TV Ratings: NASCAR starts higher on NBC

The annual mid-season switch from Fox to NBC got off to a promising start at Chicagoland Speedway, where NBCSN's telecast of last Sunday's Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race scored a 1.58 rating and averaged 2.55 million viewers. That was up 12 and 10 percent respectively from last year's race from Chicago.

Coverage of Saturday's NASCAR Xfinity Series race from Chicagoland had an even bigger improvement over 2017, its 0.66 rating and 1.07m viewers representing an increase of 25 and 32% respectively over 2017. Perhaps the introduction of Dale Earnhardt Jr. to the broadcast booth for both events had something to do with the increase?

Formula 1's Austrian Grand Prix live telecast on ESPN2 scored a 0.29 rating and averaged 424,000 viewers. That's down slightly from last week's French GP (0.34/532k) which started one hour later, also on ESPN2.