A move from cable to broadcast delivered NASCAR’s first ratings increase of the season.
The NASCAR Cup Series Brickyard 400 earned a 3.4 final rating and 5.6 million viewers on NBC Sunday afternoon, up 10% in ratings and 8% in viewership from last year (3.1, 5.2M) and up 13% and 20% respectively from 2015 (3.0, 4.7M), both of which aired on NBCSN.
Kasey Kahne‘s win, which was pushed back two hours due to rain and finished in primetime, delivered the largest audience for the race since 2011 (6.4M) and tied its highest rating since 2013.
It was the first race all season to post an increase in ratings and just the third to do so in viewership, joining the Daytona 500 (+6%) and Texas in April (+4%). In addition, it was the first race to hit a multi-year high in either measure since last year’s Brickyard 400.
Overall, Sunday’s race was the highest rated and most-watched Cup Series event since Talladega on FOX in May (3.5, 5.9M), topping the Daytona 400 three weeks earlier (3.2, 5.4M).
For the first time since 2009, the Brickyard 400 earned a larger audience than the Indianapolis 500, which takes place at the same racetrack (5.5M). The two races earned the same rating.
The last time the race aired on a broadcast network, 2006, it had a 5.5 and 8.6 million.
