And the season will conclude at Phoenix again, a more exciting venue than Miami where the finale had been for years. Fox reported a modest 2% increase in viewership of comparable Cup race from 2018 to 2019, but it needs to be noted that Foxs part of the schedule does not collide with NFL and college football, which NASCAR fans also enjoy watching. which is a 50 percent decline . 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. Racing is still pretty danged dangerous. In fact, Nascar could just dump it all on Netflix - which, according to one study, is responsible for half the decline of TV viewership alone. It was, but even that wasnt the point. He is likely to build a fan base fast. On Monday, the Bristol Motor Speedway dirt track hosted the NASCAR Cup Series. The half-mile dirt track was a success on many levels. The rise of social media as a tool, pastime, or source of information and entertainment has certainly affected most sports, NASCAR included. With his brilliant head wrench Chad Knaus on the pit box, the #48 team for years remorselessly laid the field to waste when playoff time started. Photo credit: Zach Catanzareti Photo on Visualhunt / CC BY-SA The television ratings for sports in 2020 reflect the poll results and the frustration many feel toward the constant sloganeering and political pandering. The erosion is even more pronounced when you . People rooted for car brands as well as drivers, and car companies believed in the whole win on Sunday, sell on Monday mantra. Below, we take a look at the NASCAR ratings over the course of the 2023 season with an up-to-date analysis of each event. And I said all that without even bringing up that profoundly irritating cartoon gopher. No longer tied to a box atop the TV or a diary that viewers filled out, the company started to figure out how to report who was watching on TV, on cable, and on streaming platforms. It could be just Mike Joy and Jeff Gordon up in the booth, which would sound like a library compared to NBC.). Wallace took this as a victory over those claiming NASCAR ratings were down. Photo credit: Zach Catanzareti Photo on Best Running / CC BY-SA, Posted in NASCAR, Sports Earlier this month, NASCAR said the Confederate flag no longer will be allowed at its events. Danica turned out to be a huge bustas many people who followed the sport closely, including yours truly, predicted she would be. . The NASCAR ratings for the 2022 season are the best they have been in four years. And stage races have also not gone over well with purists. Or at least to give the appearance of it. 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. Those numbers of course, dont tell the entire story. 1) Just like all the other major racing series in the world, NASCAR has become a money deal. However, these deals may be stopping the brand from adapting to consumers' changing viewing habits. The XFL also had a better Week 2 performance than the 2019 Alliance of American . 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. This is convenient if the city where a follower lives in has a track, but for those that live a long distance from NASCAR venues, the cost to go to watch them is gradually becoming more expensive due to the continually rising prices of fuel. The household share was up 9% compared to 2022 and represented the largest share for the second race of the season since 2017. 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. It was not a great race. . Dynasties like Johnsons arent bad for a sportunless the sport doesnt know how to market them. The truth was of course far from that. Nepotism isnt dead in NASCAR. Ricky Rudd, Ken Schrader, Geoff Bodine, Rusty Wallace and Trevor Boys were among several dozen drivers whose names soon became familiar, if not famous. All four Cup Series races this season have declined from the corresponding weeks of last season, though this weeks drop was the smallest thus far. The one thing, though, that all those racing drivers had in common Petty, Pearson, Parsons, Bodine, Waltrip, Earnhardt, Wallace and the rest is that they all started racing on local tracks and created reputations for themselves as hard chargers who were winners. Created and Designed by, Solving NASCARs Racetrack Problem, Part 2 Happy Hour Motor Speedway, on What Caused The Decline of NASCAR? Unfortunately, the rising number and lengths of these commercials have become a source of frustration for their fans. Admittedly, several of these rule changes have been beneficial to the sport, but some have unfortunately come across as marketing stunts that have turned away fans. NASCARs popularity is down and the ratings reflect it. . Dover is a 1-mile track, and 11 laps does not take long. In other NASCAR action, the Xfinity Series race at Las Vegas turned in a 0.7 and 1.28 million. Motorsports encompass a wide variety of classes that offernumerous choices for fans ofauto racing. The sport has grown from. These figures paint a troubling trend that NASCAR is on a long term downtrend it has yet to recover from. Standings. or Disney plus; there's more competition for those eyeballs then there's ever been. A CBS spokesperson "declined to comment