• 38% YoY viewership decrease compared to last year’s Richmond event
  • Nascar averaging 2.64m regular season viewers in 2025 with one race remaining

Nascar averaged 1.39 million viewers for last weekend’s visit to Richmond Raceway on USA Network, its fourth-lowest regular season audience since 2020.

Despite no other major motorsport series racing on the same weekend, scheduling the penultimate event on a Saturday night appears to have hurt viewership, which fell 60 per cent compared to last year’s second-to-last race.

That Daytona event, however, aired on NBC and averaged 3.5 million viewers. Last year’s Richmond race, held earlier in the season, averaged 2.22 million viewers – a 38 per cent year-over-year (YoY) decline.

The last Saturday night Nascar Cup race, held in Atlanta in June, also ranks among the ten lowest-rated Cup broadcasts since 2020, raising questions about the viability of the format.

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Through three races, NBC is averaging 1.8 million viewers, although the broadcaster is yet to air a race on its main channel. But with only four races set for network television the rest of the year, NBC’s average may struggle to surpass two million viewers.

For the season overall, Nascar is currently averaging 2.64 million viewers, which is on pace for its lowest regular season average ever. Even a hypothetical 15 million viewers for the season finale at Daytona wouldn’t be enough to avoid that unwanted record.

Adding to concerns for Nascar executives, next weekend’s finale offers little drama to entice fans. William Byron has already clinched the regular season title, 14 of the 16 playoff spots are locked in, and only an unlikely win would prevent Tyler Reddick and Alex Bowman from claiming the final two slots.