NASCAR Kentucky ratings hit a record-low last weekend.
NASCAR Cup Series racing from Kentucky averaged a 1.2 rating and 2.08 million viewers on NBCSN last Saturday night, down 8% in ratings and viewership from last year (1.3, 2.26M) and down 25% and 23% respectively from 2017 (1.6, 2.71M).
Kurt Busch‘s win ranks as the lowest rated and least-watched edition of the race (debuted in 2011). The previous lows were set last year. Since hitting a 2.6 and 3.98 million on TNT in 2013, ratings and viewership have declined in each subsequent year.
The 1.2 rating is tied as the second-lowest for any Cup Series race since at least 2000, ahead of only Richmond last fall (1.0).
The race also ranks as the least-watched of the season, excluding rainouts. The previous low was 2.18 million for Kansas on FS1 in May.
In a year when seven Cup Series races have increased over last season — the most at this point of the year since 2013 — a greater number have hit historic lows. Kentucky was the ninth race this season to set or tie an all-time or decade-plus low, joining the Daytona 500, Atlanta, Martinsville, Bristol, Richmond, Talladega, Kansas* and Pocono.
NASCAR still earned the third-largest sports audience of the weekend, behind Sunday’s Wimbledon coverage on ESPN (3.33M) and the competing MLB regional window on FOX (2.23M).
* While Kansas tied a record-low rating, viewership for that race increased over last year. So it counts among the seven races to have increased, and the nine to hit a historic low.
[Numbers from Nielsen via ShowBuzz Daily 7.16]
