TV ratings for Martinsville Cup Series race worst in 20 years
The television lows that NASCAR experienced at Kansas continued at Martinsville.
The ratings for Joey Logano’s win at Martinsville on Sunday fell over 20 percent from 2017, according to Sports Media Watch. This year’s race had 2.17 million people watching compared to 2.78 million viewers a year ago. Both races were broadcast on NBC Sports Network.
The eye-popping numbers don’t stop there. The rating — the share of people watching television at that time who were watching the race — fell from 1.7 to 1.3. And according to SMW, “excluding rainouts, Joey Logano‘s win was the lowest rated at Martinsville since at least 1999 and the least-watched since at least 2001.”
Oh, the race’s 2.17 million viewers is less than half the number of people (4.32 million) who watched the same Martinsville race in 2013 on ESPN and was the 24th race of the season to have the worst ratings in either 10 years or since TV ratings have been tracked in earnest.
With fewer people watching TV, almost every type of programming is seeing viewer losses. But no type of sport is seeing the viewer losses NASCAR is. Losing over half of its viewership in five years is a frightening reality for a series that depends on corporate sponsorship. It’s also a frightening reality for NBC and Fox, which spent lavishly for the rights to NASCAR races with the hope that ratings weren’t going to freefall like this.
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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.
Follow @NickBromberg on Twitter
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