Still with me? It was blatant condescension towards what was arguably the most loyal fanbase in sports. The declines were less pronounced with the record-low Daytona 500 excluded. 1) Just like all the other major racing series in the world, NASCAR has become a money deal. He pointed out that despite the ratings decline, NASCAR achieved a "double-digit share increase" last year. For the first time in over a decade and a half, they seem to be headed in the right direction. . Now, NASCAR might say, Well, 3.759 million for a race in November, even if it is half as much as four years ago, is more than 0.000 viewers for no race. And ratings are slightly better overall when you include the Fox half, which is better than another plunge, as in 2018. NASCAR averaged 4.570 million viewers for Sunday afternoons event at Auto Club Speedway. Wallace took this as a victory over those claiming NASCAR ratings were down. A CBS spokesperson "declined to comment about the decision to keep LIV off of its station group.". Games on TNT are also down by more. So that's a positive viewership increase of 2%. I have been around and covered NASCAR for over two decades. By the measurements used today, NASCAR then is in a very good place. Dale Earnhardt Jr. retired at the end of the 2017 season. The XFL also had a better Week 2 performance than the 2019 Alliance of American . But the initial Chase, an artificial and contrived points reset, was despised by fans. . There's a lot of people that are looking around and understand that the economics of our sport probably are in a better place now than they've been in a long time.. Ill start with a few things that I dont believe caused the decline of NASCAR, then Ill share what I think really did. Bookmark this page for NASCAR ratings as another year of racing is officially underway! Yes, you had to be able to prove that you knew what you were doing out there but if your car passed technical inspection and you could either qualify to race through time trials or qualifying races, you were in. | The Truck Series averaged 594,000, up 16% from last year (511K) and 13% from 2019 (549K). The half-mile dirt track was a success on many levels. I was critical of the Chase in plenty of columns, but I felt like I really got the point across with this one about it. TV ratings for the Richmond race were said to be down 12% from the same race in 2015 and 44% from 2014. . There are not many. Elliott is a great driver and a likable kid, and he doesnt take any craphe doesnt shy away from wrecking a driver like Denny Hamlin if the situation called for it. Photo credit: Fast Eddie Maloney on Best Running / CC BY-SA The Patriots domination was great for the NFL. Compared to last years fourth race of the season, Phoenix, ratings fell a tick (from 2.7) and viewership 5% (from 4.58M). All that said, the unveiling of the Car of Tomorrow in 2007 certainly didnt help. Compared to NASCARs 18-49 demographic, IndyCar has an average of 24%, while they are at 20.1%. Photo credit: royal_broil on Best Running / CC BY-SA NASCAR Ratings Down: Decline All Season for Fox McCord Roberts June 5, 2009 Last week's Dover race marked the 16th consecutive week of NASCAR Sprint Cup racing on television that saw a major. That's the first time in a decade that that has happened, Hebrst said. The Decline of NASCAR, Non-Reason #1: The Cars Are Too Spec I'll submit that this is a reason a few fans I know stopped watching the sport. The fan base that is paying attention to our sport now than probably two or three years agopart of that is the economic model of our sport is a little bit more sounder, on solid footing; the introduction to the Next Gen car, it brings on new owners like Justin Marks and Michael Jordan, Pitbull et cetera. It took time, maybe too much time, but NASCAR is finally addressing the three biggest reasons for the decline of the sport. NASCARs NextGen car shows promise and one huge issue, NASCARs Daytona 500 ratings indicate a worrisome trend. Weekly races at smaller locales have come off even worse. Labor Day is in Darlington where it belongs, and Darlington is hosting two events again. Interestingly, it has been said that NASCAR has been getting younger (the drivers) and older (the fans) at the same time. And maybe this time, they will have learned from their mistakes. Photo credit: Zach Catanzareti Photo on Best Running / CC BY-SA, Posted in NASCAR, Sports NASCAR vehicles evolved over the decades to become safer for the drivers and spectators, the result of which is that cars today are uniform, standardized vehicles with their bodies basically just shells on top of a chassis. 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. But plate racing still sucksnot only do plates produce multi-car crashes every event, they pervert the standings because of it. It's no secret that NASCAR is experiencing a variety of issues related to its popularity, despite a slight recent uptick in TV ratings. (Photo by ISC Images & Archives via Getty Images), ISC Archives/CQ-Roll Call Group via Getty Images, landscape. That would have a big effect on viewership overall. Advertising and sponsorship deals are the lifeblood of spectator sports, that is why the TV spots for the Superbowl are some of the most expensive in television. On Monday, the Bristol Motor Speedway dirt track hosted the NASCAR Cup Series. Oxford Gold . The full Xfinity Series season averaged 1.04 million viewers, up 9% from last year (952K) and 2019 (954K). 