Americans mark May 5 as Cinco de Mayo. According to some American motorsports fans on social media, the 2024 edition of the event will be remembered in history. will be recalled as the day that F1 prevailed it’s better than NASCAR — especially in the television ratings.
The numbers are quite conclusive. According to ESPN, ABC achieved a milestone with an average of 3.1 million viewers tuning in to the Miami race. The taped coverage of the 2002 Monaco race previously held the record at 2.78 million while the previous peak for a live race occurred during the inaugural Miami event in 2022 with 2.58 million. Last year’s ratings experienced a significant decrease to 1.96 million, a 24% decline.
This year’s figure marks a 48% surge in viewers from 2023 and nearly a 20% increase from 2022.
Moreover, this year’s F1 figures — for the first time ever — surpassed the NASCAR Cup Series race, which registered an average audience of 2.29 million, a 2% drop from the 2.35 million who watched in 2023.
F1 Beating NASCAR in TV Ratings Isn’t Unexpected
Some might argue that the numbers speak the truth. In sheer ratings, F1 outperformed NASCAR. This is indeed correct. However, there's more to the story – much more.
And it begins with what transpired at the Cup Series race in Kansas. Unexpected rain. Despite days of forecasts suggesting everything was all all good, Mother Nature had other plans. The race was planned to start at 3 p.m ET. It was delayed was delayed for three hours.
Guess what took place during that three-hour period? The F1 race.
Certainly, there are indeed some NASCAR fans who outright refuse to watch anything related to F1. The sentiments of some F1 fans are mutual. They are uninterested in left turns.
However, there are many more NASCAR fans who are general supporters of motorsports and decided that if there was another live racing event to watch, which rarely happens due to F1’s international schedule and not-always-US-friendly start times, they would invest the time to sit down and watch it, knowing that the Miami race would conclude before the rescheduled start of the Cup race.
The Other Factors of F1 Beating NASCAR in TV Ratings
The motorsports gods smiled upon the US auto-racing scene on May 5, not only enabling fans to easily tune into the races but to witness a piece of history in both.
First, Lando Norris won for the first time in his career and temporarily shifted the narrative and a reason some Americans have stopped watching F1 — Max Verstappen’s dominance. It was a feel-good story to see the Brit win and many fans tuned in after seeing on social media that he had taken the lead.
As entertaining as that storyline was, it still, appropriately enough, came in a close second for those fans who tuned in for the afternoon-turned-evening race from America’s Heartland. Many are suggesting the Kansas Cup race was one of the greatest from start to finish in the sport’s 76-year history, and it is officially the closest finish in Series history with Kyle Larson edging out Chris Buescher by 0.001 seconds.
While the rain delay ultimately worked out for a motorsports variety, that delay in the NASCAR race naturally resulted in a decrease in viewers. There was one other key difference in the number of viewers for the two race broadcasts. F1 was shown on ABC and had a direct lead-in from the NBA Playoffs first-round Game 7 between the Orlando Magic and Cleveland Cavaliers, and it had averaged 4.32 million viewers. As mentioned, the NASCAR broadcast aired on FS1 and did not have any significant lead-in.
So as just as some fans on social media are expressing concern and suggesting F1 is superior to NASCAR, they can certainly make that argument for the May 5 races based on the size of the television viewing audiences. However, that’s not providing a complete explanation of why it happened.
But, as the saying goes — why let the truth hinder a good story?
