In its final airing on FOX, NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600 ratings took a hit from the rain — and the resulting Indy 500 competition.
Overlapping with the rain-delayed Indianapolis 500 on NBC, Sunday’s rain-shortened NASCAR Coca-Cola 600 from Charlotte averaged a 1.7 rating and 3.10 million viewers on FOX — marking the lowest rated and least-watched edition of the race in its 23-year run on FOX. The race moves to Amazon Prime Video next year.
Christopher Bell’s win declined 13% in ratings and 9% in viewership from last year’s Monday edition (1.9, 3.40M) and 24% and 20% respectively from the last time the race was run on a Sunday in 2022 (2.2, 3.87M). The 2022 race was completed as planned.
The race was abbreviated by the same storm system that pushed back the Indianapolis 500 four full hours from 12:45 to nearly 4:45 PM ET. The later start pushed the Indy 500 and Coca Cola 600 into a rare head-to-head as the telecasts overlapped for nearly two hours, from the start of the NASCAR race at 6:29 to the end of NBC’s Indy coverage at 8:15.
The Indy 500 comfortably won the head-to-head, averaging a 2.5 rating and 5.02 million viewers (5.31 million including streaming viewership tracked by Adobe Analytics) — marking the lowest rated edition of the race (excluding the COVID-delayed 2020 edition) but also the most-watched in three years.
As for the other event on the biggest day in racing, the Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix averaged 1.97 million viewers on ABC — marking the largest live audience ever for the race and third-largest for an F1 race on U.S. television. Only the Miami Grand Prix has averaged a larger audience, posting 3.07 million this year and 2.58 million in 2022.
Viewership for the race, which peaked at 2.3 million from 11:15-11:30 PM ET, increased 7% from last year (1.83M).
On a day dominated by rain, FOX averaged a 1.2 and 2.26 million for more than two hours of rain-delay coverage that ran from just after 9:30 PM ET almost to Midnight. NBC averaged a 1.4 and 2.54 million for more than three hours of Indy 500 rainout coverage earlier in the day. There was no rain at the Monaco Grand Prix, but it should be noted that race was delayed 45 minutes due to an opening lap crash.
