Daytona 500 TV ratings a fluke?

UPDATE If not for last year's Daytona track repair issues that killed TV ratings, this year's Daytona 500 may very well have continued NASCAR's 4-year trend of a drop in ratings. The 2011 Daytona 500 earned an 8.2/18 final TV rating, a +17% boost over last year's 7.0/14 when the race was interrupted twice by track repair delays. Fast national ratings have already been issued for the Daytona 500, with the race posting an 8.7/20 (15.6 million viewers) . Sunday's 8.7/20 is a +13% gain over last year's 7.7/16 and the average viewership of 15.6 million is +17% better than last year's 13.3 million . The Daytona 500 fell into a pattern established last weekend by the Bud Shootout and Daytona Qualifying in that it beat 2010's ratings but fell short of 2009 benchmarks. Sunday's 8.7/20 is -5% lower than the 9.2/19 that FOX posted for the rain-shortened 2009 Daytona 500.

02/21/11 Fox earned an 8.7 fast-national Nielsen rating and 15.6 million viewers for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 yesterday, up 13% and 17%, respectively, from a 7.7 rating and 13.3 million viewers for last year’s race. The telecast peaked at a 10.9 rating from 5:00-5:30pm ET during the race’s green-white-checkered flag finish. Fox saw gains among all key male demos, as well as the best rating among teen males in six years. Dayton, Ohio, topped all markets with a 20.4 local rating while Greensboro finished second with a 20.1 rating. Fox