Despite Repeated Blunders, WWT Raceway Delivers a 700,000+ Boost for NASCAR

The NASCAR Cup Series race at the World Wide Technology Raceway was eventful, to say the least. While there wasn’t much action in terms of hard racing, fans were treated to some late drama. Christopher Bell’s hope for a win ended in blowing up his engine in his battle with Ryan Blaney. Meanwhile, the Penske star also conceded his lead and a potential win, after running out of gas with 2 Laps to go in the race to his teammate, Austin Cindric.

However, these weren’t the only unfortunate events from the race, as many teams lost their internet access and SMT data during the race. Thus, continuing the trend that has foiled NASCAR events in the past at the racetrack. But, despite the stoppages and rather subdued racing action, the race did garner some impressive numbers in terms of TV views.

NASCAR event dominating TV ratings once again

NASCAR Cup races have racked in some good viewership compared to last year, and last weekend’s race at WWT Raceway followed suit. The race, which was aired on FS1, garnered 2,459,000 viewers; this was a 14% rise when compared to last year’s race. The 2023 event collected 2,160,000 views. Moreover, the Cup race was the most watched cable event on Sunday compared to other sporting events.

FOX Sport PR, via its X handle, stated, “🚨 @NASCARonFOX drives double-digit viewership increase in the Gateway to the West! 📈. Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race from St. Louis delivered 2,459,000 viewers on FS1, up +14% over last year”.

This was a huge turnaround and a positive change from the Coca-Cola 600 race, which was washed out by rain, and took a significant hit in terms of ratings as well as viewership. The crown jewel NASCAR event averaged a 1.7 rating and 3.10 million viewers on FOX. Making it the lowest rated and least watched Coca-Cola 600 race in 23 years run with FOX. Moreover, this also saw Kyle Larson miss out on the start of the race, and find himself in a sticky situation with the waiver situation. So all in all, these were encouraging signs for NASCAR to see a positive response by the TV viewers for their race at WWT Raceway.

Even the fans were taken by surprise to see a sharp increase in TV ratings for the Cup race last weekend. Usually, the fans give NASCAR a hard time with their unapologetic views and opinions, but this time around, they were appreciative of the effort. Thanks to the good viewership numbers.

Fans react to the uptick in TV ratings for last weekend’s race at WWT Raceway

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NASCAR fans have a rather tricky relationship with the sport. Despite all the disagreements and venting out their frustration on race-related issues, they just can’t keep themselves away from tuning in for another event the very next weekend.

There have been complaints about FOX’s questionable coverage and untimely commercial breaks. However, surprisingly, last weekend’s coverage sort of made amends and provided the viewers with a good show. “For all the complaining about FOX they are probably going to have a year to year increase in viewers”.

One fan highlighted, how some fans were proven wrong in their predictions of NASCAR’s downfall after a washed-out Coca-Cola 600. “Lets see how all the doomers that were proclaiming the death of nascar after the Coke 600 raitings spin this one”.

Impressed by the TV numbers, a few others chimed in with their responses, “That’s a very nice boost.” Someone even pointed out the fact that these numbers don’t make sense because fans were apparently mad at NASCAR, “but people were mad at NASCAR?” 

Like always, there were a few negative sentiments in the comments, but they were shunned by fans who were appreciative of the good viewership count. “Just the pack of screaming monkeys who yell nonsensically in the race thread”.

The NASCAR Cup Series bandwagon heads to Sonoma Raceway for a road course race this weekend. Last year’s race nearly reached the 3 million mark with the TV viewership, and something similar is expected with this Sunday’s race.