With the Sunday of Labor Day weekend becoming significantly more competitive, NASCAR’s Darlington race suffered in the overnights.

NASCAR Sprint Cup racing from Darlington earned a 2.6 overnight rating on NBC Sunday night, down 24% from last year (3.4) and down 19% from 2014, when the race took place on a Saturday night in April and aired on FOX (3.2). The 2.6 is the lowest for the Sprint Cup at Darlington, including the defunct 400 mile race that ended in 2004, since at least 2002.

The 2.6 is also tied as the fourth-lowest for any Sprint Cup race on broadcast since at least 2004, ahead of only Texas race on FOX earlier this year (2.5), New Hampshire on ABC in 2009 (2.5), and last year’s Kansas race on NBC (2.2).

Head-to-head, NASCAR on NBC was more-than-doubled by the competing Notre Dame/Texas college football game on ABC (7.0). Last year’s race faced no such competition.

Excluding rainouts, nine of the past 11 Sprint Cup races have declined in the metered markets. That includes double-digit declines for five of the past six.



(Wknd. numbers via Sports Business Daily)