A relatively short list of motorsports events battled football for TV audience oxygen last weekend. NASCAR’s Cup Series round from Bristol averaged a 1.07 Nielsen rating and 1.776 million household viewers on the USA network Saturday night, per numbers from ShowBuzzDaily.com. That was down from a 1.20/2.198m for this race last year on the same weekend and time slot, when it aired on now-defunct NBCSN.

Back on FOX Sunday afternoon, the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series averaged 1.00 and 1.678 million viewers for coverage of eliminations from Maple Grove Raceway. Despite the telecast airing at different times in some markets due to conflicts with regional NFL action, those numbers were a year-on-year increase from the 0.80/1.452m that watched the finals from Charlotte on this weekend and time slot on FOX last year.

The NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Bristol Friday night on USA averaged 0.43 and 665,000 viewers, down from 0.49/865K last year on NBCSN, while Thursday night’s Camping World Truck Series race managed a slight uptick in numbers, averaging 0.28/469,000 compared to 0.23/422K in 2021; both years’ races were on FS1.

MotoGP action returned to NBC with same-day coverage from Spain on Sunday afternoon averaging 0.22/335,000 viewers.

Menards ARCA Racing Series action from Bristol on Thursday night preceding the Trucks averaged 0.13/217,000.

NHRA took the win for the weekend in the 18-49 age demographic, averaging 578,000 viewers in this bracket, followed by Cup with 411,000, Xfinity with 164K and Trucks with 152K.