NASCAR’s soft start to the season continued at Phoenix.
Last Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race from Phoenix averaged a 2.3 rating and 3.86 million viewers on FOX, marking the lowest rated and least-watched edition of the race (dates back to 2005). Ratings fell 15% and viewership 16% from the previous low set last year, when the race was the fourth of the season.
This year’s race was the fifth of the season. Last year’s fifth race was Darlington in mid-May, one of the first major sporting events after the wave of cancellations and postponements last March. It drew an unusually-high 3.7 and 6.32 million. Compared to the fifth race in 2019 — the Auto Club 400 from Fontana — ratings and viewership fell 8% from a 2.5 and 4.18 million.
So far this season, all five Cup Series races have declined from the corresponding week of the previous season.
NASCAR ranked third for the weekend among sportscasts behind the NCAA Tournament Selection Show on CBS (5.46M) and the final round of the PGA Tour Players Championship on NBC (4.59M).
In other NASCAR action, last Saturday’s Xfinity Series race from Phoenix averaged a 0.7 and 1.189 million on FS1 — down a tick in ratings and a fraction of a percent in viewership from last year (0.8, 1.192M).
[Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 3.16]
