Sunday’s 56th running of the Daytona 500, the second won by #88-Dale Earnhardt Jr., was clearly impacted by an historic weather delay that included torrential rain and tornado warnings for local areas. Despite starting on time, the race experienced an unprecedented six hour, 22-minute weather delay with only 38 laps run at 2:17pm/et that pushed it well out of its normal running window. The race resumed at 8:25pm/et, finding itself in direct competition with the Closing Ceremony of the Olympic Winter Games, which seems to have also been impacted by the competition.
Remarkably, NASCAR’s famously loyal fans stayed tuned to FOX throughout the marathon rain delay. The network’s nearly five hours of rain-delay coverage averaged a 4.0/8 in the metered markets, which easily beat head-to-head competition from a live NBA doubleheader on ABC (+54% vs. 2.6/6) and was competitive with Winter Olympics afternoon coverage on NBC (4.4/9 from 2-6 PM). Just as impressive, FOX was able to hold 69% of its pre-rain delay audience throughout the long interruption.
As a result, the 2014 Daytona 500 posted a 5.6/10 fast national household rating/share, averaging 9.3 million viewers. The last Daytona 500 to face Olympics’ competition came in 2010, and that race posted a 7.7/16, with 13.3 million viewers. Due to the extensive rain delay, yesterday’s race was broken out into two parts: from 1:30-2:17pm/et the race averaged a 6.3/15 with 10.1 million viewers and 5.5/9 with 9.1 million viewers from 8:25-11:23pm/et. Last night’s prime time portion of the race opened with a 4.6/7 with 7.7 million viewers. It grew steadily throughout the evening and peaked at a 6.7/12 with 10.9 million viewers from 11:00-11:23pm/et as Earnhardt Jr. took the checkered flag. In total, 23.7 million viewers watched all or part of the race.
The top five ranked markets are: Greensboro (17.5/26), Orlando (13.2/21), Greenville (13.0/20), Richmond (12.0/18) and Jacksonville (11.8/18). NBC’s coverage of the Closing Ceremony of the Sochi Olympic Winter Games, which aired directly opposite FOX’s prime time portion of the Daytona 500, averaged a 9.6/14 among the metered markets, down 32% from 2010 (14.1/21).(FoxSports)(2-24-2014)
