NASCAR Ratings: Richmond Ties Broadcast Low

NASCAR ratings tied a broadcast network low over the weekend.

Saturday’s NASCAR Cup Series Richmond 400 earned a 1.8 rating and 3.0 million viewers on FOX, down 38% in ratings and 34% in viewership from last year (2.9, 4.6M) and down 42% and 36% respectively from 2016 (3.1, 4.7M).

Compared to the last time the race was run on a Saturday night, 2014, ratings fell 45% (from 3.3) and viewership 46% (from 5.6M).

Excluding rainouts, the 1.8 rating is tied as the lowest for any Cup Series race on broadcast television since at least 2000. It tied last fall’s Charlotte race on NBC. The previous low for a Cup Series race on FOX was 2.4 for the network’s previous scheduled race, Fontana in March.

The 17 lowest Cup Series ratings on broadcast have come since the current television deals with Fox and NBC began in 2015.

Kyle Busch‘s win narrowly avoided setting a viewership low, clocking in ahead of last year’s Charlotte race (2.9M).

As goes without saying, it was the lowest rated Richmond race since at least 1999 and the least-watched since at least 2004.

Not counting Martinsville and Bristol, which were postponed to Monday due to rain, all seven Cup Series races this season have declined double-digits from last season. Six of the seven have hit decade-plus or all-time record lows in both ratings and viewership. The lone exception — Atlanta — hit four-year lows.

For the weekend, Saturday’s race was the top sporting event outside of the NBA playoffs. Head-to-head, it edged the competing Rockets-Timberwolves NBA game on ESPN (1.7, 2.8M) and the Maple Leafs-Bruins Stanley Cup playoff game on NBC (1.1, 1.9M). In adults 18-49 (0.6) and adults 18-34 (0.4), it trailed the NBA (1.4 in both) and tied the NHL.