|
Fox’s broadcast of that Sunday’s Food City 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup race earned a 4.1 overnight rating and a 10 market share from Nielsen Media Research, Street & Smith’s SportsBusiness Daily reports. The rating is 18 percent lower than the 5.0 Fox earned for the race in 2008. This report came from Scene Daily and the Jayski.com web page. The final ratings were pretty much the same story. The good news is that the Cup race at Bristol was a sellout due to the fact that the front office worked hard to make it happen. |
ABC’s live coverage of the NASCAR Nationwide Series Scott’s Turf builder 300 from Bristol Motor Speedway earned a final national rating of 1.7, down from the 2.0 rating earned for last year’s race that also aired on ABC. The race averaged 2,324,048 viewers airing against the highly rated first round of the NCAA tournament. The Scott’s Saturday Night Special, which aired live on ESPN2 from 6-7 p.m. on Saturday from Bristol, earned a final national rating of 0.9. This report came from ESPN PR.
A new television contract, which will ensure a higher profile for the USARacing Pro Cup Series in 2009, was announced by Series officials and new broadcast partners Masters TV, Inc., and Fox Sports Net.
The fourteen-race schedule will be carried on a tape-delayed basis on Sunday mornings on FSN stations. Masters TV of Bristol, TN will produce the programs which will feature action covered by four on-track cameras, five in-car cameras and one in-pit camera.
“I am extremely pleased to announce that our television package for 2009 will provide our fans with the best coverage of our events ever,” said USARacing’s Executive Vice President, Larry Camp. “Butch McCall is an old friend and he really came through for us with expanded coverage, a guaranteed, enhanced time slot and a great broadcast partner in Fox Sports Net.’ This report came from StockCarGazette.com and the USAR PR office.
Kerry and Jeffrey Earnhardt have joined Rick Ware Racing in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. Kerry will debut with the organization April 4 at Texas Motor Speedway in the No 31 Chevrolet. His son Jeffrey, 19, is scheduled to make his NASCAR Nationwide Series debut May 30 at Dover International Speedway.
In addition, NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour driver Tim Brown, a seven-time Modified champion at Bowman Gray Stadium, will make his NASCAR Nationwide Series debut and is scheduled to run in some races in the organization’s second car.
The Trans-Am is back! Tomy Drissi and Daniel Ramoutarsingh rounded out the top six for Rocketsports Racing in the 2009 Muscle Milk SCCA Trans-Am Series season opener this past weekend at Road Atlanta. The series next travels to VIRginia International Raceway April 17-19 as part of the North Carolina Region Double National weekend.
From SportsBusinessInternational comes this item. US businessman George Gillett is considering selling his sporting assets, which include English Premier League football team Liverpool and NHL team, the Montreal Canadiens. However, a later report from Gillett, himself, denied that the franchises were up on the block including his NASCAR team holdings.
The Rocky Mountain News in CO reports that ISC has put the breaks on building a super-speedway in Aurora a suburb of Denver. No doubt the ailing economy played a major part in the decision.
From the Valvoline Track Talk Newsletter comes this gem.
Yes, He Really Said That-Bernie Ecclestone, on scheduling more Formula One races outside of Europe. “I said a long time ago that the stock market would crash and that Europe would become a third-world economy. And it will.”
Rain-washed out this past weekend’s Kroger 250 NASCAR Truck race at Martinsville, VA. It’s been reset for Monday at Noon on Speed.
Let’s see what’s happening on TV this weekend for motorsports action. On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday ESPN2 airs NASCAR Now at 5 p.m. The momentum picks up on Friday with F1 Practice from Malaysia at 5 a.m. on TSN and Speed. The Duce offers NASCAR Now at noon. At 1 p.m. Speed comes back with Cup Practice at noon followed by Final Cup Practice. ABC kicks in the ALMS race from St. Pete, FL at 1:30 p.m. ESPN2 offers a 2:30 p.m. airing of the NASCAR Nationwide Series from Texas. VS has its first airing of the Indy Car Qualifying from St. Pete at 5 p.m. ESPN2 returns at 8 p.m. with NHRA Qualifying from Vegas at 8 p.m. while Speed airs the AMA Superbike event held at Fontana, CA.
Sunday will equally be as busy starting at 4 a.m. with RDS/Speed/TSN all airing the F1 GP from Malaysia. NASCAR RaceDay airs at 11:30 a.m. on Speed from Texas. Fox has a 2 p.m. airing of the Cup race from Texas. At the same time VS airs it’s first Indy Car round from St. Pete. ESPN2 returns with NHRA Eliminations from Vegas at 4 p.m. At the same time Speed offers the FIM Super Bikes from Spain followed by the AMA SuperX events held at Jacksonville, FL. Speed continues on with the Speed Report at 7 p.m. then NASCAR Victory Lane from Texas and finally Wind Tunnel with Dave Despain at 9 p.m. (END)
NOTE: INFORMATION FOR THIS COLUMN CAME FROM VARIOUS REFERENCED SOURCES, PRESS RELEASES, NOTES AND OTHER SOURCES.
Oh for goodness sake, leave the little critter alone. Most weeks Digger is more fun to watch than the darn racing.
I can understand why people in the stands at the race could be down and when the camera scans around we do see some empty seats regardless of them saying its a sell out.
I can also understand why watching the race(s) on tv is down too…. one word…… BORING.
Martinsville was probably the best race so far this year but not as good as it used to be.
We like to see the bumpin and bangin that used to be short track racing, martinsville did have some of that. We like to see alot of passing and side by side racing, martinsville did have that too, but there was some lackluster to it none the less.
Maybe we have been now programmed to expect nothing but follow the leader type racing so we now do more family things or jobs around our homes rather than watch the races. Hmmmmmm.