Rain, cable, and a Saturday night timeslot combined to sink NASCAR viewership over the weekend.
NASCAR Sprint Cup racing from Kansas drew 2.5 million viewers on FS1 Saturday night, down 57% from last year (5.8M) and down 62% from 2013 (6.5M), both of which aired on FOX. The race was delayed nearly two hours due to rain, with viewership falling below two million during that period.
Excluding races that moved to a different day or network than originally scheduled, Saturday’s viewership is the lowest for a Sprint Cup telecast since at least 2008. The previous low over that span was 3.5 million for the 2012 New Hampshire Chase For the Cup race on ESPN.
The race was the second scheduled Sprint Cup telecast on FS1 this season. The network earned 4.1 million for the Martinsville race in March, which aired on a Sunday afternoon.
Despite the poor performance, NASCAR generated the day’s top sports audience on cable — edging a Hawks/Wizards NBA playoff game on ESPN (2.4M). Head-to-head, however, it was more-than-doubled by the Warriors/Grizzlies playoff game on broadcast network ABC (4.9M).
(Sat. numbers via Sports TV Ratings)
