TV ratings: Austria 2, Road America, Kentucky

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TV ratings: Austria 2, Road America, Kentucky

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TV ratings: Austria 2, Road America, Kentucky

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Week 2 of motorsports’ all-out return to action generated more strong TV audience numbers, if not quite as good as the first.

The NASCAR Cup Series race at Kentucky on Sunday averaged a 1.57 rating and 2.58 million viewers on FS1. That’s up from a 1.21/2.1m for the same race run on this weekend last year on NBCSN, although down from the 2.67/4.3m that watched the previous week’s Brickyard race on NBC.

Unusually, the Truck Series race at Kentucky outscored the Xfinity Series there last weekend, although the trucks had the benefit of a Saturday race. They averaged 0.42/699,000 viewers on FS1 — doubling the audience for last year’s race here, run on a Thursday on the same network (0.22/333,000)

The Xfinity Series ran a doubleheader at Kentucky on FS1 Thursday and Friday nights, scoring 0.43/681,000 and 0.33/514K, respectively. The Friday race was a healthy improvement over last year’s race, which also ran on Friday night and averaged 0.38/572K on NBCSN.

The NTT IndyCar Series’ doubleheader at Road America averaged 0.72/1.04m for Sunday’s race on NBC, and 299,000 viewers for Saturday’s race on NBCSN (the rating number was not available). The Sunday numbers were a slight decrease from last year’s single race on NBC (0.77/1.1m).

Formula 1‘s second take on an Austrian race, restyled as the Styrian Grand Prix, averaged 0.39/632,000 on ESPN. That was a significant drop from the previous week’s Austrian GP which served as the season opener (0.48/752,000, also on ESPN) but comparable to the audience that watched last year’s British GP on this date (0.40/591K on ESPN2).

The NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series returned to action last week at Indianapolis, averaging a 0.46/689,000 on FOX.

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