The NASCAR Cup Series delivered its top post-Daytona audience in four years, but it is the Xfinity Series on newcomer CW that may raise the most eyebrows.
Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race from Atlanta averaged a 2.4 rating and 4.59 million viewers on FOX, marking the largest audience for the post-Daytona 500 race since 2021, when a special Daytona “Roval” occupied that slot. It was also the most-watched Atlanta race since 2019. Ratings fell a tick but viewership increased 1% from last year’s 4.55 million.
Christopher Bell’s win, which peaked with 5.57 million viewers, was the top sportscast of the weekend.
The corresponding Xfinity Series race averaged a 0.7 and 1.31 million on CW, flat and up 10% respectively from last year on FS1 (0.7, 1.2M) and the highest for the Atlanta Xfinity race since 2017.
Notably — and perhaps incredibly given it is the CW — the race ranked second for the day among broadcast network sportscasts behind only the primetime Lakers-Nuggets NBA game on ABC. The Saturday over-the-air slate included the NHL on ABC, college basketball on CBS and FOX, and the PGA Tour on NBC.
It is not necessarily unusual for the Xfinity Series to outdraw more prominent sporting events, but for CW to top each of the “Big Four” on a competitive weekend afternoon is almost certainly unprecedented.
Nexstar-owned CW is in its first full season as a NASCAR rightsholder and owns exclusive rights to the Xfinity Series. After testing its sports ambitions with with LIV Golf, the “netlet” — which began as a merger of The WB and UPN nearly 20 years ago — has since put together a sports lineup consisting of the Xfinity Series, college football, college basketball and assorted studio programming like “Inside the NFL.”
Rounding out the NASCAR action, the Truck Series was an exception to the gains — as was the case at Daytona the prior week. The Atlanta Truck race averaged a 0.40 and 675,000 on FS1, down 26% from a year ago.
Note: Nielsen as of this month expanded its out-of-home viewing sample to cover 100 percent of markets (up from two-thirds previously). As a result, viewership figures will generally compare favorably not only to past years, but even to past weeks.
