IndyCar Miami TV Rating

The 2010 IZOD IndyCar Series concluded Saturday at the Homestead-Miami Speedway with Dario Franchitti winning the series championship for the second year in a row and the third in his career. Unfortunately not many people saw the Scotsman’s consummation of another brilliant season. The announced attendance was 12,000 fans. The IndyCar Series race wasn’t even the most watched program on Versus last week because that honor went to World Extreme Cagefighting (WEC), which is a promotion also owned and operated by the owners of the UFC. The WEC show held last Thursday night drew 486,000 viewers and the IndyCar season finale only drew 360,000.

You can run an infomercial about baby buggies and draw more viewers than that. Versus continues to deliver dismal TV ratings for IndyCar and remains the biggest albatross around Randy Bernard's neck. Although he wasn't around when the IRL signed their death warrant with Versus, Bernard can only hope that the Comcast deal to buy NBC will lead to at least half of IndyCar's races on NBC. How the potential Comcast (owner of Versus) and NBC merger could affect IndyCar’s television rights package for the future remains to be seen. The series took some baby steps this year and the 2010 product was better than the 2009 product, but it still has a LONG way to go.