Indy 500 TV ratings highest since 1997

By Bruce Martin SportsTicker Contributing Editor

INDIANAPOLIS (Ticker) After years of declining interest and television ratings, Sunday’s 89th Indianapolis 500 was a major hit thanks to some interesting story lines.

Danica Patrick’s quest to become the first female winner helped ABC’s broadcast draw a 6.7 rating and a 17 share, according to overnight figures from the F.C. Nielsen Co. The last 15 minutes, when Patrick was in the lead but was overtaken by Dan Wheldon, spiked to an 8.9 rating with a 21 share.

It was a 40 percent increase from last year’s telecast, which drew a 4.1 rating, and the highest-rated Indy 500 telecast since 1997, when Arie Luyendyk scored his second victory.

“It’s terrific news,” Indianapolis Motor Speedway executive vice president of communications Fred. J. Nation said. “To go from a 4.1 to a 6.7 on the overnights reflects the compelling stories the Indy 500 had this year.”

The most compelling story was the 23-year-old Patrick, who started fourth and was in the lead in the closing laps before being passed by Wheldon with seven laps to go.

“We haven’t seen this interest in the Indianapolis 500 for a number of years,” Nation said. “The race story was on the front page of the paper in at least two dozen major dailies.”

Among those papers that ran the Indy 500 story on the front page were The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Dallas Morning News, Chicago Tribune, Miami Herald, Denver Post, Philadelphia Inquirer and St. Petersburg Times.

Last year’s race, won by Patrick’s Rahal-Letterman teammate Buddy Rice, drew a 4.7/11. Luyendyk’s victory in the 1997 race, which finished on a Tuesday because of rain, drew a 7.6/19.

Each ratings point is equal to 1.055 million United States households. The overnight ratings measure the 55 largest TV markets in the country, which cover nearly 70 percent of the U.S. A share is the percentage of people actually watching TV that tune in at any point during a program.