After registering a preliminary 5.1 overnight rating, Sunday’s 92nd running of The Indianapolis 500 finished with a final rating of 4.5. The Coca-Cola 500 had an overnight rating of 4.4, but improved to a 4.7 final number when the smaller markets were added to the larger market/overnight number. The NASCAR race was run in prime time Sunday. This came from the Indianapolis Star and the Jayski.com web pages.
NASCAR on Fox averaged a solid 4.7/10 (7.6 million viewers) on Sunday for the Coke 600 from Charlotte. That’s up +4 percent over last year’s 4.5/10, and marks the first ratings gain for the race in three years. Sunday’s race opened up at a 3.6/9 at 5:51 p.m., and grew steadily for the night peaking at a 6.1/11 averaging nearly 9.9 million viewers (10-10:22 p.m.). For the season-to-date, Sprint Cup Racing on Fox is averaging a 5.9/12 (9.7 million viewers), up +5 percent over last year’s 5.6/13 for the same 12 races. Across key male demos, the results for the 2008 season were mixed, as Fox was down -7 percent on M18-34 (2.7 vs. 2.9), flat among M18-49 (4.5), up +6 percent among NASCAR’s core demo of M25-54 (5.6 vs. 5.3), and up +4 percent on average audience (9.655 million viewers vs. 9.319 mill). This report came from Fox PR and Jayski.com WebPages.
It appears that both Memorial Day Weekend races were a tie on the TV ratings. It’s also good news for both events as the ratings were up over last year. This isn’t a surprise because it appears that the fans that can’t afford to go to the NASCAR events due to the economy and fuel prices are watching them on TV. The unification of the Indy Car Series has to be a big factor in those Indy 500 ratings increase.
From the Lowe’s Motor Speedway comes this report. The three-hour, 2008 live debut of the Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series on SPEED earned a Nielsen Household Rating of .62 (447,000 households), peaking at .72 (520,000 households) Friday night, making it one of the network’s highest-rated programs during Memorial Day Weekend.
The biggest single-event World of Outlaws television audience in recent years — 643,000 total viewers — saw Lance Dewease capture the Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws event broadcast live Friday from The Dirt Track @ Lowe’s Motor Speedway, which also was filled to capacity. Combined with a re-airing of the broadcast shortly after the original show, nearly three-quarters of a million people watched the Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series Friday night.
With incredible aerial video from a Goodyear Blimp to mud-splattering views from an in-car camera to on-track interviews with the leaders only three laps from the checkered flag, the Rite Aid Outlaw Showdown that Friday night was a thrilling way to launch the 2008 World of Outlaws television season on SPEED. There are 25 hours of coverage this year on SPEED, including five super-sized events, to show viewers Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series and World of Outlaws Late Model Series action like they’ve never seen before.
Former Formula One driver Scott Speed, in just his sixth Craftsman Truck Series race, won that Friday’s AAA Insurance 200 at the one-mile Dover International Speedway. Speed joins first-time winners Matt Crafton (Lowe’s) and Donny Lia (Mansfield) in Victory Lane. The No.22 Red Bull Toyota crossed the finish line comfortably ahead of runner-up Jack Sprague. This came from AutoRacingSport.com.
Scott Speed has to have won the respect of the NASCAR crowd for pulling off this one early on. He never really had a chance in F1 because he was not in a car capable of winning. It’s no surprise because F1 is really a closed club and American drivers are not really welcome. Speed came to F1 through the Red Bull development system. When Indy Car driver/team owner Bobby Rahal was managing the Jaguar Team, a few years ago, he ended up ousted by forces that had no use for Americans. Upon his departure, from his short tenure, Rahal called F1 “incestuous”.
From the widely distributed Valvoline Track Talk Newsletter here’s an insight. Yes, He REALLY Said That-Juan Pablo Montoya, on if he thought the Indy 500 was boring. “Not as boring as the Formula One race (Monaco).”
Let’s see what’s on the tube this weekend for the gear head crowd. Starting at noon Friday it’s Cup Practice on Speed from Pocono then F1 Practice from Montreal at 2 p.m. on that same cable channel. Stick with Speed as it offers Cup Qualifying from Pocono at 3:30 p.m. ESPN offers Nationwide Practice at 6 p.m. from Nashville. Speed returns at 9 p.m. with the NASCAR Truck Series race from Texas.
Saturday’s offerinhd start at 10 a.m. with Sprint Cup Practice from Pocono on Speed. At 11 a.m. Speed airs the Grand-Am 6 Hour Endurance race from Watkins Glen, NY then F1 Qualifying from Montreal at 1 p.m. More of the Rolex Glen race airs on Speed at 2:30 p.m. ESPN kicks in with Nationwide Qualifying from Nashville at 3 p.m. followed by NHRA Qualifying from Chicagoland at 5 p.m. Speed schedules Cup Final Practice from Pocono at 5:30 p.m. ESPN2 airs the Nationwide event from Nashville at 7:30 p.m. and the then the IRL race from Ft. Worth. At the same time Speed goes with the ARCA stockcar event from Pocono.
On Sunday Fox airs the F1 race from Montreal at 1 p.m. At 2 p.m. TNT offers the NASCAR Cup Pocono 500. For the bike crowd it’s the FIM GP race from Spain on Speed at 3 p.m. then the AMA Superbike race from Road America at 5 p.m. The Duce wraps up the weekend at 5 p.m. with the NHRA Finals from Chicagoland. (END)
NOTE: INFORMATION FOR THIS COLUMN CAME FROM VARIOUS REFERENCED SOURCES, PRESS RELEASES, NOTES AND OTHER SOURCES.
