NASCAR ratings continued to improve last weekend, albeit with an assist from a scheduling change.
Last Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race from Texas earned a 2.2 rating and 3.65 million viewers on FOX, up 29% in ratings and viewership from last year on FS1 (1.7, 2.82M), but down 19% in both measures from 2017, the last time it aired on FOX (2.7, 4.53M).
Danny Hamlin‘s was the fourth of the last five Cup Series races to increase over last year, though it was the first of those four to move up from cable to broadcast.
Only four races all of last season increased, with the fourth bump not coming until Charlotte in September.
Even with the increase, the race still earned its second-lowest rating ever (dates back to 1997) and its second-smallest audience since at least 2001.
For the weekend, NASCAR was the top sporting event on any network outside of the NCAA Tournament. Head-to-head, it cruised past the final day of the PGA Tour/WGC Match Play Championships on NBC (1.3, 2.02M).
Greensboro, NC, led all markets with a 7.1 rating. Greenville, NC, ranked second at a 6.7, with Richmond, Va. (5.3), Charlotte (5.2) and Indianapolis (4.9) rounding out the top five.
[Numbers from Fox Sports]