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 . Overall, it is another positive and negative week. The last race at. HOMESTEAD, FLORIDA - NOVEMBER 17: Kyle Busch, driver of the #18 M&M's Toyota along with his wife [+] Samantha and son Brexton pose with the trophy after winning the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Championship at Homestead Speedway on November 17, 2019 in Homestead, Florida. It could be argued that Junior was the sports last link to its tobacco-chewing, Southern past; once Jeff Gordon tore up the sport, drivers started to appear from every corner of the country. Photo credit: tequilamike on Visual hunt / CC BY More to the point: both sports need to be patient . "While it's easy to cite 'cord-cutting' as a catch-all explanation for what's going on, keep in mind, Nielsen ratings do incorporate streaming services, albeit imperfectly . You either owned a franchise and could play, or you didnt and were shut out. It was during this timethat "Bootleggers"- those whoproduce anddeliver prohibited whiskey/alcohol also had modified delivery cars that were fast enough to be able to evade, outrun and escape law enforcement should they be spotted. These fans would attend a race, then go sightseeing around the town so as to make the trip more worthwhile and as a result, even more money is required to be put in the budget in order to cover the costs for a dew days hotel stay. Brandon Kochkodin. A fan of cars and bikes, and most anything with an engine, he divides his time between work and family. In fact, the current car lends itself to some pretty good racing. NBC did the best with what it was given, really, but there were few compelling storylines. . Related: NASCAR power rankings during the 2023 season. It didnt help that a hugely popular driver underperformed, but that shouldnt have caused this much of a free fall. The last race at Auto Club took place in 2020 and had an average of 4.781 million viewers for the third event of the season. In NASCARs pre-1990s heyday, when it was still very much a regional sport, manufacturer identity was a big thing. Photo credit: balpeck on Best Running / CC BY-SA However, like Johnsons dominance, I doubt that this would have been as much of a problem were it not for other factors that were far more damaging. 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. With fewer fans at the track, you might think TV ratings would continue to rise and maybe even increase as those fans turned on the TV instead of spending money to go to the track. There was suddenly lots and lots of prize money available and other full-time competitors like Bill Elliott, Dale Earnhardt and Darrell Waltrip joined up to give chase. Photo credit: Zach Catanzareti Photo on Visualhunt / CC BY-SA One of Brian Frances very first acts as CEO of NASCAR sealed his doom as a respectable heir to a business, and nothing he did for the rest of his tenure would change that perception. Meaning that in todays world even the smallest increase in a TV rating is a really big deal when considering how overall viewership is measured. NASCAR scraped bottom. Fox sees 12% decline over last year's ratings: Fox and FS1 for its package of 15 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series races this season averaged 4.9 million viewers, down 12% from 5.6 million last . These Are The Reasons Why NASCAR Is Losing Fans, "Bootleggers"- those whoproduce anddeliver prohibited whiskey/alcohol, colorful beginnings to what is now a billion-dollar sporting event, 15 Abandoned And Forgotten NASCAR Race Tracks, 15 Rules Every NASCAR Employee Has To Follow, 10 NASCAR Drivers With The Most Wins (& How Much They Won), A New Toyota Celica Concept Shows What A Pure Toyota Sports Car Could Be Without BMW, A Modern Plymouth Road Runner Like This Could Shake Up Today's Pony Car Market, EXCLUSIVE: This Toyota 2000GT Rendering Brings An Icon Into Modern Day, The 5 Worst Ford Mustangs To Buy Used (Plus The 5 Best), 10 Used German Performance Cars We'd Buy Over An American Muscle Car Any Day. Photo credit: Zach Catanzareti Photo on Visualhunt.com / CC BY-SA The same race last year attracted 4.154 million viewers, and the 2017 race drew 4.662 million both of which had established respective viewership lows for the 36th and final race of the too-dang-long Cup season. LOS ANGELES, CA - MARCH 14: (L-R) Brian Herbst, NASCAR managing director, broadcasting, Scott Warfield, NASCAR managing director, social and digital content, Brad Keselowski, driver of the #2 Team Penske Ford Fusion, Jill Gregory, NASCAR senior vice president and chief marketing officer and Laura Froelich, Twitter global head of sports partnerships, pose for a photo after NASCAR announces plans to live-stream in-car cameras on Twitter for the 2018 season on March 14, 2018 in Los Angeles, California. 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. Danica turned out to be a huge bustas many people who followed the sport closely, including yours truly, predicted she would be. While NASCARs ratings were a record low for a second event of the season, the NTT IndyCar Series found themselves with a massive jump in ratings. Veterans like Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick are future Hall of Fame drivers with fairly large followings, and a strong crop of young drivers are making names for themselves. Though fewer fans were able to attend in person, with the improvements in internet bandwidth, and the rise of more and more cable channels, some were finding other ways to digest their favorite sports. After years of seeing its once enormous audience dwindle to almost nothing, NASCAR is finally righting the ship. The presidential and general elections, which need to be held no later than June 18, come at a tough time for Erdogan who has seen a decline in his ratings because of skyrocketing inflation. Viewership and attendance of NASCAR have been on the decline ever since 2006, and some think the 2021 boost was only due to people seeking more outdoor activity . One shining example was a 2010 Dover racea playoff race, no lesswhere ESPN broke away with 11 laps to go in a very much undecided event for an ad break. 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