NBC Sports’ coverage of the historic INDYCAR/NASCAR Xfinity crossover on Saturday from Indianapolis Motor Speedway delivered viewership milestones for both series, according to Fast National data by Nielsen and digital data from Adobe Analytics. Scott Dixon won the NTT INDYCAR Series GMR Grand Prix and Chase Briscoe won the NASCAR Xfinity Series Pennzoil 150 in back-to-back races at the IMS road course on Saturday, both on NBC.
Yesterday’s INDYCAR GMR Grand Prix (Noon-2:01 p.m. ET) averaged a Total Audience Delivery (TAD) of 1.145 million viewers, making it NBC Sports’ best-ever afternoon race and second-most watched INDYCAR race overall behind last month’s Genesys 300 at Texas Motor Speedway (1.256 million viewers) (excluding the 2019 Indianapolis 500 for both milestones).
It is also the most-watched Indy Grand Prix in six years (1.244 million, ABC, 2014) and up 7% vs. last year’s race in May (1.073 million, NBC). Yesterday’s race delivered a 0.77 HH rating and had a TV-only peak of 1.306 million viewers from 1:30-1:45 p.m. ET.
Through the first two races of the 2020 season, the NTT INDYCAR Series is averaging a TAD of 1.2 million viewers, up 30% vs. the first two INDYCAR races on NBC last season (922,000), excluding the Indy 500.
Following are the Top 5 markets for yesterday’s INDYCAR GMR Grand Prix:
Rank |
Market |
HH Rating |
1 |
Indianapolis |
4.87 |
2 |
West Palm Beach |
1.90 |
3 |
Cincinnati |
1.66 |
4 |
Nashville |
1.65 |
t5 |
Tampa-St. Petersburg |
1.64 |
t5 |
Las Vegas |
1.64 |
Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series Pennzoil 150 (3:09-5:12 p.m. ET) averaged a TAD of 1.692 million viewers, making it the most-watched Xfinity race from the Brickyard in three years (1.693 million, NBCSN, 2017), up 21% vs. the series’ four races on NBC in 2019 (1.398), and the most-watched Xfinity race on a broadcast network since Darlington last August (1.711 million on NBC).
TV-only viewership peaked at nearly two million viewers (1.990 million) as the race concluded from 5-5:12 p.m. ET. It delivered a 1.10 HH rating.
Following are the Top 5 markets for yesterday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series Pennzoil 150:
Rank |
Market |
HH Rating |
1 |
Indianapolis |
5.12 |
2 |
West Palm Beach |
3.04 |
3 |
Nashville |
2.66 |
4 |
Cincinnati |
2.59 |
5 |
Greensboro-High Point |
2.51 |
The NASCAR Cup Series takes center stage at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval today at 4 p.m. ET on NBC, as NBC Sports kicks off its 2020 NASCAR Cup Series coverage with the Big Machine Hand Sanitizer 400 Powered by Big Machine Records.
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