Has NASCAR found its market share and audience size?

With most NASCAR Cup Series races earning nearly the same television ratings and viewership that they did last year, has the series finally found a stable audience?

The most popular motorsport in North America may have finally found its true audience size. Out of the seven Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series events that have been broadcast on national television so far in 2019, four featured minuscule declines in the Nielsen ratings and overall viewership while three have seen slight increases.

Overall, Fox’s Cup Series viewership is up by 3% so far this season, according to Sports Business Journal’s Adam Stern. With most events earning nearly the same ratings that they earned last year, it appears that NASCAR may have found a stable audience. This news is welcoming to many fans, as the sport has seen ratings and viewership decline to record-lows for many consecutive seasons.

Of the events that have seen declines so far this season, the first was Daytona 500 qualifying at Daytona International Speedway, which earned a 1.1 Nielsen rating and 1.70 million viewers on Fox, marking a 18.2% decrease in ratings and a 16.3% decrease in viewership from 2018 (1.3 and 2.03 million).

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The Gander RV Duels at Daytona International Speedway earned a 1.0 rating and 1.73 million viewers this year on Fox Sports 1, marking a 9.1% decrease in ratings and a 12.6% decrease in viewership from 2018 (1.1 and 1.98 million).

After a slight increase in the overnight ratings, the Fox broadcast of the Daytona 500 saw a small decline in the final ratings, earning a record-low 5.3 rating with 9.17 million viewers. While the rating for the race was 5.3 in 2018 as well, the viewership for it was 9.30 million, marking a 1.4% decrease. The next week’s race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, which was also broadcast live on Fox, also hit a 20-year low with a 3.1 rating and 5.07 million viewers, marking a 6.1% decrease in ratings and a 9.6% decrease in viewership from 2018 (3.3 and 5.61 million).

But it is not all doom and gloom in the world of NASCAR TV ratings. Fox’s 3% overall increase in NASCAR viewership so far this season has taken place due to three races that have seen small increases.

Fox Sports 1’s coverage of the rain-shortened Advance Auto Parts Clash at Daytona earned a 1.4 rating and 2.29 million viewers, marking a 3.7% increase in ratings and a 1.3% increase in viewership from 2018 (1.35 and 2.26 million).

The first points-paying race to see an increase was the race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, which earned a 3.0 rating and 5.12 million viewers on Fox, marking a 3.4% increase in ratings and an 8.2% increase in viewership from 2018 (2.9, 4.73 million).

This past weekend’s race at ISM Raceway, once again on Fox, earned a 2.9 rating with 4.79 million viewers, marking a 3.6% increase in ratings and an 4.6% increase in viewership from 2018 (2.8, 4.58 million).

Sure, these increases are nothing to write home about, and with the season still young, viewership could easily decline once again. But with most races reaching approximately the same amount of viewers as they did last year, a question lingers: has NASCAR found its market share and audience size? If so, will the sport be able to successfully continue to move forward with said audience?

This might be an optimistic call, but the answer to both questions may very well be yes. Though it is very unlikely that NASCAR’s popularity will ever reach the levels it once reached in the early to mid-2000s when its TV ratings were second to only those of the NFL, the sport also probably isn’t going to vanish completely in the next few years, as some fans believe it will.

Sure, ratings this year are a far cry from NASCAR’s peak viewership average of 8.4 million in 2005, but they are certainly more than enough for the sport to survive. Other motorsports such as IndyCar, IMSA and NHRA have much smaller audiences than NASCAR does, but they continue to thrive due to their incredibly dedicated fanbases, so rest assured that even though NASCAR doesn’t attract as many eyeballs as it once did, North America’s most popular motorsport won’t be going anywhere soon.

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Will NASCAR’s ratings continue to rebound this season, or will they once again be on the decline? Only time will tell. The next scheduled NASCAR Cup Series race is the Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California. This race is scheduled to be broadcast live on Fox at 3:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, March 17.

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