Gordon wasnt the only driver who turned in a spectacular season-long performance only to have it nullified. It's no secret that NASCAR is experiencing a variety of issues related to its popularity, despite a slight recent uptick in TV ratings. And then, in 1979, came flag-to-flag TV coverage of the Daytona 500 and other NASCAR Cup races. Compared to the last time the Brickyard 400 was run in July (the 2017 race), Sunday's ratings were down 21 percent and viewership was off 23 percent. NASCAR moved away from tracks where drivers push and shove and fight both other racecars and the track, and moved to aero-dependent speedways where engineers in the garage determined winners. Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. In 1994, there were six events held at intermediate tracks of 1.5-2 miles in length. Last years season-opener at Barber only averaged 914 thousand viewers which is almost an extra 500 thousand. With 38 race weekends, NASCAR doesn't take too many in-season . Racing Ratings By Phillip Bupp on 06/23/2022. The sport has grown from. Young fans want to watch the action. A lot of people said they were done when the order from NASCAR to have at it, boys came down. The league's first game of the 2023 slate, the Vipers vs. Renegades, drew 1.54 . In the FOX/NBC era of NASCAR TV (since 2001), Daytona 500 ratings peaked in 2006 on NBC with 19.4 million viewers and an 11.3 rating. By: GP Racing. There's a catch, though. Please email the author at nmcdonald@thestar.ca, Copyright 2023 | Powered by CityMediaInc.com, Happy Birthday, GM Canada, and thanks for the (many) ride(s), Racing Roundup: Great Grand Prix in Austin, despite actions by stewards; Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame induction video; Alonso wont drive in IndyCar in 2019 or ever. Fortunately, NASCAR is finally addressing this. Not only is this tolerated by NASCAR but encouraged. NASCAR moved the Brickyard 400 to September . In case you werent there or dont remember, in 2004 NASCAR welcomed their new series sponsor, Nextel (now Sprint), with a new playoff system called the Chase. Last year's 500 was still the. In 2007, an average of 16.4 million viewers tuned in to watch The Daytona 500, but by 2014 that number had fallen by more than 50% to an average of 8.3 million viewers per race. Overall, NASCAR brought in 114.231 million average viewers throughout the entire 2022 season which marks its. Compared to the fourth Xfinity race of last season, from Phoenix, ratings fell a tick (from 0.8) but viewership increased (from 1.19M). While viewership was down overall, it should be noted that the share the percentage of homes tuned to the race in the average minute out of the total number of homes using televisions increased 8% from last year and 11% from 2019. Overall, it is another positive and negative week. (It did.) Meanwhile, NASCAR ratings . It was another case of costly arrogance; as much as fans loved NASCAR, they didnt love it enough to put up with an endlessly saturated marketing campaign featuring occasional snippets of racing each week. Ill submit that this is a reason a few fans I know stopped watching the sport. Kyle Busch, NASCARs black hat, won his second title. In a piece published in the Athletic last week, Ethan Strauss reported that the ratings for network NBA broadcasts have declined by 45 percent since 2011-12. However, NASCAR has been taking major strides as the on-track product is improving, the schedule is being changed, bold decisions are being made, and communication between each party is better. People love a winner, they love to hate a winner, and they love to see a dynasty get taken down. Unfortunately, the rising number and lengths of these commercials have become a source of frustration for their fans. I can also dispute other reasons for it that I see being offered today. It may be difficult for younger people to imagine it, but the sport was once poised to overtake the NFL in popularity. NASCAR still attempts to do the best it can when it comes to getting the word out. Dale Earnhardt Jr. retired at the end of the 2017 season. We try to do is take the complex and boil it down to something that is more easily understood by the fanbase.. For instance: The non-stop promotion of Danica Patrick, as if she was the Second Coming (she wasnt), turned off a lot of fans. 2) When NASCAR established the franchise system in 2016, the league essentially became a closed shop. which is a 50 percent decline . They got famous because of word-of-mouth (Hey, didja hear about that new kid blowin em away over at Hickory?), weekly newspapers like National Speed Sport News (called simply Speed Sport and whos Editors Notebook by the late Chris Economaki was a Must Read) and magazines like Stock Car Racing. Jimmie Johnson was a hallmark of ruthless efficiency in his prime, winning seven titles and five in a row. But for whatever reason, Junior not only didnt measure up to his fathers formidable reputation, he rarely even established himself as a contender. The same story goes for NASCAR as the adverts that major companies place during their televised races are a major source of income for the organization