As usual, the Coca-Cola 600 finished well ahead of the Indianapolis 500.
Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Coca-Cola 600 from Charlotte drew a 4.3 final rating and 7.1 million viewers on FOX, down a tick in ratings and 4% in viewership from last year (4.4, 7.4M), and down 4% and 12%, respectively, from 2011 (4.5, 8.1M).
Excluding the postponed 2009 race, this marks the lowest rated and least-viewed Coca-Cola 600 ever on FOX. [CORRECTION 5/28/14: The race was, at the time, the lowest rated and least-viewed since 2010.] The 4.3 rating is the lowest for the race since 2000, when coverage drew a 3.4 U.S. rating on TBS.
Despite the multi-year low, Sunday’s race nearly matched concurrent coverage of the Heat/Pacers NBA playoff game on TNT (7.3M). The events were not nearly as close among adults 18-49, as the NBA game outdrew NASCAR 3.1 to 1.9.
In addition, the Coca-Cola 600 defeated the Indianapolis 500 yet again, topping the IndyCar race by 16% in ratings (4.3 to 3.7) and 24% in viewership (7.1M to 5.8M).
The 24% viewership gap is the largest advantage the Coca-Cola 600 has had over the Indianapolis 500 since 2004, when NASCAR won the head-to-head battle by 37% (8.3M to 6.1M). The gap is significantly larger than it was last year, when NASCAR won by only 9% (7.4M to 6.8M).
In terms of raw numbers, the Coca-Cola 600 outdrew the Indy 500 by almost 1.4 million viewers, the third-largest gap since FOX began airing the race. NASCAR beat Indy by over 1.4 million viewers in 2011 and by 2.2 million in 2004.
Again excluding 2009, the Coca-Cola 600 has drawn more viewers than the Indianapolis 500 every single year since the race moved to FOX in 2001. In all but two of those years, NASCAR had a higher final rating as well (fueled by Danica Patrick, the Indy 500 won the ratings battle in 2005; Indy also won in 2001).
Overall, the Coca-Cola 600 was the top draw on a busy day of racing. In addition to topping the Indy 500 on ABC (3.7, 5.8M), the race also outdrew the Formula 1 Grand Prix of Monaco on NBC (1.0, 1.5M).
(Sunday’s numbers from Media Life Magazine, with NBA numbers from TV By the Numbers)
