once from 1980 to 2000.
Last year, the Daytona 500 drew its lowest rating since in four years, drawing a 10.1. That 10.1 was still good enough to best the average ratings of the NBA Finals, every major golf tournament, three of the five BCS games, and the NCAA Final Four.
There is no question the Daytona 500 is one of the marquee events on the sports calendar. But with NASCAR coming off of a fall in which races on ABC drew some of the lowest numbers in years, the 2008 edition of the race may very well be a significant turning point for the sport.
For the past two years, NASCAR ratings have been declining. Last season, races averaged a 4.2 rating, down 9% from ’06 and and down 21% from ’05. While NASCAR races still outdrew NBA and MLB telecasts, ratings fell for nearly every race last season. It is obvious that NASCAR no longer has the momentum it did three or four years ago. The bigger question is whether the sport will suffer the same fall baseball and NBA have gone through.
The rating for the Daytona 500 could be a good indicator of the direction NASCAR ratings will go this season. NASCAR officials are certainly hoping the increased numbers for last week’s action are the rule, as opposed to the exception; ratings for the Budweiser Shootout on Saturday and Daytona 500 pole qualifying on Sunday were up 6% and 4%, respectively, from last year.
And advertisers are not shying away from the sport. FOX has sold out its ad space for the Daytona 500, with a 30-second spot going for $550,000. FOX has already sold 85% of its ad inventory for its 17 race schedule, “more than 20 percent ahead of last year.”
With ratings declining for most marquee sporting events (the NBA Finals and Stanley Cup Finals set record lows in ’07, while the World Series drew its second-worst numbers), a drop for the Daytona 500 would not be a catastrophe. In the current television landscape, a rating of 8 or higher is relatively impressive — and the Daytona 500 figures to easily draw higher than an 8 rating. However, an increase in ratings would be huge for a sport that has seen six years of growth begin to shrink.