and the teams. The season ended with two flat tires. Herbst adds that small swings in the numbers show the steadiness of viewership week to week, and thats a very good thing. Or NASCAR could pretty much keep things the way they are and hope to hold on to whoever watches through 2024, when the massive TV contract expires. Furthermore, their retirements are probably not the sole reason for NASCAR's viewership issues either. The disappointing ratings continue a downward trend in Daytona 500 viewership, which has been steadily declining since Fox scored 18.7 million viewers in 2005 with a household rating of 10.9 . On declining ratings throughout NASCAR and other sports. The previous two races the Daytona Roval and Homestead-Miami posted double-digit increases over the same Cup Series stops last season, but those races had the benefit of moving up from the lower-rated summer portion of the schedule. The trajectory is good. NBC said its season viewership averages of 18 Cup races in 2019 (except for weather-affected races at Daytona and Darlington) was 2.57 million, the same as in 2018. The XFL's ratings were disappointing in Week One. Much like Kyle Petty, he ultimately became more known for his good-guy personality and his lineage than for his achievements on the racetrack. In fact, the current car lends itself to some pretty good racing. Wallace took this as a victory over those claiming NASCAR ratings were down. He said its important to look at the bigger picture, a bigger picture that shows how media is consumed. Next years championship race will be held in Phoenix, and even though the 2020 race should draw a packed house of 42,000, or 7,000 more than the estimated crowd at Homestead, fans have said they dont like the racing at Phoenix as much. NASCAR Home. Photo credit: royal_broil on Best Running / CC BY-SA When added to metrics from an agency known as Joyce Julius & Associates, which specializes in measurement and analysis of media promotions that showed just how much TV exposure a sponsor was getting, NASCAR teams were able to justify the high cost of the sponsorships they were charging. I dont often see NASCARs ill-conceived playoff idea as a reason people cite for the decline of NASCAR in articles I read these days, but I promise you, that was not the case when I covered the sport. Most TV consumption, really all TV consumption of TV of tier one sports properties is down simply because TV consumption just broadly is down. Related: NASCAR power rankings during the 2023 season. No longer do young NASCAR racers start at their local tracks and work their way up. The Yankees were always good for baseball. The XFL's ratings were disappointing in Week One. No longer could a late-model driver from Syracuse or Spokane get a car and a team together and show up to try to qualify for any of NASCARs races. The Fox's coverage of the race won by Michael McDowell on the last lap averaged a 2.8 rating and 4.83 million viewers per Sports Media Watch. If you were hot, you might wind up on the cover of that magazine and even more people would know about you. Photo credit: wjarrettc on Visual hunt / CC BY The XFL also had a better Week 2 performance than the 2019 Alliance of American . Maybe there is a segment of fans who tune in for death-defying calamities, but that has always been a part of the sport and still is. Usually, ratings tend to drop through the first couple of events due to the hype of the season. The markets simply couldnt support them anymore. Mark Martin has the best take on the decline in NASCAR attendance, ratings Comment Leave it to one of the coolest customers ever to sit behind the wheel in NASCAR to come up with an. Not only in the business world, but in all sports as well. It would have saved a lot of time. The crowd sold out it's 30% capacity soon after the event was . Related:15 Abandoned And Forgotten NASCAR Race Tracks. Atlanta has had some classics, but that was partly by virtue of the venue hosting the championship race, such as Alan Kulwickis unforgettable title win in 1992. Strauss also reported that TNT's viewership is down 40 percent since the 2011-12 season, and ESPN has seen a decline of about 20 percent during the same time. Not all, of course, but most. U.S. NBA Social Justice Poll. When you use this link to shop on Amazon, youll help subsidize this great websiteat no extra charge to you. Photo credit: Darryl W. Moran Photography on Visual Hunt / CC BY-ND The problem was the tracks that replaced themnearly all of them were characterless, cookie-cutter speedways where aero package ruled the day. OK, here we go. As a result, teams with more resourcessuch as Hendrick Motorsports and Roush Racingwon big for years. Kyle Larsons win, which averaged 3.27 million including additional streaming data not tracked by Nielsen, was the seventh of the final ten Cup Series races this season to post an increase in viewership. I cant imagine any fan of Dale Earnhardt Sr.and there were a lot of themnot wanting to see the sport take every measure it could to keep drivers safe after Daytona 2001. Since earning a 7.7 rating and 13. 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