about the decision to keep LIV off of its station group.". Brian Herbst is the senior vice president for media and productions for NASCAR. However, the second race of the 2022 season saw a more significant drop in viewership compared to previous seasons. It took time, maybe too much time, but NASCAR is finally addressing the three biggest reasons for the decline of the sport. You can contact him here or on the Sports Media Watch Twitter page. In 2008 Kyle Busch smoked the field for the first 26 races, winning eight of them and setting the NASCAR world on fire with his brash and unapologetic racing style. While this already marks the third time that NASCAR has seen the average viewership go down, there is one major positive to take away from it. No longer do young NASCAR racers start at their local tracks and work their way up. Along with that came an all-important metric: the Nielsen ratings. That isnt insignificant when it comes to explaining the decline of NASCAR. NASCAR did (and still does) market the possibility of spectacular wrecks. A driver dominates a race until the last lap and then gets crashed on purpose by the guy who goes on to win. Unless you are a die-hard fan of the sport, people would rather watch condensed snippets of the race or read the highlights instead of actually spending time watching or subscribing to NASCAR real-time races. 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. It may be difficult for younger people to imagine it, but the sport was once poised to overtake the NFL in popularity. And the same is true for NASCAR. who has many relatives from the South, was merely offering his opinion. This year's Daytona 500, for example, drew 4.8 million viewers a. NASCAR rose to prominence in the 1980s and 90s as TV became more and more involved. 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. . The share has become an increasingly relevant metric to sports leagues in recent months, as it is a metric immune from the broader trend of viewers watching less linear television. We all know what Im talking about. [Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 3.9]. 1) Just like all the other major racing series in the world, NASCAR has become a money deal. It makes a world of difference watching on TV. I covered NASCAR for six seasons for two excellent racing websites, Thats Racin (the Charlotte Observers racing site) and the Frontstretch. After a marked decline in the middle of the previous decade, NASCAR's television numbers have been on the rebound over the past five years. That marks a 10% decline compared to the year-ago 87.1 million viewers, and a 16% drop compared to the analogous period during the 2018-19 campaign. Sunday, when the big-league Monster Energy Series took the green flag, it was better but there were still an awful lot of empty seats. 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. And based on what we see today, NASCAR seems to be on an upward trajectory and shows no signs of slowing down. Formula 1 does not have a single commercial during their races on ESPN. Many fans, especially those who might want to disparage the sport, dont understand that just because the TV numbers are down or not at the sky-high levels they once were, doesnt mean NASCAR is facing any sort of loss of popularity. Since this is a non-ideological blog, I wont get into the things that the NFL, NBA and MLB have recently done to drive away a significant portion of their fanbases. And while some ran their own cars, most were independent contractors who had their expenses paid by their car owner and then split the winnings (that division of money was usually 60-40) with said owner, who paid the bills. 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. Certain segments of fans, and media, began to cry that sky was falling. I dont need to tell anyone who was a fan in the 2000s this, but NASCARs broadcasts at the time may have been the worst in the history of sports. Yes, NASCAR actually believed an artificial points reset after two thirds of the season was the move that was going to catapult them past the NFL. This includes the total viewership, the percentage being up or down compared to last year, and extra information that can range from unfortunate circumstances for television coverage to the household share. Mike Joy is an outstanding announcer, and it was never a big deal for a fan to mute Darrell Waltrips exponentially annoying boogity boogity boogity! at the green flag. Interestingly, it has been said that NASCAR has been getting younger (the drivers) and older (the fans) at the same time. The various platforms of social media have been a convenient and fast way to obtain information and entertainment on a particular sporting event. TV ratings for the Richmond race were said to be down 12% from the same race in 2015 and 44% from 2014. . The markets simply couldnt support them anymore. The news sort of heads downhill from there. It was the first NCS race on the dirt in 50 years. And while 2020 has been anything but usual especially in the sports world, NASCAR was the one sport that didnt suffer a significant ratings drop. But it's an uphill fight for us and a lot of other sports properties. That doesnt mean they dont have talent, or arent brave. You also dont often see post-race fisticuffs after races at Kansas or Vegas like you might at Martinsville or Bristol. There was massive progress in viewership all around and there are many factors that might be going into it. 