It’s been a busy couple of days for big motorsport last weekend, which also coincided with the opening of the regular season for the sports TV juggernaut, NFL football. And a pretty good time was spent all around.
According to curated numbers from ShowbuzzDaily.com, The NASCAR Cup series Round out Richmond Saturday night on NBCSN an average Nielsen rating of 1.07 and 1.784 million household viewers. That is a tad more than the 1.05 / 1.738 million last year in the cable network and on the same Saturday night slot.
NASCARs Xfinity series ran early Saturday in Richmond and averaged 0.48 / 806,000 viewers on NBCSN, compared to 0.48 / 766K last year.
But the big winner of the year was again formula 1. The live broadcast of the Italian Grand Prix on ESPN2 on Sunday morning reached an average of 0.53 and 880,000 viewers. Although the first 13 races of the year were below the season average of 938,000 spectators – an increase of 49 percent compared to the same period last year – this year’s numbers were well above the 0.38 / 627,000 for the Tuscan GP in 2020 on the same weekend and channel, making this the most watched Italian GP since it aired on ABC in 2002.
ESPN reports that F1’s sprint qualifying format appeared to be a bigger hit with viewers too, as it drew 642,000 to ESPN2 on Saturday morning, compared to 369,000 who watched traditional qualifying for the 2020 Tuscan GP on the same channel .
the NTT IndyCar series returned to NBC for the race last Sunday afternoon in Portland, earning an average rating of 0.43 and 666,000 viewers. Last year, IndyCar drove in Mid-Ohio that weekend, averaging .44 / 635K for the portion that aired on NBC before switching to NBCSN.
NHRAs Camping World Drag Racing Series at Maple Grove an average of 0.17 / 316,000 viewers on FS1.
Delayed coverage of motorcycle races on NBCSN on Sunday evening brought in 140,000 viewers AMA motocross from Sacramento and 81,000 for MotoGP from Aragon.
Numbers for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race at Laguna Seca were not available.