For a second-straight weekend, NASCAR ratings increased by double-digits over last year.
Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race from Kentucky averaged a 1.6 rating and 2.58 million viewers on FS1, up a third in ratings and 24% in viewership from last year (1.2, 2.08M) and up 23% and 14% respectively from 2018 (1.3, 2.26M). Both of those races aired on Saturday nights and on NBCSN.
Rookie Cole Custer’s surprise win delivered the largest audience for the race in three years (2017: 2.71M) and tied the highest rating in four (2016: 1.9). It was the first race since the Auto Club 400 on March 1 to hit a multi-year high.
Not counting a 2013 make-up race, this year marked the first time that the Kentucky race has taken place on a Sunday afternoon, rather than a Saturday night. Saturday races are traditionally a weaker draw than their Sunday counterparts.
Kentucky was the second-straight Cup Series race to post an increase over last year, though the previous week’s jump for the Brickyard 400 was largely due to a scheduling shift away from NFL competition in the fall.
Despite the stronger numbers, Kentucky ranks as the least-watched Sunday race this season. The only races to average a smaller audience took place on a Saturday or during the week.
The race was the most-watched sportscast of the weekend, narrowly ahead of tape-delayed final round PGA Tour coverage on CBS (2.52M). The PGA Tour event had a higher rating (1.65).
[Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 7.14]
