IndyCar fails to keep momentum from Indianapolis 500
Icon SportswireGetty ImagesThose who say the NTT IndyCar Series is “The Indianapolis 500 and that’s about it,” might have gained a little fodder for their side of the discussion last week.
TV ratings for the week May 30-June 6, according to tracking website showbuzzdaily.com, showed soft numbers for the IndyCar Chevrolet Grand Prix of Detroit. The broadcast, which was the first this year for IndyCar on the USA Network, failed to carry the momentum of the previous week’s Indianapolis 500 and drew an average viewership of 354,000 (o.23 rating).
That IndyCar number was just slightly more than NASCAR Cup Series qualifying (325,000) on Saturday morning from World Wide Technology Raceway and slightly less than both NHRA qualifying from Epping, New Hampshire (369,000) from Saturday night.
The IndyCar numbers from Detroit, to be fair, do not include viewers who watched the race on the Peacock Premium streaming service, as those numbers were not available.
IndyCar attracted 4,6198,000 viewers for the Indianapolis 500 on NBC one week earlier on May 29. Even that number, however, was significantly down from last year’s 5,547,000 viewers for the 500.
Here are the motorsports we watched for the week May 30-June 5:
• NASCAR Cup Series Enjoy Illinois 300, Madison, Ill.; 2,502,000 viewers, 1.47 rating (Sunday, FS1)
• NASCAR Xfinity Series Pacific Office Automation 147, Portland, Oregon; 824,000, 0.56 (Saturday, FS1)
• NHRA New England Nationals, Epping, New Hampshire; 697,000, 0.41 (Sunday, FS1)
• NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Toyota 200, Madison, Ill.; 663,000, 0.45 (Saturday, FS1)
• NHRA New England Nationals Qualifying, Epping, N.H.; 369,000, 0.24 (Saturday, FS1)
• NTT IndyCar Series Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix, Detroit, Mich.; 354,000, 0.21 (Sunday, USA)
• NASCAR Cup Series Qualifying, Madison, Ill.; 325,000, 0.21 (Saturday, FS1)
• NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Qualifying, Madison, Ill.; 217,000, o.13 (Friday, FS1)
Keyword: Racing on TV: What We Watched, Motorsports Ratings May 30-June 6