Nascar and IndyCar recorded solid, if not spectacular, viewing figures last weekend for their races at Darlington Raceway and Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS), respectively.
Confirmed:
- Nascar averages 2.63 million viewers in Darlington on FS1
- IndyCar hits average audience of 857,000 for Indy 500 prelude on NBC
Context:
On the surface, an average audience of 2.63 million appears quite weak for Nascar compared to the season as a whole. The stock car racing series is currently averaging around 3.35 million viewers per race. However, this is Nascar’s highest audience on FS1 so far in 2024 and it also falls largely in line with previous races at Darlington (2.68 million in 2023 and 2.61 million in 2022).
For IndyCar, this represents the first encouraging sign of the 2024 season. So far, every race has fallen in viewership compared to its 2023 counterpart. This year’s road course event at IMS saw viewership rise 22 per cent year-over-year to 875,000.
Overall, both series are actually trending downwards at their respective stages of the season. Last year, before its break for the All-Star Race, Nascar was averaging 3.48 million viewers, four per cent higher than the current 3.35 million viewers. In IndyCar, the downturn is much worse, with the average audience of 747,200 before the 2024 Indy 500 20 per cent lower than the average viewership of 938,000 prior to the 2023 race.
Comment:
Both series will be hoping to arrest their respective slides, with IndyCar holding out hope that the iconic Indianapolis 500 will deliver a strong audience (it's averaged around five million viewers for the last three years). Up next though is Nascar's All-Star Race, which takes place at North Wilkesboro Speedway on 19th May, before the Indy 500 rolls around on 26th May.
Go deeper:
- Nascar’s US$7.7bn TV deal: Why the annual value went up, who gets what, and the impact on fans
- IndyCar president Jay Frye on the 2024 schedule, US broadcast plans, and future expansion
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