NASCAR Ratings Are In for North Wilkesboro… And They Are Not Great

May 23, 2023
11:08 am
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Joshua Lipowski

According to Adam Stern, the All-Star Race viewership dropped from 2.481 million viewers to 2.203 million viewers compared to last years All-Star Race at Texas. This is the first time since Bristol on Easter Sunday that NASCAR TV ratings showed a drop.

What’s Happening

The TV Ratings for North Wilkesboro were released on Tuesday. According to Adam Stern, the All-Star Race viewership dropped from 2.481 million viewers to 2.203 million viewers compared to last years All-Star Race at Texas. This is the first time since Bristol on Easter Sunday that NASCAR TV ratings showed a drop.

.@FS1 got a 1.28 rating + 2.203 million viewers for Sunday's NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro, down from a 1.38 + 2.481 million last year at Texas.

🔲 FS1 ran a longer broadcast window this year with pre/post race coverage; for race-specific portion, FS1 was almost flat. pic.twitter.com/k1KT3u0h1b
— Adam Stern (@A_S12) May 23, 2023

One of the most hotly anticipated races of the year at North Wilkesboro fell in the TV ratings compared to last year’s All-Star Race at Texas Motor Speedway. Stern did add the caveat that FS1 did run a longer window this year, and the race itself pulled in almost identical viewership to last year.
NASCAR had been in a ratings uptick over the past five weeks before this. Every race from Martinsville until Darlington had increased TV ratings. NASCAR did have significant competition that day as they went up against both the NBA Playoffs on TNT, Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN, and the PGA Championship on CBS during the Open.
Fans were deflated to see the ratings for this past weekend. Most fans blamed the race being on FS1 and not Fox for the ratings struggles, but others blamed a boring racing product on Sunday night.

In the Stands

NASCAR only has two Saturday night races left in Daytona and Bristol.

A shocker indeed Dylan

Would love to see the exact graph of what the ratings were throughout the race.

The North Wilkesboro iRacing event only had 668,000 viewers.

Why this race was not on Fox is definitely a discussion point.

This fan turned it off at the halfway point.

Down indeed.

This was definitely a race for the hardcore fan.

The question can be legitimately asked.

On Your Screen

Yikes indeed.

Darian does not like what he saw in the ratings.

Apparently so

In the Pressbox

There is a reason why the NFL puts their marquee game on Sunday night.

Daniel McFadin has no words.

There are a multitude of potential reasons for why North Wilkesboro did not pull in the ratings that were expected. It is not a track that appeals to the casual fans even if the hardcore racing fans were excited about it. How NASCAR will respond to this is going to be interesting.