Bristol TV ratings down

The ESPN TV Rating for the Sharpie 500 Nextel Cup race at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday night, August 25th was a 3.5 rating with 5,735,000 viewers, down 3% from 2006 when it was aired on TNT and drew a cable rating of 3.6. Given how much more ESPN bid for the TV contract over TNT, and given they are putting all their eggs in the NASCAR basket and largely ignoring Champ Car and the IRL, it must be disheartening to upper management to know their best efforts are failing (ESPN ratings have been consistently down from previous years) and they are likely to take a financial bloodbath on the deal.