Dale Earnhardt Jr. has accomplished a great deal in his professional life, but turning NASCAR ratings around may be too much to ask.
Last Saturday’s NASCAR Cup Series Kentucky 400 earned a 1.3 rating and 2.3 million viewers on NBCSN, down 19% in ratings and 16% in viewership from last year (1.6, 2.7M) and down 32% and 29% respectively from 2016 (1.9, 3.2M).
Martin Truex Jr.‘s win ranks as the lowest rated and least-watched edition of the race (dates back to 2011).
Kentucky was the 15th of 17 Cup Series races this season to decline double-digits to a multi-year low. Of those 15, it was the 13th to hit an all-time or decade-plus low.
The Kentucky race has never been a particularly impressive draw, but as recently as five years ago it had a 2.6 rating and 4.0 million viewers. When it debuted in 2011, it had a 3.0 and 5.0 million.
So far, Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s presence in the broadcast booth has done little to reverse NASCAR’s downward trend. Two of his first three Cup Series broadcasts have declined, with the lone exception benefitting from a scheduling change that moved it away from NFL competition.
Head-to-head, NASCAR trailed competing Major League Baseball coverage on FOX (1.5, 2.4M).
[Numbers from ShowBuzz Daily 7.17]
