NASCAR saw a 5% viewership drop this season for its Cup Series. The stock car racing circuit averaged 2.86 million viewers across NBC, Fox, FS1 and USA this season, down from 3.03 million last year.
Those figures run from the Daytona 500 in February through the finale in Phoenix held on the weekend of Nov. 4-5, but exclude The Clash and All-Star Race. The Cup Series had four Monday finishes this year due to weather (those are factored into the numbers).
The Nov. 5 championship race at Phoenix Raceway in Avondale averaged 3 million viewers, which is the best for any of the playoff races this season, but it's also likely the least-watched Cup finale since the playoff system started in 2004. Last year, the championship race in Phoenix averaged 3.4 million. NBC’s audience peaked at 3.8 million viewers on Sunday as Ryan Blaney was taking home the title.
