TV Ratings: IndyCar, IMSA Long Beach, NASCAR Texas

A very crowded sports weekend – including an action-packed ending to The Masters that drew a 7.6 rating – had an impact on this year's ratings.

The Verizon IndyCar Series – which moved this year's race up a week – earned a 0.27 overnight rating and averaged 321,000 viewers for the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach on NBCSN, a drop from last year's 0.37; 2015 pulled in a 0.32.

Ratings for F1's Chinese Grand Prix on NBCSN were not available.

The IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship drew a 0.58 rating (837,000 viewers) on Fox for Saturday's BUBBA Burger Sports Car Grand Prix.

Saturday's Xfinity Series race at Texas drew a 1.12 (1.67million) on Fox Sports 1.

The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series probably took a direct hit from the Masters, pulling in a 2.74 (4.53million), for the O'Reilly Auto Parts 500, up a bit from last year's 2.68/4.34 million. According to Sports Media Watch, the 2.5 overnight mirrored 2016 when the race aired Saturday night. The 2.5 ties as the lowest-rated Cup race on FOX (excluding rainouts) dating back to 2001.

SMW notes the last time NASCAR went head-to-head with The Masters' final round in 2006, the Texas race earned a 4.8 overnight. The last three Texas races are the three lowest-rated Cup races ever on FOX.