Don't believe the 'Fake News' NASCAR TV rating

Beware of the Fake News – Brickyard 400 TV rating really plummeted

The traditional July 4th weekend race for NASCAR has always been the Pepsi 400 miler at Daytona. This year NASCAR made the Brickyard 400 the July 4th weekend race.

Since no other live sports are playing right now, motorsports TV Ratings should be through the roof – i.e. no competition.

What NBC Announced

Viewership increased by more than 1 million from last year's July 4 weekend race, the traditional Daytona summer race. NBC claimed its Total Audience Delivery (TAD) for Sunday's race was 4.37 million viewers (including streamers) compared to 3.31 million for the 2019 Daytona race.

The Indy race pulled a 2.67 rating, which was 26 percent higher than the Daytona race last year……as it should be with no other live TV sports and many people staying home because of the pandemic.

Additional ratings highlights from NBC Sports’ first NASCAR Cup Series race of the 2020 season (remember these numbers look good because motorsports and golf are the only live sports right now so of course they should be good):

2.67 HH rating, up 41% vs. last year’s Brickyard (1.89 rating in Sept against the NFL) and up 26% vs. last year’s race at Daytona (2.12 rating);
4.343 million TV-only viewers, up 46% vs. last year’s race (2.974 million) and up 32% vs. Daytona (3.288 million);
Peak viewership of 5.018 million TV-only viewers from 8:30-8:45 p.m. ET;
26,800 Average Minute Audience (AMA) streaming on NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app, up 57% vs. last year’s Brickyard (17,000) and 9% compared to Daytona.

NASCAR's Xfinity Series Pennzoil 150 was the most-watched Xfinity race from the Brickyard in three years (1.693 million, NBCSN, 2017), up 21% vs. the series’ four races on NBC in 2019)

The Real Story

Last year's Daytona race was run on Sunday afternoon after being rained out the Saturday night before. When compared to the 2018 Daytona July race, which was run as scheduled, the rating for Sunday's Indy race was flat and viewership was down 2 percent.

Sunday's race was the second-lowest watched and rated Brickyard 400 ever (excluding rainouts, per Sports Media Watch), topping only last year's race which was up against the NFL. Compared to the last time the Brickyard 400 was run in July (the 2017 race), Sunday's ratings were down 21 percent and viewership was off 23 percent.

NASCAR moved the Brickyard 400 to September (during Week 1 of the NFL season) for 2018 and 2019. The event served as the final race of the Cup Series regular season both years. Without any competition from the NFL the Brickyard TV rating should have skyrocketed this year.

Now you know the rest of the story.

I told you so. Trump was panned for tweeting the Brickyard 400 TV rating plummeted. Indeed it did.