What’s Happening?

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?

• Fox just completed their 24th season covering NASCAR, and the network is set to continue covering NASCAR in the next TV contract, which runs through 2031. While the ratings are not as big of a deal to keep Fox long-term, they showcase the sport’s health.
• This year saw Fox make some gains. Despite outside factors that Fox cannot control affecting some major events, Fox seemingly had a positive year.
• Fans were not too kind to Fox’s broadcasts in 2024, but they do like to see TV ratings increase. The more people that watch NASCAR, the better it is for everyone involved.

The Overall Final Ratings

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.

🚨Weather couldn’t rain on the @NASCARonFOX parade this year!

For the first time since 2001, the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season on FOX & FS1 was up year-over-year, despite a rain-postponed Daytona 500 📈 pic.twitter.com/f8zjgCiYAS

— FOX Sports PR (@FOXSportsPR) June 11, 2024

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.

The Highs and The Lows

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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