The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series averaged a 3.8 U.S. rating and 6.5 million viewers for 33 telecasts across Fox, TNT, ABC and ESPN this season (rainouts excluded), up 6% and 10%, respectively, from 34 races last season and marking the Sprint Cup’s first year-over-year TV audience gains since '05. The average of 6.5 million viewers per race was the highest level since the ’08 season. Each network partner also saw gains in audience this year. Fox averaged 8.6 million viewers for its 13 races to start the season (+10%), TNT’s six races averaged 5.1 million viewers (+3%), ABC averaged 5.6 million viewers for three primetime races (+1%) and ESPN averaged 5.1 million viewers for 11 races (+7%). The Chase for the Sprint Cup also averaged 5.0 million viewers across ESPN and ABC, up 11% from last year.
| NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES U.S. RATING/VIEWERSHIP TREND |
| SEASON | NETWORKS | RATING | VIEWERS (000) |
| '11 | Fox+TNT+ESPN+ABC | 3.8 | 6,451 |
| '10 | Fox+TNT+ESPN+ABC | 3.6 | 5,992 |
| '09 | Fox+TNT+ESPN+ABC | 4.0 | 6,440 |
| '08 | Fox+TNT+ESPN+ABC | 4.3 | 6,917 |
| '07 | Fox+TNT+ESPN+ABC | 4.4 | 7,116 |
| '06 | Fox+TNT+FX+NBC | 4.9 | 7,855 |
