2023 Coca-Cola 600 Was The Most-Viewed Monday Race Since 2014

What’s Happening?

As reported by NASCAR journalist, Adam Stern, the Coca-Cola 600 was the most-viewed Monday afternoon NASCAR race since 2014, excluding Daytona 500s. This comes at a mild surprise as the ratings were previously believed to take a big hit with all the rain delay coverage and postponements. Typically, those sorts of situations hinder NASCAR’s viewership greatly, though it is possible that they were helped by the running of the race taking place on a national holiday.

You Need To Know:

• As stated before, the last NASCAR race ran on a Monday afternoon to get anywhere near the 3.399 million viewers that the 2023 running of the Coke 600 got was in 2014, obviously excluding Daytona 500s. This is a big deal because while falloff was anticipated to be big, it was nowhere near the drop as expected. The 2022 running of the race which was run on time on a Sunday evening scored 3.869 million viewers. So this should generally be looked at as a pretty decent win by NASCAR standards.
• The little ratings falloff could be attributed to a couple of things: 1.) It was ran on a national holiday in Memorial Day. Many people were off work and able to watch the television in between their cookouts and firework celebrations. 2.) It was a marquee event. The Coca-Cola 600 is one of the crown jewel races in NASCAR. It, along with the Grand Prix of Monaco and the Indianapolis 500 are apart of auto racing’s biggest and longest day. It’s a long standing tradition in the eyes of many to watch all three and see the best racers in their world do their thing. Out of 15 different events, which excludes any and all Daytona 500s, NASCAR’s biggest race, the 2023 Coca-Cola 600 is the most viewed NASCAR race to run on a Monday since 2014, an era when NASCAR’s most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr., was experiencing a career resurgence. That speaks volumes.
• A majority of fans view this news as positive and it is a good thing for NASCAR and all of their associates. However, a few fans with some of the loudest voices have pointed out that there was no competition for NASCAR in the timeslot in which they ran. Meanwhile, other’s echo Dale Jr.’s thoughts that with the NextGen car and the package they took to Charlotte the last two years, the oval at Charlotte Motor Speedway is back, complementing the good, clean, competitive race.

With this news it leaves one to wonder if NASCAR would ever consider ditching the infield “roval” and bringing the OG Charlotte oval back to its previous two race a year. When the fall oval race was suspended in 2018 for the new “roval” road course, it was done so because the Generation 6 car and its package did not complement mile and a half tracks as much. But, with the NextGen car, it would appear that the intermediate tracks are back and with a vengeance. Dale Jr. is already pushing to bring the oval back for the fall playoff race. With his close working relationship with Marcus Smith being cited, it leaves many fans to wonder if the “roval” could be living on barrowed time.

In The Stands

Here, AJ Peck asks why they would exclude the Daytona 500 in their tally as it is NASCAR’s biggest crown jewel. A couple of blue checkmarks in Brandon Farris Photography and Steve Paris hammer back that it is a big win for NASCAR and that the Daytona 500, being NASCAR’s biggest race, is such a huge event that it’s easily NASCAR’s most-viewed race of any season.

Nick imagines that it garnered a lot of interactions on social media. I think our social media gurus at the Daily Downforce can confirm that. 🙂

Mike Schmidt is happy to hear the news but also points out that the crowd was only around 30% capacity at the track. Troubling, for sure, but it was a Monday. People had to travel to get back to work the next day. Makes sense to me.

Treavor loved the race. Many agree with you, my friend!

cannot be blank points out that while this is an overall win for NASCAR, they also had little-to-no competition. Every party has its pooper.

Drew is upset with Stern’s “misleading” tweet, saying that OF COURSE the race would have gotten more viewers, it being a national holiday and all, than a regular Monday.

What do you think about this, Daily Downforce readers? I, for one, view it as a massive W for NASCAR. Let us know what you think on all of our socials and stay tuned right here this weekend for our coverage of the Xfinity race at Portland and the Cup and Truck Series at Gateway!