TV News: Weekend USA Motorsports TV Ratings
USA motorsports TV ratings from this past weekend. NASCAR was in Talladega, F1 in Shanghai, China and IndyCar in Long Beach, CA.
TV Rating Analysis
NASCAR/ARCA
NASCAR Cup Series racing from Talladega drew a 2.4 and 4.31 million on FOX. Tyler Reddick’s win declined 7% and 5% respectively from last year (4.554 million) to rank as the least-watched edition of the race — excluding the COVID year of 2020 — since it began airing on FOX in 2001. Not counting the 2020 race, which was not only pushed to July but postponed a day from its rescheduled date due to rain, viewership was the lowest for the spring Talladega race since it began airing on FOX in 2001.
In other action from Talladega, the Xfinity Series race there drew a 0.9 and 1.60 million on FOX Saturday afternoon — up a tick and 12% respectively from last year’s 0.8 and 1.31 million. The preceding ARCA series race on FS1 had a 0.23 (-32%) and 413,000 (-21%).
Formula 1
ESPN got 626,000 viewers for F1’s Chinese GP that aired at 3:00am ET on Sunday, up 133% from 268,000 the last time the race ran in 2019 on ESPN2.
The F1 race, despite airing at 3:00am on a Sunday morning, drew more than double the viewers the IndyCar race achieved.
Once again, the F1 race dwarfed all other motorsports series with 43% of the viewers in the all -important 18-49 age group – a key metric for advertisers. The fanbase for all other forms of motorsports continues to age out.
IndyCar/IMSA
USA Network got 307,000 viewers for Sunday’s IndyCar race at Long Beach, down 70% from 1.026 million last year on NBC.
In other action from Long Beach, the Saturday IMSA race there drew just 100,000 viewers on the USA Network
TV Rating Data
| Network | Event | Location | Total Viewers |
18-49 Viewers |
Ratio: 18-49 Yr Old/ Total Viewers |
2024 Rating |
2023 Rating |
Rating % Chg. |
2023 Network |
2023 Viewers |
2023 18-49 Viewers |
Total Viewers % Chg |
18-49 Viewers % Chg |
| FOX | NASCAR Cup Race | Talladega | 4,307,000 | 757,000 | 18% | 2.40 | 2.58 | -6.98% | FOX | 4,554,000 | 774,000 | -5.42% | -2.20% |
| FOX | NASCAR Xfinity race | Talladega | 1,602,000 | 276,000 | 17% | 0.90 | 0.78 | +15.38% | FOX | 1,309,000 | 219,000 | +22.38% | +26.03% |
| ESPN | F1 Chinese GP | Shanghai 3:00am | 626,000 | 268,000 | 43% | 0.34 | 0.15 | +126.67% | ESPN2 | 268,000 | 107,000 | +133.58% | +150.47% |
| FS1 | ARCA Race | Talladega | 413,000 | 74,000 | 18% | 0.23 | 0.34 | -32.35% | FS1 | 522,000 | 97,000 | -20.88% | -23.71% |
| USA | IndyCar Race | Long Beach | 307,000 | 65,000 | 21% | 0.17 | 0.61 | -72.13% | NBC | 1,026,000 | 193,000 | -70.08% | -66.32% |
| USA | IMSA Race | Long Beach | 100,000 | 39,000 | 39% | 0.06 | No Data from Last Year | ||||||