NHRA television viewership continues to grow in 2017

The 2017 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series began in dramatic fashion this past weekend with over one million viewers witnessing the intense racing action on the FOX broadcast network channels.

During the broadcast, 1,224,000 viewers watched as Leah Pritchett secured her second career Top Fuel win during the three-hour live broadcast of the Circle K NHRA Winternationals. This marked it as the most watched broadcast in its 57-year history.

Including the re-air on FOX Sports 1 (FS1) the eliminations broadcast was up 91 percent over last year’s telecast on FS1.

The qualifying shows during the opening weekend also had strong viewership on FS1. The Friday night qualifying show had 193,000 viewers and was the most watched program on the network during the day. The live one-hour qualifying show on Feb. 11 had viewership of 195,000 at 1 p.m. Eastern.

In total, over 1.9 million viewers watched the telecasts during the course of the kick-off event.

"The second year of our partnership with Fox is off to a great start in 2017," said Ken Adelson, NHRA vice president, executive producer and chief content officer. "We’ve only just begun and appreciate our long time and new fans who support the NHRA. We also have a great production team that made it all happen and we look forward to continuing the season."

The NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series returns to action on Feb. 24-26 with the NHRA Arizona Nationals in Phoenix. FS1 will air the finals on Feb. 26 with three hours of coverage from 6 to 9 p.m. Eastern.