The numbers were nothing to brag about, but NASCAR will gladly take an increase for its highest-profile race.
The 2017 Daytona 500 scored a 6.5 overnight rating on FOX Sunday afternoon, up 7% from last year (6.1), but down from 2015 (7.3) and the event’s third-lowest overnight in at least nine years (overnights prior to 2009 were not available).
Kurt Busch‘s win ranks ahead of only last year and 2014 (5.6) over that span.
Daytona 500 overnights have now increased every-other-year dating back to 2011, but those gains have been largely canceled out by declines the following year. A 17% bump in 2011 was followed by a 6% slip in 2012. A 30% jump for Danica Patrick‘s top-ten finish in 2013 was followed by a 44% plummet for the rain-delayed 2014 race. Another 30% increase in 2015 was followed by a 16% drop last year. The overall effect is that Daytona has not yet fallen completely off the cliff, but is not back on solid ground either.
Compared to other sports, Sunday’s 6.5 was not in shouting distance of last year’s lowest NBA Finals (11.8) or World Series (10.5) overnights. It also trailed all three games of last year’s NCAA Final Four (Villanova/Oklahoma was the lowest at 7.1), the final round of last year’s Masters (8.5) and the race portion of last year’s Kentucky Derby (9.3). It did top two of the recent “New Year’s Six” college football games, the Cotton Bowl (3.2) and Sugar Bowl (6.1). As goes without saying, it trounced the Indy 500 (4.1).
In the past six seasons, final ratings for the Daytona 500 have ranged from an 8% increase over the overnights (last year) to a 1% decline (2013). That would put this year’s race on pace to finish anywhere from a 6.4 to a 7.0 rating — the third-lowest in the history of the race.
(Sun. numbers from Fox SportS PR/Twitter 2.27)
