NASCAR ratings dropped yet again last weekend.
Sunday’s NASCAR New Hampshire 301 earned a 1.5 rating and 2.5 million viewers on NBCSN, down 23% in ratings and 22% in viewership from last year (2.0, 3.2M) and down 28% and 24% respectively from 2016 (2.1, 3.3M).
Kevin Harvick‘s win was the lowest rated edition of the race in at least 20 years and the least-watched since at least 2000. Just five years ago the race had a substantially higher 3.2 and 4.9 million on TNT.
Keep in mind the start of Sunday’s race was delayed more than three hours due to rain. In a rarity, the delay may well have saved the race from even steeper declines. The scheduled 1 PM ET start — moved up from 2 PM to avoid the rain — would have put the race in direct competition with the final hour of the British Open, which peaked in the 1 PM hour at a 6.0 and 9.4 million.
As it is, the declines were not much steeper than in any other race this season. New Hampshire was the 16th of 18 Cup Series races this season — excluding rainouts — to decline double-digits. Each of those 15 has hit a multi-year low, with 14 of those falling to all-time or decade-plus lows.
So far this season, none of the nine Cup Series races on cable has exceeded a 1.7 rating. At the same point last year, only three of eight cable races had less than a 2.0.
[Numbers from Nielsen via ShowBuzz Daily 7.24]
