It seems that Thor the Thunder God is not a race fan. Lightning-holds and inclement weather impacted both IndyCar and NASCAR again last weekend, although both ultimately were able to stage their races to their full scheduled distances. Yet despite the extra investment of time and effort required on the part of viewers, the TV audiences were actually stronger than last year’s for both series.

The NASCAR Cup Series race at Watkins Glen averaged a 1.49 Nielsen rating and 2.563 million household viewers on USA Network, per numbers from ShowBuzzDaily.com. That was a healthy increase on the 1.25/2.124m for this race last year on now-defunct NBCSN.

The Xfinity Series race at Watkins Glen on Saturday averaged 0.66/1.052m. That also was a big year-on-year improvement although the 2021 race was on CNBC, where it averaged 0.35/626,000.

The Xfinity coverage on USA led into the NTT IndyCar Series race at World Wide Technology Raceway…or at least, coverage of its weather delay. When it did finally get going, the race averaged 0.34/553,000. Again, though, that was a significant improvement over last year’s edition on NBCSN (0.25/434K)

NHRA’s Camping World Drag Racing Series was back on FOX for final rounds from Brainerd, which averaged 0.53/813,000 viewers. That’s up from 0.48/735K for this event last year, also on FOX.