In the first scheduling change necessitated by its new media rights deal, the NASCAR Cup Series hit a four-year cable high, while losing nearly a third of its audience from a year ago.
NASCAR Cup Series racing from Phoenix averaged a 1.4 rating and 2.82 million viewers on FS1 last Sunday, marking the largest Cup Series audience on cable in nearly four years (2021 Darlington: 3.1M) — but also a decline of 36% and 30% respectively from the same race last year, which aired on the FOX broadcast network (2.2, 4.03M).
With NASCAR scaling back its broadcast TV presence in its new media rights deal, Phoenix was the earliest Cup Series race on cable since 2000 — when TNN carried Rockingham in the second week of the season. Last season, the first cable race took place in April (Martinsville). Viewership increased 29% from that race.
Phoenix was the first of ten races that will shift from broadcast last year to cable or streaming this year. Between now and late October, only two races are set for broadcast TV.
Christopher Bell’s third-straight win, which peaked with 3.39 million in the 6:45 PM ET quarter-hour, still delivered the largest sports audience of the day regardless of network, edging NBC’s coverage of the PGA Tour Arnold Palmer Invitational (2.81M). For the weekend, it ranked behind the previous day’s Lakers-Celtics NBA game on ABC (4.6M) and Duke-North Carolina college basketball game on ESPN (3.0M).
In other NASCAR action, Xfinity Series racing at Phoenix averaged a 0.7 and 1.2 million on CW, up a tick and 13% respectively from last year on FS1. The NASCAR Xfinity Series has delivered the largest CW audience of the week in all four weeks of this season.
While the Cup Series is moving away from broadcast television, the Xfinity Series will air exclusively on the broadcast “netlet” CW for the duration of the new deal. So far, all four CW races have outpaced last year’s equivalent races on FS1.
