Ratings rise for Bristol races

ESPN says its coverage of last weekend’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Bristol Motor Speedway and ESPN2’s coverage of the Nationwide Series race at Bristol drew increased ratings over last year for both events. It's the second consecutive week for an increase.

ESPN earned a 3.8 final national household coverage rating from Nielsen Media Research for Saturday night’s Sharpie 500 Cup race, an 8.6 percent increase over the 3.5 rating ESPN earned for the 2008 race. This year’s event averaged 5.323 million viewers.

ESPN2 earned a final national household coverage rating of 1.5 for last Friday night’s Food City 250 Nationwide race, a 7.1 percent increase over the 1.4 ESPN earned for last year’s race. This year’s race averaged 1.956 million viewers.