NASCAR on Fox earned a major victory this weekend with an excellent 7.1/13 (12.1 million viewers) for the UAW Daimler-Chrysler 400 from Las Veg. Sunday’s 7.1/13 marks a +13% gain over last year’s 6.3/13 and is the best rating ever for the Las Vegas race, topping the previous high of 6.9/15 in 2003. Excluding the Daytona 500, this is Fox’s highest-rated NASCAR race since the 2006 Fontana race (7.4/14). The long-sought elimination of the bye week between Fontana and Las Vegas was the primary factor in this weekend’s big ratings increase. So far this season, Fox has aired four Sprint Cup programs that were not impacted by rain, and all four of them have posted better ratings than last year (Bud Shootout, Daytona qualifying, Daytona 500, Las Vegas 400). Looking just at Sprint Cup races, Fox is up +1% for the season including the rain-impacted Fontana race (7.9/14 vs. 7.8/15). Excluding Fontana, Fox is up +2% for the two races that ran as scheduled (8.6/17 vs. 8.4/17).(Fox PR)(3-4-2008)
