Daytona 500 TV ratings up from last year after fast start. How many stayed after rain delay?

The start of the Daytona 500 saw a big ratings boost, year over year, but a chunk of the audience didn’t return after the long rain delay.

According to Fox Sports, the race averaged 6.761 million viewers on the network. Viewership peaked at the start, with nearly 8 million watching between 2-2:15 p.m., a time frame that included President Trump’s pace laps in front of the field, as well as the race’s first 11 laps of green-flag racing before a rain delay lasting nearly four hours.

Overall, the viewing average is 13% ahead of last year, when an average of nearly 6 million watched on Monday after a total Sunday washout. As usual, the Daytona 500 was the most watched sporting event of the weekend.

For some context, last year’s Indy 500 drew an average of 5.3 million viewers.

NASCAR THRU THE GEARS Daytona 500 edition: A crash course in theatrics, as usual

For NASCAR, numbers are down but the paydays keep going up

NASCAR remains well off its peak years, from 2001-2015, when most years averaged between 15-19 million.

A splintered media market, which now includes folks watching on their phones or laptops, is often assigned some of the blame for the decline.

Others also cite the exodus of that era’s fan favorites — such as Rusty Wallace, Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Jimmie Johnson and NASCAR’s most popular racer of this century, Dale Earnhardt Jr.

More perspective: Of the 40 most watched auto races in the U.S. last year, 38 were NASCAR races, with the other two being the Indy 500 (it was No. 2) and the Formula One race from Miami (No. 16). Of the 38 NASCAR events, the only non-Cup Series race was the Xfinity Series race from Chicago (No. 39).

Ratings for most sports-entertainment enterprises — excluding the NFL and college football — are well off their peaks from earlier times, but sports remains a money maker for leagues and the networks seeking live-event coverage and the ad revenue it delivers.

For instance, NASCAR’s numbers aren’t where they once were, but the new media-rights deal, which kicked in this year and runs for seven years, was reportedly worth $7.7 billion, a 35% increase over the previous seven-year deal.

TNT, Amazon Prime join broadcast lineup for 2025 NASCAR season

While Fox (including FS1) and NBC (including USA) remain on board, the full Xfinty Series season will be broadcast on The CW. Also, A slate of 10 midseason races will be shown on Amazon Prime and TNT.

Expect some blowback in late May when Amazon Prime begins its five-week run. Streaming services are increasing their viewership, but large numbers of households don’t subscribe, and whatever number of those unsubscribing homes include NASCAR fans, they’ll likely be heard from.

During the offseason, NASCAR President Steve Phelps suggested 70% of NASCAR fans are Amazon Prime customers, which he said “bodes well” for the future of NASCAR and streaming clients.

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Daytona 500 TV ratings up from 2024. Does Indy 500 compare to NASCAR?