IndyCar vs. action motorsports – a retraction

RACER.com has removed a story that appeared yesterday (Friday 02/27) containing errors regarding the relative TV ratings/viewership and social media audiences of IndyCar compared with action motorsports such as rallycross and drifting.

We retract the generalization that “the average GRC [Global Rallycross] race now gets more viewers than the average IndyCar race.” We have now independently verified that this is far from accurate. In fact, the Verizon IndyCar Series’ 2014 TV ratings average was 0.69 compared with GRC’s 0.34, while 2014 viewership figures (average) were 1,035,000 for IndyCar compared with 474,000 for GRC.

Further, we acknowledge that IndyCar was able to announce a 25 percent growth in TV viewership in 2014 across ABC and NBCSN broadcasts, and that it has substantially higher levels of U.S. fan engagement metrics – TV ratings/viewership (including YouTube subscribers) – and social media following (Facebook and Twitter) than GRC.

RACER apologizes to RACER.com readers, as well as IndyCar, for the previous misinformation.

David Malsher
Editor