NASCAR did not exactly light up the ratings on Saturday night, though the Air Guard 400 managed to match the previous week’s edition of Saturday Night Football.
ABC drew a 2.8 overnight rating for the Air Guard 400 on Saturday night, down 7% from the same race last year (3.0) and down 32% from 2007 (4.1). The 2008 race was postponed to Sunday and aired on ESPN.
The 2.8 overnight is tied as the lowest for a regularly scheduled NASCAR race on broadcast television since the Tums Fast Relief 500 last October (2.5).
Despite the decline, Saturday’s race matched the overnight rating of the LSU/North Carolina college football game on ABC one week earlier.
Because NASCAR ratings typically rise from the overnight to the final, ABC could end up drawing a larger audience for Saturday night NASCAR than for the premiere Saturday Night Football.