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. Last Sundays Cup Series finale from Phoenix averaged a 1.95 rating and 3.21 million viewers on NBC, up 4% in ratings and 5% in viewership from last year (1.9, 3.06M) and the highest rated and most-watched fall Phoenix race since 2018 (2.0, 3.31M). For the first time this season, NASCAR was not the top sporting event of the weekend, trailing the NBA All-Star Game on TNT and TBS (3.1, 5.94M). Yes, sports ratings as a whole are down, but NASCAR's fall is alarming: Daytona 500 viewership from 2001 to 2009 ranged from 16 to 19 million. You couldnt entirely blame NASCAR for no longer holding events in places like North Wilkesboro or Rockingham or even Darlington, which lost a race on the schedule for several years. Yes, a team can still dominate all season and lose a championship to a flat tire, but at least its not just an artificial points reset. NASCARs NextGen car shows promise and one huge issue, NASCARs Daytona 500 ratings indicate a worrisome trend. If they hadnt, youd probably be reading articles today about the decline of Coca-Cola too. Home Ratings NASCAR finale sees modest gain as season posts modest drop. Its not often noticed, but it was definitely noticed by Jeff Gordon fans: had NASCAR not implemented the Chase, the driver of the iconic #24 could have been the one standing aside Dale Earnhardt and Richard Petty today with seven titles, instead of his protg Jimmie Johnson. . 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. "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 . Photo credit: sidehike on Visual hunt / CC BY-SA In 2006, for instance, more than 19 million people tuned in to watch the Daytona 500 on TV; in 2018, only a little more than nine million watched. IndyCar is seeing huge success as an open-wheel Motorsport, just like Formula 1. UPDATE: The Daytona 500 posted only a modest decline in ratings and viewership, but that was still enough to make it one of the least-watched ever. Home Media FOX NASCAR hits Las Vegas low. Three of the four drivers in the championship race were also in the 2018 race, and three of the four drivers were in Toyotas. (Just in case you were wondering, Fox is unlikely to name a replacement for Darrell Waltrip if he is replaced, that is though we should find out more next month. Ousting Brian France, who created the Chase and presided over the sports decline, was no small part of that. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images), 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. NASCAR scraped bottom. Traveling out of town to attend a NASCAR event would sometimes require staying at a hotel in order to maximize the time and effort spent during getting there. As one of motorsport's most popular race series, NASCAR has a long and colorful history that dates to the US prohibition erain the 1930s. But plate racing still sucksnot only do plates produce multi-car crashes every event, they pervert the standings because of it. The sport no longer has Dale Earnhardt Jr. or Jimmie Johnson, so theres an opportunity for new fan favorites to emerge, formed by on-track performance rather than sentiment. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images). Up until the middle of the 21st century the measured pairs of eyeballs watching NASCAR on TV were counted, analyzed and, for the most part, cheered. So what caused the decline of NASCAR to the point where the sport is desperately trying to remain relevant? So here are three actual reasons for the decline of NASCAR. The future of IndyCar seems to be brighter when it comes to younger people. The season averaged 2.866 million sans-Daytona, down 1% from last year (2.91M) and a fraction of a percent from 19 (2.871M). 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. So no, Johnsons domination wasnt directly a factor in the decline of NASCAR but their failure to market it most definitely was. ), and a race at the concrete venue of Nashville for the first time. You may opt-out by. On declining ratings throughout NASCAR and other sports. This brought even more attention and money to the sport and school was soon out. Now, only the economic elite are allowed to enter the Inner Sanctum and if theres one thing NASCAR used to abhor, it was elitism of any kind. Its safe to say this is not ideal for the sport and there should be some concern on why ratings continue to fall. Feb 25, 2023, 2:33 AM. And as recently as 2013, the race drew 16.5. 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. 