The season ended with two flat tires. 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. 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. 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. So more people are tuned into Amazon prime or Netflix Bookmark this page for NASCAR ratings as another year of racing is officially underway! 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. Thats exactly what NASCAR did when they took the Labor Day race out of Darlington and sent it to Auto Club Speedway in California. Its not so much that the points reset NASCAR introduced in 2004 was a monumentally stupid idea. NASCARs TV ratings began to fall; the once all-mighty numbers began to show not an increase, but a decline. These are bold changes, but this variety of tracks will test drivers and teams at every level. Along with that came an all-important metric: the Nielsen ratings. Photo credit: tequilamike on Visual hunt / CC BY Most TV consumption, really all TV consumption of TV of tier one sports properties is down simply because TV consumption just broadly is down. NASCAR polled fans about the idea on their website following the 2003 season, and fans overwhelmingly rejected it. Related: NASCARs Daytona 500 ratings indicate a worrisome trend. 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. You also dont often see post-race fisticuffs after races at Kansas or Vegas like you might at Martinsville or Bristol. It rewards winning and risk taking, where the Chase rewarded points racing and avoiding risk. If that contributed to NASCARs decline, however, that is on NASCAR. 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. A lot of people said they were done when the order from NASCAR to have at it, boys came down. A shot that shows the overall value sponsors receive. U.S. NBA Social Justice Poll. which is a 50 percent decline . Photo credit: sidehike on Visual hunt / CC BY-SA It was the first NCS race on the dirt in 50 years. [Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 3.9]. Im not buying the its too safe bit as a cause for the decline of NASCAR. Not only is this tolerated by NASCAR but encouraged. Interestingly, it has been said that NASCAR has been getting younger (the drivers) and older (the fans) at the same time. 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. Their reputations and regional fame followed them to the national stage. Ratings fell 19% and viewership 21% from last year, when it was the second race of the season (3.2, 5.50M). NASCAR needs side-by-side commercials during green-flag racing and then full-screen commercials during yellow flags. All that said, the unveiling of the Car of Tomorrow in 2007 certainly didnt help. The half-mile dirt track was a success on many levels. 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. It was blatant condescension towards what was arguably the most loyal fanbase in sports. These figures paint a troubling trend that NASCAR is on a long term downtrend it has yet to recover from. Now, they buy their way in. Related:15 Rules Every NASCAR Employee Has To Follow. Most notably, Sunday was an all-time low in viewership for the second race of a NASCAR season ever. Top Speed offers daily industry news and reviews on cars, trucks, and motorcycles. Brandon Kochkodin. 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. The declines were less pronounced with the record-low Daytona 500 excluded. You could say it was NASCARs New Coke, except Coca-Cola was smart enough to change the formula back in response to furious customer backlash. Jimmie Johnson was a hallmark of ruthless efficiency in his prime, winning seven titles and five in a row. Much like Kyle Petty, he ultimately became more known for his good-guy personality and his lineage than for his achievements on the racetrack. I covered NASCAR for six seasons for two excellent racing websites, Thats Racin (the Charlotte Observers racing site) and the Frontstretch. 2 days ago The Kansas City Chiefs are expected to decline running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire's fifth-year option, which in turn makes him a logical candidate to be traded this offseason. Its certainly healthy in terms of eyeballs, Hebrst said. For instance: The non-stop promotion of Danica Patrick, as if she was the Second Coming (she wasnt), turned off a lot of fans. 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. NASCAR sits on an upward trajectory for the first time in a while. I have been around and covered NASCAR for over two decades. As a result, teams with more resourcessuch as Hendrick Motorsports and Roush Racingwon big for years. 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. (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. In NASCAR, the equivalent of a ref would be the flagmen, who not only flag the start and end of the race but flag drivers with caution warnings for safety and rules enforcement. 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. I can also dispute other reasons for it that I see being offered today. or Disney plus; there's more competition for those eyeballs then there's ever been. Dynasties like Johnsons arent bad for a sportunless the sport doesnt know how to market them. Not just limited to NASCAR but to many other sports as well is the gradual retirement of its well-known athletes that were the main draw for people to watch the events. 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. The decision . NFLX 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. 