Rain pulls its rating punches on NASCAR at Daytona

Rain delays are a curious phenomenon when it comes to TV. One might assume they would put a downward pressure on ratings but the opposite is often the case.

Last week's NASCAR Sprint Cup Coke Zero 400 from Daytona earned a 2.4 rating and 4.0 million viewers on TNT Sunday. While that is down 31% from last year's rating (3.5/5.7m) which ran as scheduled on the Saturday night, it actually improved on the ratings for the previous week's Cup race at Kentucky (2.3/3.6m), which ran at its scheduled time and also aired on TNT

Meanwhile, the similarly delayed Nationwide Series race at Daytona earned a 1.1 rating/1.7m viewers on ESPN2.

Although unaffected by the weather, the Verizon IndyCar Series INDYCAR 500 at Pocono proved a ratings disappointment after the promising gains in TV numbers the series has enjoyed recently. NBCSN's live broadcast earned a 0.2 rating and 342,000 viewers, down significantly from last year's inaugural race at Pocono, which aired on ABC (0.9/1.3m), and the smallest audience of the season for an IndyCar race.