The Complete 2024 NASCAR TV Ratings Tracker
What’s Happening? There are few things more important to NASCAR than TV ratings. TV networks are largely responsible for funding the…
The NASCAR on Fox portion of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season is now done, and that makes this a perfect time to look back at their 2024 TV ratings. Was this a successful year for NASCAR on Fox?
What’s Happening? There are few things more important to NASCAR than TV ratings. TV networks are largely responsible for funding the…
Fox Sports released their final figures for the 2024 season, which showed that the network saw an overall increase in the regular season ratings despite the season-opening Daytona 500 being postponed due to rain. This trend was true for both cable and network TV races, and this was the first time Fox saw an overall year-to-year increase despite the Daytona 500 rain delay.
Granted, Fox did have two fewer races significantly hampered by weather in 2024 compared to 2023. In 2023, the Dover race was postponed to Monday for rain, and the Gateway race saw a two-hour lightning delay. Either way, this is an impressive accomplishment.
It’s uncertain whether Fox included non-point events like “The Clash” and the All-Star Race, but they only counted regular-season races when dividing cable and network TV. Therefore, we can assume this is based on the regular-season races.
This makes sense because the Clash at the LA Coliseum saw a major drop in TV ratings due to factors outside of Fox’s control. The race was moved up from Sunday to Saturday, and from network TV on FOX to cable TV on FS1. This is, therefore, not a direct comparison that, by our rough calculations, gives Fox an overall 2.4% decrease for the entirety of the 2024 schedule, including non-point events.
Below are some other figures regarding the 2024 season compared to 2023. This showcases that the majority of races on Fox saw an increase in viewership.
| Overall | Regular Season | |
| Races with Viewership increases | 11/19 (57.9%) | 10/16 (62.5%) |
| Network Races with Viewership Increases | 6/10 (60%) | 6/10 (60%) |
| Cable Races with Viewership Increases | 5/9 (55.6%) | 4/6 (67%) |
Overall, this is a very impressive resume, especially considering Fox’s handicaps. This all came despite one fewer race being on network TV in 2024 compared to 2023. However, let’s examine the 2024 TV Ratings more closely.
Below are some of the superlatives from the 2024 Fox season. These are the races that did exceptionally well or exceptionally poorly, depending on certain factors.
| Overall | Regular Season | |
| Most-Viewed | Daytona 500 (5.964 Million) | Daytona 500 (5.964 Million) |
| Least-Viewed | Clash (1.511 Million) | Martinsville (2.191 Million) |
| Biggest Increase | Dover (+83%) | Dover (+83%) |
| Biggest Decrease | Clash (-58.6%) | Daytona 500 (-27.0%) |
The Daytona 500 was still the most-viewed race of 2024 despite being rain-hampered. The least-viewed race of 2024 was The Clash, which was weather-impacted, whereas Martinsville was the least-viewed race without such a handicap. Martinsville was also the least-viewed, non-weather-impacted race of 2023.
Regarding increases and decreases, The Clash, Daytona, and Dover all have weather-impacted races to compare themselves to. The biggest increase for a non-weather-impacted race without a network change was Phoenix (+18.8%), whereas the biggest decrease for a non-weather-impacted race without a network change was, based on our tentative figures, Talladega (-5.4%).
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