Outside of the Daytona 500, Sunday’s NASCAR race from Atlanta drew the sport’s top audience in four years.
NASCAR Sprint Cup racing from Atlanta earned a 5.6 final rating and 9.5 million viewers on FOX Sunday afternoon, up 6% in ratings and 8% in viewership from last year’s second race of the season (5.3, 8.8M) and flat and up 4%, respectively, from the second race in 2013 (5.6, 9.1M). Those races took place from Phoenix.
Excluding the Daytona 500, Sunday’s race ranks as the most-watched NASCAR telecast on any network since coverage from Las Vegas in 2011 (5.9, 10.1M). It tied the highest rating over that span, matching the 2012 and 2013 Phoenix races.
Last year’s Atlanta race, which aired on ESPN over Labor Day weekend, earned a 3.2 and 5.2 million. No Atlanta race has earned a larger audience since March 2008 (6.4, 10.6M).
Despite the stronger numbers, the 5.6 is tied as the second-lowest for NASCAR’s second race of the season since 2000 — ahead of only last year. Viewership ranks as the fifth-lowest over that span, ahead of only last year, 2013, 2012 (9.2M) and 2010 (9.2M).
So far this season, all four NASCAR Sprint Cup telecasts on FOX have had year-over-year increases.
(Wknd. numbers via Sports Business Daily)
