NASCAR's Cup Series championship race last weekend recorded a 9.1% decline in viewership, fell below 3 million average

Following the conclusion of the 2023 NASCAR season at Phoenix Raceway, the TV ratings for the championship weekend are out. These confirm the downward trend in viewership in recent years.

According to Sports TV Ratings per Nielsen data, around 2.9 million people tuned in on NBC to watch Ryan Blaney win the 2023 Cup Series championship on November 5. This marks a 9.1% decrease compared to the 2022 season finale won by Blaney's teammate Joey Logano.

According to a study by Cindy Yen (@cindymeliyen on X), there has been a steady decline in viewership over the past six years for the all-important race. Over 4.1 million people watched Logano win his maiden title in 2018 at Homestead, with the viewership declining steadily over the years.

The TV audience for the marquee event had stabilized at around 3 million over the last three years but dropped below the figure for the first time. Yet again, the Spring race broadcasted on FOX, had a higher viewership (3.3 mil) than the championship decider, with the fall race witnessing a 13% decrease.

The playoff season witnessed a 7.7% YoY decrease, with the Round of 12 opener at Texas only beating its 2022 ratings.

The Truck Series championship race on Friday night (November 3), broadcasted on FS1 attracted 415,000 viewers. Meanwhile, the Xfinity Series title decider attracted double the TV audience the following day at 951,000 viewers.

Although the season began with a double-digit drop in TV ratings, the second half of the season covered by NBC witnessed only a single-digit drop in ratings.

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NASCAR president addresses the drop in viewership across the 2023 season

Prior to the championship weekend at Phoenix Raceway, NASCAR President Steve Phelps hailed the playoff system. He also addressed the viewership across the three national series in the state of the sport session.

NASCAR Cup Series Championship

Phelps highlighted the increase in digital coverage while stating that TV ratings were a mixed bag with Cup Series down on its previous year's figures.

"If you look at digital and social consumption for NASCAR for this year, it's up. Television has been a bit of a mixed bag with the Cup being down, low single digits, as well as our Craftsman Truck Series, low single digits, the Xfinity Series is up," he said in the press conference.

"I wouldn't say we haven't had great luck particularly in the first half with weather. Weather wasn't our friend. But I'm super excited to get us back on a growth pattern from a television perspective next year because we'll have lower comps than we did this year. Excited about that."

He added:

"NBC came back in a powerful way. Those metrics are up. If you consider back in March we were down 15%, now we're down mid single digits, we're happy with where that is."

Phelps also spoke about media rights, offering assurance that there is plenty of interest from the media corps to cover the stock car racing series. However, the NASCAR president didn't put a timeline on when the deal would be announced but indicated that they are close to the end of the process.