For the second week in a row, NASCAR’s Chase For the Cup earned its smallest ever audience.
NASCAR Sprint Cup racing from New Hampshire, the second race in the Chase For the Cup, had 2.5 million viewers on NBCSN Sunday afternoon — down 14% from last year, down 34% from 2014 on ESPN (3.9M), and the smallest audience in the history of the Chase (dates back to 2004). The previous low was set just one week earlier by the Chicago race (2.7M).
Ratings dropped 12% from last year (1.77 to 1.55) and also ranked as the lowest in the history of the Chase. The previous mark was nearly a full point higher, a 1.64 for Chicago last week.
Kevin Harvick‘s win ranks as the lowest rated fall New Hampshire race since at least 2000 and the least-watched since at least 2001, falling below the previous marks set last year.
Excluding rainouts at Pocono and Bristol, eight of the past nine Sprint Cup races have hit multi-year lows in ratings and viewership. Dale Earnhardt Jr. has missed all but one of those races. For the season, 17 of 24 races have posted a decline in one or both measures (again excluding rainouts).
(Wknd. numbers via ShowBuzz Daily 9/27)
