NASCAR Update: Texas Final Ratings Up From Phoenix Last Year; Talladega Overnights Down

NASCAR’s first Saturday night race of the season was up from the comparable telecast last year.

FOX earned a 4.0 final rating and 7.036 million viewers for the April 9 NASCAR Sprint Cup Samsung Mobile 500 from Texas, up 8% in ratings and 18% in viewership from the first Saturday night race last year (Phoenix: 3.7, 5.977M), and up 11% and 18%, respectively, from the first such race in 2009 (Phoenix: 3.6, 5.984M).

Though up from previous Saturday night races, the 4.0 rating is an all-time record low for the spring Texas race (dates back to 1997). The previous low was a 4.7 rating for the 2009 race.

As recently as 2004, the race drew a markedly higher 6.0 rating and 9.680 million viewers. Ratings for the spring Texas race since its 1997 debut are available at the bottom of this post.

Talladega overnight: In other NASCAR ratings news, Sunday’s Aaron’s 499 from Talladega earned a 4.6 overnight rating, down 6% from the same race last year (4.9), and up a tick from 2009 (4.5).

The 4.6 overnight is the second-lowest for the race (excludes rained out races) since moving to FOX in 2001.

Ratings For NASCAR’s Spring Texas Race Since 1997
Asterisk (*) indicates race was postponed from original date.

(Numbers from Media Life Magazine, jayski.com)