Audience Analysis: NASCAR, IndyCar, F1 Saw Gains Last Weekend; NESN Scores With Bruins

FS1 finished with 4.06 million viewers for its first regularly scheduled NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points race last Sunday from Martinsville. That figure marks the cable net’s fourth-best audience on record, behind only three games from the Giants-Cardinals NLCS in ’14. Giants-Cards Game 4 remains FS1’s best audience on record with 5.09 million viewers. The NASCAR race led FS1 to its best total-day audience on record for a Sunday. Last year’s spring Martinsville race aired on Fox, drawing 6.7 million viewers. Meanwhile, the Verizon IndyCar Series opener from St. Petersburg drew 891,000 viewers on Sunday afternoon on ABC, up 4% from the same race last year. The ’13 opener aired on NBCSN. ABC drew 1.28 million viewers for the St. Pete opener in ’12. Elsewhere, NBCSN drew 384,000 viewers for the F1 Malaysia Grand Prix last weekend, which aired early on Sunday morning (2:30am ET start). The viewership marks the best “middle-of-the night” F1 audience in the U.S in 18 years, dating back to the German Grand Prix on ESPN in ’97. The race also was up 55% from 248,000 viewers last year.

HIGH STICKING: NESN drew its best Bruins ratings of the ’14-15 season last Sunday. The game against the Hurricanes earned a 7.3 local rating in Boston, topping the 6.3 rating for Stars-Bruins on Jan. 20. Meanwhile, MSG Net heading into April is averaging a 1.61 local rating in N.Y. for NHL Rangers games, up 25% from the same period last year. The RSN’s Islanders games are averaging a 0.6 local rating, up 70%.

NOTES: ESPN on Monday drew 1.54 million viewers for the Maryland-Tennessee NCAA Women’s Tournament Elite Eight game, marking the most-viewed regional final since Tennessee-Baylor drew 1.65 million viewers in ’12. The UConn-Dayton regional final on Monday also drew 1.42 million viewers, marking the third-best women’s Elite Eight game since ’12.

The charts below list final ratings and viewership for recent sports telecasts.