The numbers were off only slightly from last year, but NASCAR Pocono viewership still hit a new low.
Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race from Pocono averaged a 1.7 rating and 2.71 million viewers on NBCSN, flat in ratings and down 2% in viewership from last year (1.7, 2.75M), and down 23% and 26% respectively from 2017 (2.2, 3.67M).
Excluding rainouts, Denny Hamlin‘s win posted the smallest audience for the race since at least 2000. It also tied the lowest rating since at least 1998. Just six years ago, ratings and viewership were dramatically stronger at a 3.2 and 5.06 million on ESPN.
NASCAR easily topped the competing IndyCar Series race from Mid-Ohio on the NBC broadcast network, which had a 0.47 and 670,000. Still, the IndyCar race provided stronger competition than a year ago, when live coverage aired on CNBC.
While eight Cup Series races have increased so far this season — the most at this point of the season since 2013 — a greater number have hit historic lows. Pocono was the tenth race this season to set or tie an all-time or decade-plus low, joining the Daytona 500, Atlanta, Martinsville, Bristol, Richmond, Talladega, Kansas,* Kentucky and the previous Pocono race in June.
Even with the lower numbers, Sunday’s race was the highest rated and most-watched sporting event of the weekend — the first time NASCAR has taken top honors since Phoenix on March 10. It ranked second in adults 18-49, trailing the Yankees-Red Sox Sunday Night Baseball game (0.50 to 0.36).
[Numbers from Nielsen via ShowBuzz Daily 7.30]