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. 4 million viewers in. Bowlesy thinks there needs to be an element of risk for racing to be exciting; I dont tune in to races to see a car potentially fly into a catch fence and injure spectators. Related: NASCAR power rankings during the 2023 season. In 2019, that number had dropped to just 2.92 million. Racing, like basketball and other sports, has seen year-to-year ratings decline. It took time, maybe too much time, but NASCAR is finally addressing the three biggest reasons for the decline of the sport. Social impressions, social following, a positive buzz of our sport, which is measured by third parties, like at YouGov is up 2.5 X over the course of the last two to three years.. Why poll the fans if youre just going to ignore them? The XFL's ratings were disappointing in Week One. It was, but even that wasnt the point. NASCAR was plenty defiant resisting this idea at their peakbut these days, theyre not in a position to ignore displeased fans. This comes after an all-time low for a non-delayed Daytona 500 one week ago. Sundays NASCAR Cup Series race from Las Vegas averaged a 2.6 rating and 4.36 million viewers on FOX, marking the lowest rated edition of the race since it debuted in 1998 and the smallest audience since at least 2001 (viewership prior to 2002 was not available). 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. Certain segments of fans, and media, began to cry that sky was falling. Photo credit: Zach Catanzareti Photo on Best Running / CC BY As the son of one of the greatest racecar drivers in history, Junior also had an impossible standard to live up to. 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. 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. Interestingly, it has been said that NASCAR has been getting younger (the drivers) and older (the fans) at the same time. Which meant that other drivers didnt win a lot. Compared to Week 2 of last year's USFL, which consisted of two games on broadcast and two on cable, the XFL's Week 2 audience was down just slightly (661K to 655K). Auto Club Speedway's racetrack seems to be adored by every . 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. NBC did the best with what it was given, really, but there were few compelling storylines. NASCAR ratings have been on the decline over the last decade as they have taken a significant drop. Dale Earnhardt Jr. retired at the end of the 2017 season. For NASCAR it meant fewer butts in seats at tracks, and fewer sponsors willing to part with what little revenue they were earning. 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 cars already were mostly spec at that point, and the sport was doing just finebooming even. They are included along with social media engagement, streaming, and the like. The sport mishandled the on-track racing by introducing the 550 horsepower package which caused the fanbase to lose trust. The top of the mountain in NASCAR circles back then was known as the Grand National Division but in 1971, the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., then-manufacturer of Winston cigarettes, contracted with NASCAR to become title sponsor and the Winston Cup Series (to be known thereafter as simply Cup, regardless of subsequent sponsorships) was born,. No longer will teams win titles by dominating speedways; driver skill will be more of a factor, as it should be. 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. TV ratings for the Richmond race were said to be down 12% from the same race in 2015 and 44% from 2014. . Speaking of disrespecting your fan base, how about needlessly putting an end to a beloved 54-year tradition? Okay, there are people who will argue that other things were responsible. 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. . So 16% drop in terms of total TV consumption of those TVs that are actually tuned in over the last two years, NASCAR shares up 18%. NASCAR Home. . IndyCars race at St. Petersberg was also up from 1.219 million viewers last season. They do not want to watch commercials over and over again. For any fan that needs racing to be dangerous, there are still four restrictor plate races on the schedule. He is likely to build a fan base fast. NASCAR Home. . 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. Three of the four drivers in the championship race were also in the 2018 race, and three of the four drivers were in Toyotas. In other NASCAR action, the Xfinity Series race at Las Vegas turned in a 0.7 and 1.28 million. The XFL, owned by actor Dwayne Johnson, is struggling to retain its viewers. Nepotism isnt dead in NASCAR. This is a BETA experience. The coverage goes through the entire event. After years of seeing its once enormous audience dwindle to almost nothing, NASCAR is finally righting the ship. It has been a challenge for the sport to consistently grab the attention of its audience; however, there are reasons for optimism as the 2022 season represented a step in the right direction. Since early in the millenium, however, interest in NASCAR both at the speedways and on television has dropped off. So if Im right, in a few years NASCAR may become Americas summer sport again. who has many relatives from the South, was merely offering his opinion. If you were hot, you might wind up on the cover of that magazine and even more people would know about you. The XFL's ratings were disappointing in Week One. They are the only one of the Big 3 Motorsports that still have this happen. NASCAR scraped bottom. The league's first game of the 2023 slate, the Vipers vs. Renegades, drew 1.54 . 