Chase Elliott Suspension”- Racing Fandom Livid as NASCAR Once Again Walks....

NASCAR has a worsening problem. Over a number of years, the sport’s popularity has been on a steady decline, and nothing seems to be doing the trick. At one point in time, NASCAR used to be one of the most popular sports in the country. However, years of stagnation and aversion to change have seen the organizers fail to attract new fans. In the recent past, NASCAR has often been called a dying sport. Die-hard fans may disagree, but the viewership numbers and TV ratings paint a gloomy picture

The TV viewership numbers for Sunday’s Las Vegas Motor Speedway race came out. It was not something that the organizers were expecting. Compared to last season’s playoff race in Vegas, this year’s event saw a steep drop in viewership numbers. Insiders were perplexed by the statistics, but fans have come up with their own theories about what went wrong.

Eminent NASCAR journalist Jeff Gluck retweeted an earlier tweet that spoke about the Las Vegas viewership numbers. The race was able to pull in 2.194 million viewers, which is 16% less than last year’s 2.619 million. This was indeed quite concerning, considering that it was the same race. Drop-offs in viewerships are not something uncommon but by that much of a margin?

Jeff Gluck himself seemed perplexed at what went wrong. He retweeted the viewership numbers with the caption, “Not a good report for the TV ratings this week. Somehow, 425k viewers dropped off compared to the same race last year.”

This viewership problem has persisted in NASCAR throughout the whole 2023 Cup Series season. Let’s take a look at how the previous races did compared to their 2022 viewership data. The final race of the round of 12 was held at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. The Roval Race has always intrigued fans, but in 2023, the event received TV viewership numbers of 2.28 million. This is a 4.6% drop from the 2022 edition of the event, which had 2.39 million viewers.

Talladega was quite a shock to the organizers, as it saw a drop-off of 11.4% from last year’s event. The 2023 viewership numbers were 2.505 million, while 2022 saw 2.827 million viewers. It was unprecedented, as the regular-season race at the superspeedway saw massive viewership numbers of 4.554 million.