NBC Sports Sees A Unique Challenge With Nascar, IndyCar Double-Header Amid Year Of Strong Ratings

The upcoming weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway presents a unique challenge for NBC Sports.

For the third consecutive year, both Nascar and the NTT IndyCar Series will be racing at the Yard of Bricks in a given weekend, with the events airing this Saturday and Sunday on NBC.

The challenge of operating two major sporting events in one weekend is something Sam Flood, executive producer and president of production at NBC Sports, loves.

“It’s just non-stop action and the cross pollination is the best part of it,” Flood said. “We’re having two racing leagues together, sharing a facility and hopefully sharing an audience.”

The rare opportunity for America’s two most popular forms of motor sports to race together on the same weekend at the same track started in 2020. The Covid-19 pandemic forced both series to get creative with their schedules, and it also opened up an opportunity for them to race together at Indianapolis, owned by Roger Penske.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. will actually serve as an analyst for both events, and James Hinchcliffe will be in the Xfinity Series booth on Saturday.

“There’s so much respect, I think, going back and forth from open wheel to stock car over the decades,” Earnhardt, a Nascar Hall of Famer, said. “There’s been a lot of great circumstances and opportunities where drivers have driven — IndyCar drivers have raced in stock cars with success and stock car racers have run at Indy in IndyCars with success, as well.”

This weekend’s dynamic duo of races provides NBC a major opportunity to continue its momentum.

Nascar Cup Series viewership for the start of the NBC/USA Network portion of the season is up 4% compared to last season. Viewership is up compared to those comparable races on NBCSN last year.

Sunday’s event at Pocono Raceway saw a 4% increase in viewership, and USA Network was the top network on TV, including broadcast, during the race window with 2.590 million viewers. The Atlanta race on USA Network surpassed all of the 2021 races on NBCSN in terms of viewership with 2.626 million viewers.

“Part of our job is to market the sport and being at the racetrack. Rutledge Wood does some unique content at and around the races,” Flood said. “It’s one of the things Jim France from Nascar asked us to keep showcasing what goes on at the racetrack. Once you go to a race, you’re going to keep watching it on television.”

Additionally, the NTT IndyCar Series is also off to its best start in five years across the ComcastCMCSA
platform. The open-wheel series is averaging a Total Audience Delivery (TAD) of 1.721 million viewers across NBC Sports platforms (NBC, Peacock, USA Network) this season, making it the most-watched start to a season through the first eight races since 2017 (1.760 million; ABC/NBCSN). The beginning of the 2022 season is also up 5% vs. last year’s comparable coverage (1.634 million; NBC/NBCSN). It also had one race at Toronto air solely on Peacock.

Flood attributes the growth in ratings to both series’ dedication to finding innovative ways to attract new fans.

“The fact that fans are back at the racetrack in record numbers makes races events again,” Flood said. “It’s more than a race – it’s an event. You saw the crowd at Pocono last weekend and you saw the crowd for IndyCar.

“In both cases, it felt big and it’s a huge benefit because when it’s more than a race, it engages the audience at a much higher level. I think it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy with more fans in the stands means more eyeballs watching the race.”

And NBC is also cross-promoting its motor sports programs with the WWE.

Flood said, “We’ve worked closely with WWE to drive audiences back and forth between Nascar, IndyCar and WWE. Superstars are showing up to the racetrack, so we’re adding publicity to all involved.”

The green flag for the IndyCar Series event takes place on Saturday, July 30, while the Cup Series race at Indianapolis will take the green flag on July 31, both on NBC.