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. Their retirements are a reason for the ratings decline in 2018. Q: You say NASCAR continues to grow and like you, . Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series race from Las Vegas averaged a 2.6 rating and 4.36 million viewers on FOX, marking the lowest rated edition of the race since it debuted in 1998 and the smallest audience since at least 2001 (viewership prior to 2002 was not available). 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. [Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 11.9, network PR]. Having followed the sport in the time frame when it began, I can offer what I believe are the real reasons for the decline of NASCAR. Photo credit: Darryl W. Moran Photography on Visual Hunt / CC BY-ND Home Ratings NASCAR finale sees modest gain as season posts modest drop. The problem was the tracks that replaced themnearly all of them were characterless, cookie-cutter speedways where aero package ruled the day. Schedule/Results. NASCAR finale sees modest gain as season posts modest drop, Ratings: NASCAR, college hoops, soccer, NHL, XFL sees big drop in Week 2, but on par with last years USFL, LeBron injury ill-timed as Lakers continue to draw, Small sampling for LIV; PGA Tour wins head-to-head in rout. NASCAR Fans Rebel Against Confederate Flag Ban. NASCAR teams get creative with sponsors following dip in ratings, attendance Rick Hendrick is seeking a new sponsor for Jimmie Johnson amid the departure of Lowe's. Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images That NASCAR was doomed, soon to become nothing more than a memory. It would have been nice to have heard more during the championship race from Earnhardt. But it was a never ending source of irritation to see five laps of racing followed by a several minute commercial break, which was then followed by another minute of a wide angle shot of the venue and This race is being brought to you by .. But that in itself wasnt necessarily the crime. It may seem good on the surface, but theres more beneath that makes this concerning. Fox Sportss coverage was particularly abominable, with a seemingly endless parade of commercial interruptions mixed with the Ford Cutaway Car, the Home Depot Pit Crew Member, the Viagra Boner Of The Race, whatever, all during green flag racing. In the early 2000s, NASCAR was soaring. The first study focused exclusively on Bristol Motor Speedway, while the second study took other NASCAR race tracks into account, and both studies found that noise levels regularly exceeded 140 decibels when the race cars were accelerating at full throttle, and that the noise levels lasted, on average, about three to four hours, the average But in a relatively short time, NASCAR corrected the car and the multiple issues with its design, and while the cars dont differ by manufacturer like they once did, at least were not seeing disastrously awful races just because of the cars construction. Statistics for NASCAR indicate that 63% are male, 20% are minorities and 47% are between the ages of 18 and 44, with the majority of this age bracket being in the older end, the number of which is also dropping yearly. 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. The 2021 campaign includes six road course races, a dirt race at Bristol (! Chase Elliott, like his 1988 champion father Bill, is from Dawsonville, Georgiathe Southeastand he has the lineage factor as the son of a well-liked champion. There were often timesand Im not exaggerating thiswhen a viewer would see maybe five laps of racing, a two-minute break, and then just two more laps of racing before another break. And as recently as 2013, the race drew 16.5. Feb. 25, 2023, at 5:39 p.m. Farewell, Fontana: NASCAR's Last Weekend at a Racing Gem. Yes, thats actually true; read it again if you need to. That is a decrease of nearly 50%, and in some races this kind of decline could be seen in the stands too. 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. Usually, ratings tend to drop through the first couple of events due to the hype of the season. When you use this link to shop on Amazon, youll help subsidize this great websiteat no extra charge to you. Viewership for the 2019 Phoenix race was 22% lower than in 2018. 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. NASCAR was at Texas Motor Speedway this weekend and if I was NASCAR, I would be embarrassed. Lack of manufacturer identity may have been a reason some hardcore fans left the sport in the early 1990s, but that doesnt seem to me to be a valid reason for the sports popularity plunge since 2005. Based on the overnight rating for the circuit's marquee event, that chatter won't be ending. Standings. But more importantly, the racing isnt anywhere near as exciting at the cookie cutters, as I so eloquently explained here. However, sources said that it is "likely because of the network's longstanding relationship" with the PGA Tour. Gordon wasnt the only driver who turned in a spectacular season-long performance only to have it nullified. 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.. Then they sharply declined in Week Two.The four XFL games in Week Two averaged 665,000 viewers, which is a 50 percent decline from the four XFL . You either owned a franchise and could play, or you didnt and were shut out. 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