UPDATED TV Ratings: Indy 500, Coca-Cola 600, Monaco GP

UPDATE: The ABC telecast of the 101st Indianapolis 500 earned a 3.4 final national rating, averaging 5.5 million viewers. That is down from a 3.9/6.0m final in 2016.

The Coca-Cola 600 finished with a 2.8 rating and averaged 4.6 million viewers, down from a 3.4/5.7m last year. It is the third straight year the Indy 500 has bettered the Coca-Cola 600 in ratings, but this was the widest margin between the two in 18 years.

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The biggest TV day of the year for American motorsports produced some interestingly mixed signals in terms of audience figures.

ABC's telecast of the 101st Indianapolis 500 averaged a 3.6 overnight household rating in metered markets, down from a 4.1 in 2016 and the lowest for the race since live telecasts began in 1986. Some of that year-on-year decline was due to the fact that last year's race was shown live in the Indianapolis market, where it scored a massive 33.6 rating, but a return to tape delay for the local market this year saw that rating drop to 14.7.

For the first time in decades, the Indy 500 featured a current Formula 1 star in Fernando Alonso, who passed up the Monaco Grand Prix in order to compete at Indy, creating an international pull in audience for the race unique in modern times. And although the audience for ABC's live telecast in the U.S. was down, data on Spanish viewership of the two races provided some food for thought.

According to FormulaTV, live coverage of the Indianapolis 500 in Spain averaged 443,000 viewers (3.6%) via the #0 Movistar subscription TV service. That beat the live coverage of Monaco on Movistar's dedicated Formula 1 channel, which averaged 212,000 (2.0%). FormulaTV reports last year's Monaco race averaged 302k (2.8%) in Spain, meaning F1 lost nearly a third of those viewers with local hero Alonso literally out of the picture.

Here in the USA, NBC Sports reported that its coverage of the Monaco Grand Prix on NBC averaged Total Audience Delivery (combining the NBC live telecast and digital audience) of 1.53m viewers, which was up 14% vs last year and made it the most-watched live race since the group began airing F1 races in 2013. The NBC telecast itself scored a 0.97 rating, averaging 1.44m viewers. Last year on NBC, the race had a 0.94/1.32

FormulaTV also reported strong audiences for Monaco's F1 race in Italy (5.8m) and Germany (5.2m), as one might expect in a year when both Ferrari and Sebastian Vettel are excelling. In both countries, F1 airs on free-to-air TV networks (RAI1 and RTL, respectively).

Fox’s telecast of NASCAR's Coca-Cola 600 had a 2.8 rating, down from last year's 3.2 overnight. The finish of NASCAR's longest race was pushed into the early morning hours by a rain delay, which helps explain the year-on-year decline of some 13% – almost identical to that of the Indy 500. But Indy's advantage over the Charlotte race was the widest since 2005, reposts SportsMediaWatch.

The NASCAR Xfinity Series race from Charlotte scored a 0.72 rating Saturday afternoon on FOX Sports 1, averaging 1.0m viewers. That's down from a 0.91/1.4m in 2016.

Note: These numbers will be updated as additional data becomes available.