After a rare increase at Watkins Glen, NASCAR ratings fell back into the usual mire at Michigan.
Last Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Michigan 400 earned a 1.6 rating and 2.5 million viewers on NBCSN, down 20% in ratings and viewership from last year (2.0, 3.2M) and down 24% and 25% respectively from 2016 (2.1, 3.4M).
Excluding rainouts, Kevin Harvick‘s win was the lowest rated edition of the race in at least 20 years and the least-watched since at least 2000.
Just four years ago, ratings and viewership were twice as high — a 3.2 and 5.2 million on ESPN.
Michigan was the 18th of 21 Cup Series races this season — again excluding rainouts — to post a double-digit decline in both ratings and viewership. Each of those 18 has hit a multi-year low, with 17 of those falling to all-time or decade-plus lows.
It was also the 11th Cup Series race this season with less than a 2.0 rating, compared to four at the same point last season.
Keep in mind Sunday’s race faced dramatically stronger competition from the PGA Championship, which had a 5.4 rating (+69%) and 8.5 million viewers (+73%). With that said, NASCAR’s declines were no more pronounced than in other weeks this season — an indication that the numbers would probably have been down just as much regardless of the competition.
[Numbers from Nielsen via ShowBuzz Daily 8.15]