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. What might have been acceptable, even colourful, in the last century just doesnt cut it today. But theyve also improved the schedule, the broadcasts, and the method of determining a champion. The Yankees were always good for baseball. Jerseyball Millvilles Mike Trout and Aaron Cox, Precision Pistol Shooting For Greatness, The Power of Fun Dave Raymond, The Original Phillie Phanatic, Being Relentless The HEADstrong Foundation, Surviving Until Tuesday Sergeant Andrew Einstein. And one other thing about NASCAR in those days: the races were open to anybody who could qualify. While retired drivers still are visible within the world of NASCAR acting as team managers, commentators, or guests, without the familiar presence of these stars on the track, people can, and have lost some level of interest in NASCAR. If any single event hastened the decline of NASCAR, it was Indy 2008. That exposure now comes not just from TV, but through streaming platforms, attendance, and even social media. OTHER VIEWS? Most notably, Sunday was an all-time low in viewership for the second race of a NASCAR season ever. Interestingly, it has been said that NASCAR has been getting younger (the drivers) and older (the fans) at the same time. Now, they buy their way in. Its not so much that the points reset NASCAR introduced in 2004 was a monumentally stupid idea. If you want to attribute the decline of NASCAR to arrogant leadership, look no further than that single act. 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. In 2019, that number had dropped to just 2.92 million. And maybe this time, they will have learned from their mistakes. Those moments generate interestand rivalries, which every sport needs. Not all, of course, but most. When combined, it shows that NASCAR is in a pretty good place. Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. Schedule/Results. When you use this link to shop on Amazon, youll help subsidize this great websiteat no extra charge to you. I have been around and covered NASCAR for over two decades. Internal surveys show that 75 percent of Nascar fans overall approve of next year's schedule -- one that includes a dirt race at Bristol -- and 90 percent of the 18 to 34 demographic approves. The drops: 10% in one year, 19% in two years, 38% in three years, and, good golly Miss Molly, 51% since 2015, when NBC picked up the second half of the season in a giant 10-year contract, with Fox. The crowd sold out it's 30% capacity soon after the event was . Covered race cars from the NASCAR Xfinity Series sit parked on pit road during a rain delay before the start . While Nielsen was undergoing its transformation other smaller agencies stepped into fill the void. Related: NASCARs NextGen car shows promise and one huge issue. but the mainstream media claiming the political/social justice shift in sports has nothing to do with the decline in viewership are whistling past the graveyard. And forget Danica the non-stop promotion and ass-kissing of all things NASCAR by the announcers seriously, compare them against broadcasters of any other big-league sport has people who were once fans changing the channel permanently. Their retirements are a reason for the ratings decline in 2018. Once upon a time, if the Cup series had a weekend off, drivers like Earnhardt Sr. and/or Earnhardt Jr. would go to Disney World and drink beer with NASCAR fans they bumped into in the lineup for A Small World. The 2021 campaign includes six road course races, a dirt race at Bristol (! News. And we wont get into the murdering of the English language that goes on week after week, ad nauseum. I hope so. NASCAR still attempts to do the best it can when it comes to getting the word out. Removing the Toyota logo and Supra badge, one would be hard-pressed to identify, and in actuality, to associate with the caron what it is supposed to represent. Which is any sports property, essentially professional sports league, that is about a million viewers or higher on a per event basis or the most stable property in terms of viewership over the course of the last two years, it's possible that we'll be able to be the most stable tier one sports property in terms of sports viewership over the course of those three years, (though) the NFL is off to a very good start. Ratings were like Bible verses, an almighty Gospel preached to stakeholders on how much of NASCAR was reaching the masses. The Xfinity Series at Indianapolis had a rating of 0.67, with 1.249 million viewers, totaling more than F1 Pocono TV Ratings July 26, 2022 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. What other big American sport has ongoing action behind a commercial? NASCAR star Bubba Wallace reacted to a chart on Twitter that showed last weekend's NASCAR race at Foxwoods Resort Casino as the top-watched sporting event of the weekend. The NASCAR Cup Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway topped all forms of motorsports last weekend, with a 2.05 rating, 3.373 million viewers. That is a decrease of nearly 50%, and in some races this kind of decline could be seen in the stands too. Danica Patrick just retired. (It wasnt a tough call to make, if you actually looked at her results instead of her figure.). The addition of retired driver and fan favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. beefed up NBCs product in 2018, but four people in the broadcast booth are too many voices. U.S. NBA Social Justice Poll. 