NASCAR Las Vegas TV rating plummets

UPDATE The final TV rating for the NASCAR Las Vegas Sprint car race on FOX was a 4.4, down 32.3% from last year's 6.5 final rating, also on FOX and down 38% from the 7.1 final rating in 2008. No matter how you slice it and dice it, no matter how many excuses they manage to come with, the fact remains that NASCAR's popularity is waning.

03/01/10 Opposite the toughest competition it has ever faced, NASCAR ON FOX tumbled to a 4.1/8 yesterday for racing from Las Vegas Motor Speedway. That 4.1/8 is down -25% compared to last year's 5.5/10 and is the lowest overnight ever for FOX's Las Vegas race. The obvious culprit was enormous competition from the gold medal hockey game at the Vancouver Winter Olympics (17.6/33). FOX's race failed to crack an 8 share opposite the hockey game, then immediately jumped up by nearly +20% in rating once the exciting game was over, going from a 4.2/8 at 5:30 to a more respectable 5.0/9 at 6:00.

NASCAR has obviously taken its share of lumps opposite the Olympics, with the three races facing the Olympics down -14% year-to-year (5.4/11 vs. 6.3/12). Next week's race in Atlanta will provide the season's first clean ratings comparison, and will be a better gauge of where NASCAR truly stands compared to last year