The new NASCAR season launched last weekend with the first points-paying races for its top three touring series. Sunday’s Daytona 500 Cup Series opener averaged a 4.37 Nielsen rating and 8.173 million viewers on FOX, per numbers from ShowBuzzDaily.com. That was down from last year’s 4.70/8.868m, although slightly up in share as the overall number of homes watching on TV was reduced. The race still ranked as the most-watched show of the weekend.

The Daytona 500 preliminaries had some upticks over last year’s numbers, as Wednesday’s qualifying session FS1 averaged 0.47/795,00 viewers, and Thursday’s Duels 0.88/1.535m, vs 0.46/747K and 0.89/1.457m respectively.

Saturday’s Xfinity Series race averaged an 0.93 rating and 1.686m viewers on FS1, up from 2022’s 0.87/1.484m on the same channel and time slot.

Friday night’s Craftsman Truck Series race averaged 0.60/1.027m on FS1, vs 0.63/1.016m last year.

The ARCA Series race from Daytona that preceded Xfinity on FS1 averaged 0.53/846,000, an uptick from last year’s 0.47/758K.