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. FOX has been touting the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season to date as the "best ever." Sorry, I'd give that honor to 1992 and wouldn't even provide 2021 to date a spot on my top-10 list of modern-era. NASCAR blew off fan demand for picture-in-picture commercial breakssomething theyve since embracedwhile Fox Sportss indifference to fans went completely unchecked. All that said, the unveiling of the Car of Tomorrow in 2007 certainly didnt help. It may seem good on the surface, but there's more beneath that makes this concerning. 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. Drivers. In todays media world they are now just a small part of what is used to measure the popularity of the sport. It is now an elitist sport because only those who can afford to pay to play need apply. However, by the time NASCAR was peaking in the early 2000s, there already wasnt much manufacturer identity left. Just because no one has been killed at the Cup level since Earnhardts death doesnt make it less so. With two races remaining after this weekend Phoenix next weekend and then the finale at Homestead-Miami this would seem to be as good a time as any to take a look at why the bloom has come off that NASCAR rose and why it is going to be almost impossible for it to ever regenerate. A leading business development, project manager in the auction and liquidation industry, and consultant for various local and national government offices in the Philippines. NASCAR is clearly falling behind other motorsports in a new era of television. 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. It took quite a few years of longtime fans bitching about that, but NASCAR did finally move the Labor Day Southern 500 back to Darlington. 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. 2) When NASCAR established the franchise system in 2016, the league essentially became a closed shop. You will find all of your NASCAR ratings coverage at Sportsnaut. Oxford Gold . Professional sports adapted as well, understanding, and learning, how to measure viewership and show that value to their stakeholders. NASCAR viewership numbers on decline for years NASCAR viewers are down 19%. Kyle Busch, NASCARs black hat, won his second title. Games on TNT are also down by more. 4 million viewers in. Viewership for the 2019 Phoenix race was 22% lower than in 2018. The playoff system eliminates 25 or more drivers from contention with nearly a third of the season still to go. I remember watching it and literally wondering if I was going to see the finish of the race. They wouldn't explain ratings declines from 2016 to 2017. However, in recent years that growth has slowed. NASCAR was at Texas Motor Speedway this weekend and if I was NASCAR, I would be embarrassed. Dr. Jon Lewis (aka Paulsen) has been covering the sports media industry on a daily basis since 2006 as the founder and main writer of Sports Media Watch. And abuse and manipulation of that system. It was a radical change to a sport that didnt need radical changes. This ability to adapt however seems insufficient as NASCAR has recorded a staggering 50% viewership drop in the last 5 years along with substantial admission decline that has varied from 12 -30% percent from 2012 to 2018. NBC reported Monday that its broadcast of the NASCAR Cup championship race from Homestead-Miami Speedway in Florida drew an average of 3.759 million viewers, its best audience for its half of the season. Which meant that other drivers didnt win a lot. The league's first game of the 2023 slate, the Vipers vs. Renegades, drew 1.54 . NASCAR's meteoric rise was fed by the rise of Jeff Gordon, whom many consider to be NASCAR's first superstar, and the death of legend Dale Earnhardt Sr. In todays world TV ratings arent the big deal they once were nor the only thing that matters. No longer do young NASCAR racers start at their local tracks and work their way up. 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.. Compared to last years fourth race of the season, Phoenix, ratings fell a tick (from 2.7) and viewership 5% (from 4.58M). 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. It would have saved a lot of time. As Ive said, the sport is finally addressing its venue problem. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images). NASCAR power rankings during the 2023 season, NASCAR odds: Betting lines for each race and championship futures, NASCAR ratings on big rise compared to recent years in 2022, NASCAR standings: Cup, Xfinity, and Truck points during the 2023 season, Share up 9%, largest for Race #2 since 2017, Share up 2%, largest for Daytona 500 since 2016, Second most-watched non-points race since 2016. When not at work, Karlo spends his time at home, with family, either being the cook or fixit guy in his house. The NASCAR Cup Series race at Auto Club Speedway averaged 4.315 million average viewers on FOX last weekend. 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. Nielsen slowly began to develop ways to measure who was watching what, and how. 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