Daytona 500 TV figures released as NASCAR learns – Sports News
NASCAR revealed the 68th Daytona 500 drew practically 7.5 million viewers in a soar from final 12 months’s race attended by President Donald Trump.
For Sunday’s Daytona 500, FOX Sports delivered 7,489,000 viewers. The race outscored each non-prime Winter Olympics window on broadcast and cable, and represents an 11 p.c soar over 2025, which delivered 6,761,000 viewers.
However, the 2025 Daytona 500 was interrupted by rain and delayed. The final Daytona 500 not affected by rain in any capability was 2023, which drew 8.173 million.
Sunday’s Daytona 500 was affected by rain, too, and the beginning time was moved up an hour to beat out the thunderstorm that hit Florida simply after the race. According to earlier trends, NASCAR value itself viewership by shifting the race up an hour to keep away from the rain.
As a consequence, the race ran from 2:15 p.m. ET to five:45 p.m. Still, peak viewership reached 9,154,000 during the 5:30 to five:45 quarter hour.
According to FOX, the Daytona 500 beat out each non-prime Winter Olympics window on broadcast and cable. It was the main exhibiting amongst all broadcast and cable networks in viewership during the race within the 2:15-to-5:45 window.
Meanwhile, Thursday’s Daytona 500 qualifying drew 1,835,000 viewers, which is flat from final 12 months. The Truck Series jumped to 1,387,000, up 37 p.c 12 months over 12 months, to change into the most-watched Truck Series race since 2016; the race peaked at 1.6 million viewers within the 9:45-10:00 a.m. quarter hour.
This soar in reputation may be attributed to YouTuber Cleetus McFarland making his sequence debut, as properly as Hall of Famer Tony Stewart getting behind the wheel of a NASCAR for the primary time in a decade. The O’Reilly Auto Parts season opener on Saturday earned 1,812,000 complete viewers, basically flat from 2025.
The rankings properly complement the attendance down in Daytona. The occasion was a sell-out, with 101,500 within the grandstands on Sunday, whereas complete attendance for the week reached roughly 450,000.
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