In what has been a strong season for NASCAR, one might have expected Michael Jordan in victory lane to deliver a solid bump — rather than a multi-year low.
Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race from Talladega, won by Tyler Reddick of Jordan’s 23XI team, averaged a 2.4 rating and 4.31 million viewers on FOX — down 7% in ratings and 5% in viewership from last year (2.6, 4.55M) and just the second of nine races this season to decline. (That excludes the rain-postponed Daytona 500.)
Not counting the 2020 race, which was not only pushed to July but postponed a day from its rescheduled date due to rain, viewership was the lowest for the spring Talladega race since it began airing on FOX in 2001.
Keep in mind the race faced far less formidable NBA playoff competition than a year ago, airing opposite a Mavericks-Clippers Game 1 that drew just 4.66 million — compared to a Kings-Warriors Game 4 that drew 7.52 million a year ago.
Talladega still ranks among the top races this season, trailing only the Daytona 500, Atlanta and Las Vegas, and still delivered one of the top sports audiences of the weekend. Only the aforementioned Mavericks-Clippers game and Lakers-Nuggets Game 1 the prior night averaged more viewers.
In other action from Talladega, the Xfinity Series race there drew a 0.9 and 1.60 million on FOX Saturday afternoon — up a tick and 12% respectively from last year’s 0.8 and 1.31 million. The preceding ARCA series race on FS1 had a 0.23 (-32%) and 413,000 (-21%).
