The NASCAR Cup Series race at Kansas Speedway on Sunday drew 2.926 million viewers on over-the-air FOX according to Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel metric.
Beyond just the factual number, there is not a straightforward comparison, since this race aired on FS1 last year. NASCAR boasted a 26 percent increase from Kansas last year but that race aired on FS1. An April Cup Series race would be over 3 million viewers just even several years ago so this is also below recent years’ comparable metrics.
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This race was back on over-the-air FOX this year to give the IndyCar Series, which the network has a minority ownership stake in, a NASCAR lead-in to the Grand Prix of Long Beach. From that standpoint, the doubleheader was an overall success for the network as Long Beach drew 1.27 million.
This is up 130 percent from last year, when Long Beach drew 552,000 on FOX. IndyCar also said this was the most-watched Long Beach race since the Champ Car and Indy Racing League merger in 2008. It’s worth noting that last year’s Long Beach race also had TV competition from PGA’s The Masters.
The O’Reilly Auto Parts Series continues to generate business for The CW.
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The Kansas Lottery 300 got 1.18 million viewers, which was the most watched Kansas race in the second-tier division since 2023’s race on NBC. This is also up 12 percent from this same weekend last year, a race held at Rockingham Speedway.
Again, not apples-to-apples here either, but NASCAR on The CW continues to average over a million viewers a race since partnering at the start of the 2025 campaign.
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