NASCAR viewership slides to historic low ahead of season finale

NASCAR's viewership has hit a historic low ahead of the season finale, with Sunday's race at Martinsville averaging just 1.99 million viewers on NBC. This is a 15% decrease from last year's race, which averaged 2.35 million viewers, and marks the lowest-watched non-delayed NASCAR Cup Series race in broadcast television history. This decline comes after a slight increase in viewership for the Cup Series at Talladega, where the series averaged 2.58 million viewers, a 1% increase from the previous year's 2.56 million viewers.

However, the race in Phoenix only garnered 1.29 million viewers, a 24% drop year-over-year, similar to the 2025 New Hampshire race. Out of the nine races so far, five Chase events have seen year-over-year viewership increases, while four have seen declines. Despite this, multiple double-digit drops have overshadowed the gains, leading to a decline in postseason viewership overall.

Heading into Sunday's season finale at Homestead-Miami, The Chase is averaging 1.71 million viewers through nine races, a 3% decrease from the same point last year (1.77 million), which was previously the lowest viewership for the postseason in the series' history. To match last year's average of 1.87 million viewers, Sunday's finale would need to average approximately 3.24 million viewers, the highest-viewed NASCAR Cup Series season finale since 2019.

Despite the hope that NASCAR's reintroduction of The Chase would boost postseason viewership, this has not been the case during the format's first season back. The reliance on cable television and the constant switching of races between networks throughout the season have proven to be frustrating issues for fans and media observers.