IndyCar ratings continue to rise for ABC, ESPN2

Ratings for ABC’s and ESPN2’s coverage of Third Day Qualifying and Bump Day at the 92nd Running of the Indianapolis 500 showed significant gains from 2007.

Saturday’s coverage from 4-6:30 p.m. on ESPN2 was up 25 percent, while ESPN2’s coverage of Bump Day, which included six qualifying attempts in the final 30 minutes, registered a 50 percent increase. The overnight ratings for ABC’s Bump Day coverage, which included two hours earlier in the afternoon, was up 18 percent from 2007.

Earlier this season, race broadcasts from Homestead-Miami Speedway in March and Kansas Speedway in April on ESPN2 generated the two highest-rated IndyCar Series races in the network’s history.