Alarmingly few people watched Chase Elliott win at Kansas
NASCAR’s ratings slide continues.
According to Sports Media Watch, the-less-than-thrilling Cup Series race Sunday at Kansas Speedway won by Chase Elliott was the least-watched race on network television since at least 2000. The race on NBC had a 1.7 rating and had 2.75 million viewers.
In addition, it ranks as the least-watched Kansas race since at least 2001. The previous lows were set last year. A decade ago, the race had a 3.2 and 5.25 million on ABC.
It’s the least-watched Kansas race ever, based on the 2001 stat. That was the first year Kansas hosted a Cup Series race.
NASCAR races on network television generally have considerably more viewers than races on cable networks. The 2017 fall Kansas race was on NBC Sports Network and had 2.76 million viewers. That’s an alarming number, especially when coupled with the fact that 3.45 million people watched the fall Kansas race on NBC in 2016.
The race, of course, went head-to-head with NFL games on Sunday. But that’s nothing new. It’s not a reason for the decline. Neither are people dropping cable. NBC is freely available to nearly anyone with an antenna if they don’t have a cable package.
It’s fair to believe that NASCAR’s radical car changes for 2019 are an attempt to boost flagging ratings. But it’s hard to wonder just how they will do that. Yeah, the Kansas race stunk — sometimes that happens and Kansas has produced entertaining races recently — but a very popular driver won and there’s no reason to believe that a ton of people turned the race on before turning it off because it was bad.
If people aren’t watching in the first place, does it matter what the rules are?
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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.
Follow @NickBromberg on Twitter
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