NASCAR Community Including Brad Keselowski React as Viewership Comparisons With Miami F1 Race Comes to Light

On Sunday, it was a blockbuster weekend for US motorsports as Formula One hosted the inaugural Miami Grand Prix. On the same weekend was the Goodyear 400 NASCAR Throwback Weekend at the Darlington Raceway. Once both races wrapped up, the TV viewership numbers came in for both events. Naturally, the NASCAR community reacted to the comparison, and one of them was Brad Keselowski.

As it turns out, the Darlington race earned a 1.45 rating, compared to F1’s 1.08 rating. Meanwhile, it drew a grand total of 2.614 million viewers, while the Miami race had 2.066 million viewers. Interestingly, though, when looking at the 18-49 demographic, NASCAR had 517,000 viewers. On the other end of the spectrum, F1 boasted 735,000 viewers.

Many were upset that Fox Sports did not air the Darlington race. For them, the Darlington Throwback weekend is a massive event. Additionally, there could have been opportunities to rope in the younger viewers and educate them about NASCAR. Commentators and pundits like Mike Joy, Clint Bowyer, and Dale Earnhardt Jr could have been instrumental in this.

How did the NASCAR and F1 races pan out?

On the F1 front, Max Verstappen snatched victory and scripted his name in US motor sport history. Behind him were the Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz respectively, with teammate Sergio Perez in 4th place. Meanwhile, the NASCAR Cup race at Darlington concluded with Joey Logano winning. Though it is worth noting that it was a slightly controversial victory, as he did a bump and run on William Byron.

It was a move that the late great Dale Earnhardt was famous for, in his heyday. The man was known as the Intimidator, and his bump tactics was part of his arsenal to ‘intimidate’ other drivers. Admittedly, people must have thought that the Darlington race was far more exciting, so that explained the high viewership numbers.

READ MORE: NASCAR Drivers and Fans Outraged at Eye-Watering Prices of F1 Merchandise at the Miami GP

Of course, NASCAR will want to try and win over the 18-49 demographic. Formula One has definitely done a lot to bring in a younger audience. In fact, the Netflix series Formula One: Drive to Survive has been a massive boon in boosting popularity.

Unfortunately, NASCAR does not have anything like that just yet. Hopefully, a streaming service finally comes up and shoots a documentary-drama series on the stock car series. Given this strategy is working well with F1, would you like to see something similar in NASCAR?