It could not repeat last week’s three-year high, but NASCAR scored another increase in ratings on NBCSN.
Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race from Martinsville (Va.) averaged a 1.4 rating and 2.25 million viewers on NBC, per Nielsen fast-nationals — up a tick in ratings and 5% in viewership from last year (1.3, 2.15M) but down 18% and 19% respectively from 2017 (1.7, 2.78M).
Martin Truex Jr.’s win, which peaked with 2.72 million viewers from 6:30-6:45 PM ET, was the 14th Cup Series race this season to increase over last year — the most in a single season since 2013 (20). By comparison, only sixteen races increased in the previous three seasons combined.
Including the streaming audience of 23,000 (+44%), the race averaged 2.28 million (+5%).
Excluding rainouts, NASCAR races are now averaging 2.52 million viewers across NBC’s TV and digital platforms (+4%). That follows a 2% bump for the Fox Sports portion of the schedule earlier in the year.
Even with the increase, the race topped only last year as the lowest rated at Martinsville since at least 1999 and the least-watched since at least 2000. That includes the spring race. Ratings and viewership are less than half of what they were seven years ago, when the fall race had a 3.1 and 4.92 million.
[Nielsen estimates from NBC Sports PR 10.28]
