Daytona 500 TV Ratings tumble (Final)

Despite a sold out crowd, almost 2 million less fans tuned in on TV

UPDATE Note: this press release doesn't really change a thing, TV viewership and the final rating was still a 5.3 and down horribly. The social media numbers are minuscule and…..can you see the car sponsor name on your small iPhone screen? Probably not, hence it is irrelevant to a sponsor and those views should be heavily discounted from any rating number in our opinion.

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With today’s inclusion of Nielsen Media Research out-of-home viewing data, Sunday’s Daytona 500 on FOX averaged 9,781,000 across all platforms, peaking at more than 11.5 million viewers. According to Nielsen, more than 18.1 million viewers watched all or part of the Great American Race, but that means only half the people watched the whole race, the other half changed the channel.

The Daytona 500, with Austin Dillon scoring a dramatic victory in the iconic No. 3 and newcomer Darrell “Bubba" Wallace Jr. crossing the line second in Richard Petty’s celebrated No. 43, was the highest rated and most-viewed FOX telecast of any kind since the NFC Championship Game in January, and remains the most-watched motor sports event on television.

Out-of-home data inclusion provided a 7.4% lift in the coveted 18-34 demo, the highest percentage increase of any demo.

Race coverage garnered an average-minute audience of 51,004 for the livestream telecast on FOX Sports GO and FOX Now, up 28% over last year’s 39,832, making it the best-performing NASCAR event in FOX Sports GO history.

With more than 700,000 total interactions across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for the week of Feb. 13-19, FOX Sports enjoyed 44% year-to year social media growth from 2017’s 499,000.

Finishing with a Nielsen Rating of 5.3/12 (the lowest in Daytona 500 history), top television markets for the race included Greensboro (15.1/27), Greenville (14.3/24), Indianapolis (12.2/22), Charlotte (10.7/21) and Knoxville (10.2/18).

NASCAR racing returns this weekend from Atlanta Motor Speedway, with a NASCAR Xfinity Series/NASCAR Camping World Truck Series doubleheader Saturday, Feb. 24 (2:00 PM ET/4:30 PM ET on FS1) and the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race Sunday, Feb. 25 (2:00 PM ET on FOX).

02/21/18 The final ratings are in for Daytona Speedweeks. Sunday’s NASCAR Daytona 500 earned a 5.33 rating and 9.3 million viewers on FOX, down 19.3% in ratings and 22% in viewership from last year (6.6, 11.9M) and down 20% and 18% respectively from 2016 (6.6, 11.4M).

The 5.3 rating is the lowest for the Daytona 500 since live start-to-finish coverage began in 1979. The previous low was a 5.6 in 2014. The four lowest Daytona 500 ratings have come in the past five years.

What's alarming is that NASCAR lost 2 million viewers in one year, probably all the Dale Jr. fans who have now left the sport.

Like NASCAR ratings generally, Daytona 500 ratings have fallen off dramatically from the 2000s. From 2001-08, the race had at least a 10.0 rating and 17 million viewers in all-but-one year. In the final year of that run — just ten years ago — it had a 10.2 rating and 17.8 million.

Daytona 500 ratings have now fallen 52% from their high water mark in 2006 (11.3). By comparison, Indy 500 ratings declined 54% from 1995 — the year before the infamous ‘split’ — to 2007, the same span of time.

DAYTONA 500 RATINGS, VIEWERSHIP (1979-PRESENT)

02/19/18

As predicted would happen when Dale Earnhardt Jr. retired, the 60th Daytona 500 on the FOX broadcast network scored an overnight rating of 5.1, dropped 22% from a 6.5 last year the lowest overnight rating for the race in 10 years. As recently as '13, Fox had drawn a 10.0 overnight for the Daytona 500, but that telecast also had the added hype of Danica Patrick being on the pole.

Thursday's Duels was also down, scoring a 1.1 rating on FOX Sports 1 down 27% from a 1.5 last year.

FS1 earned a 1.35 overnight rating for last Sunday's Advance Auto Parts Clash at Daytona, up 29% from a 1.05 for last year's race (which was one week later in the calendar in '17)