UPDATE: Last Saturday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Daytona averaged a 2.4 rating and 3.87 million viewers on NBC, marking the lowest rated edition of the race formerly known as the Firecracker 400 since at least 1997 and the least-watched since at least 2000 (excluding rainouts). Across all Daytona races, only the road race there two weeks earlier averaged a smaller audience (3.24M).
Ratings fell 11% and viewership 13% from 2018, the last time the race was run as scheduled (2.7, 4.44M). Last year’s summer Daytona race was postponed from Saturday night to Sunday afternoon due to rain and averaged a 2.1 and 3.29 million.
The record low is no real surprise. Beyond a date change from July 4 weekend to late August — set long before world events uprooted the sporting calendar — the race had to contend with an unusually high level of competition.
Notably, Daytona averaged a larger audience than every NBA and NHL game since those seasons restarted and all-but-one game of the shortened Major League Baseball season.
Daytona ranks as the highest rated and most-watched auto race since the Brickyard 400 on July 4 weekend (2.7, 4.34M), topping the previous weekend’s IndyCar Indianapolis 500 (2.3, 3.67M). For the season, it ranks ninth among NASCAR races, clocking in two spots ahead of the Daytona road race two weeks earlier (2.0, 3.24M).
ORIGINAL POST 8-30-2020: NBC had nearly 4 million viewers for the final regular season Cup Series race on Saturday night. So far this season, the network has seen an increase in viewership by 2% compared to last season.
.@NBC earned a 2.41 rating/nearly 3.9 million viewers for last night's #CokeZeroSugar400.
➖ No direct comp because '19 regular-season finale was Brickyard 400 and '19 summer Daytona was weather-impacted.
➖ NBC says regular-season viewership up 2% if excluding Kansas midweek. pic.twitter.com/nB5nAn8QAo
— Adam Stern (@A_S12) August 30, 2020