Ratings tied a record-low, but NASCAR scored a rare increase in viewership at Texas over the weekend.
NASCAR Cup Series racing from Texas pulled a 2.7 final rating and 4.5 million viewers on FOX Sunday afternoon, flat in ratings and up 4% in viewership from last year (2.7, 4.3M) but down 7% and 6% respectively from 2015 (2.9, 4.8M), both of which aired on Saturday nights.
Jimmie Johnson‘s win was just the second Cup Series race since last year’s Brickyard 400 to post an increase in viewership, joining the Daytona 500 (+5%).
Keep in mind last year’s race was delayed two hours due to rain and finished after 1 AM ET. This year’s race had its own hardship, airing directly opposite final round coverage of The Masters on CBS (6.8, 11.1M). It was the first time NASCAR has gone head-to-head with golf’s first major since 2006, when the same Texas race pulled a substantially stronger 5.4 and 8.7 million.
Despite the rare increase, Sunday’s numbers were still historically low. Excluding rainouts, the 2.7 rating is tied as the lowest ever for a Cup Series race on FOX (dates back to 2001), matching last year’s Texas race. Texas has now tied or set a NASCAR on FOX record-low in three straight years.
The 2.7 is also tied as the lowest in the 20-year history of the spring Texas race, again excluding rainouts. While viewership increased, it was still the second-smallest audience for the race since at least 2001 (figures prior to 2002 were not available).
(Wknd. numbers via ShowBuzz Daily 4.11)
