NASCAR Fans Celebrate Their Ratings Victory

It seems this year's Coca-Cola 600 drew a bigger TV audience than its ‘main competition', the Indy 500. So? Like that's a big surprise or something? NASCAR has been trouncing IndyCar in terms of TV viewership (and just about everything else) for more years now than I can remember.

Well, even if it isn’t exactly news, America's favorite form of Sports Entertainment is very proud that they snatched more viewers this Memorial Day weekend. NASCAR's Ramsey Poston had his take on the victory, "To have one of our regular races - one that isn't the Daytona 500 - outperform every other motorsport in America is great." I forget, are there other forms of motorsport in America besides NASCAB? It's getting hard to tell. But, yes Mr. Poston, your organization does still reign supreme.

There is, however, a light at the end of this stock car dominated tunnel. You see, the Figh'Hunred was actually able to outdraw NASCAR in our nation's biggest TV markets. And not by a small margin either. The overnight ratings (culled from the top 46 TV markets) show a 16% larger audience for the Indy 500 than the Coca-Cola 600. But once the rest of the country is accounted for, the margin flips to 4% in the other direction.

I think the message from all of this is clear. In major (and not so major) metropolitan areas, the Indy 500 is making a comeback. In rural areas - some might say ‘hill folk’ areas - it’s not even on the radar. You’ve come a long way Indy, but ye still have so far to go…