The bad times just keep rolling for NASCAR.
NASCAR Sprint Cup racing from Phoenix, the penultimate race in the Chase For the Cup, had a 2.4 final rating and 4.0 million viewers on the NBC broadcast network Sunday afternoon — down 23% in ratings and 21% in viewership from 2014 on ESPN, the last time the race was run as scheduled (3.1, 5.1M).
Last year’s race was postponed due to rain and aired on NBCSN, earning a 1.4 and 2.2 million.
Excluding rainouts, Joey Logano‘s win ranks as the lowest rated fall Phoenix race since at least 2000 and the least-watched since at least 2001, falling below the previous marks of 2.5 and 4.2 million in 2010. In its previous airing on NBC a decade ago, the race did nearly twice as well with a 4.7 and 7.3 million.
It was the 11th straight Sprint Cup race to hit a multi-year low in ratings and viewership, and the 13th of the past 14. That excludes rainouts at Pocono, Bristol, Charlotte and Texas.
For the season, 21 of 30 races have hit multi-year lows in one or both measures — Las Vegas, Phoenix, Fontana, Texas, Bristol, Richmond, Charlotte, Michigan, Kentucky, Loudon, Watkins Glen, Michigan again, Darlington, Richmond, Chicagoland, Loudon again, Dover, Kansas, Talladega, Martinsville and now Phoenix. That does not include NASCAR All-Star Race, which also hit a low.
Beyond the multi-year low, Sunday’s race also delivered the second-worst Sprint Cup rating on a broadcast network since at least 2003 — ahead of only Kansas earlier in the year (2.1).
On the brighter side, the race was the highest rated and most-watched NASCAR telecast since Darlington on Labor Day weekend (2.8, 4.6M). Of course, given it was the second-to-last race of the season, that may not be saying much.
(Sun. numbers via ShowBuzz Daily 11/15)
