In what has been a strong season for NASCAR in terms of TV ratings, one might have expected that Michael Jordan in the victory lane would draw more attention to the sport. However, in reality, after being pitted against some stiff competition, the Talladega race hit a big slump in terms of views.

The race itself was pretty quiet and uneventful because of the fuel-saving tactics brought into play by most of the drivers and teams. It did have some wild moments like the one that saw half of the Toyota cars reduced to shreds with a big wreck in the final stage. Also, this was capped off with a wild wreckfest finish, handing Tyler Reddick his first win of the season.

But as far as key viewership stats are concerned, NASCAR hit a new low for the GEICO 500 event. According to a report by Adam Stern, the Cup race saw a 5% dip in rating when compared to last year’s event. However, it has to be noted that there were some key sporting events that NASCAR was competing with this weekend.

NASCAR unable to maintain its TV dominance on weekends

Earlier in the season, the Cup races were dominating the viewership stats. The Atlanta photo finish and Bristol tire wear events captured the lion-size share of TV viewers. But the trend is changing, with the NBA playoffs now competing for the same pool of sporting audiences on the weekend.

Adam Stern from SBJ shared the statistics for the Talladega race. “.@FoxTVgot 4.307 million viewers for Sunday’s NASCAR race @Talladega, down 5% from 4.554 million last year but still the second most-watched sport of the weekend after two @NBA playoff games,” he wrote via his X account.

The first NBA playoff game between the Denver Nuggets and the Los Angeles Lakers garnered 5.652 million views on ABC. At the same time, LA Clippers vs Dallas Mavericks racked in 4.661 million views. It is indeed hard to compete against multiple NBA playoff events and more so when the race is a tedious watch for the racing fans.

To cap this off, the FOX coverage and rampant race interruption with their commercials made matters worse, thus running any hopes for a good broadcast.

Fans not surprised by the declining TV numbers all thanks to the commercial fest broadcast on FOX

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Just when the Talladega race was starting to deliver and fans started to witness real racing, FOX decided to step in and spoil the fun. FOX decided to go on a commercial break every 8-10 laps, and this just wasn’t helping their cause to keep hold of the audience.

A user was baffled to see NASCAR registering 4.5 million viewers for coverage that was spoiled by commercial breaks. “Wow, thats a lot of people tuning in to watch a race and ending up watching nothing but commercials”.

Another fan also highlighted how the quality of coverage has deteriorated, along with more frequent breaks. “Down probably due to the massive increase in ads and poor coverage quality…”

It’s not surprising to see sports fans making their choice between NASCAR races or other events. However, after the Talladega race, a user was made to rethink his plans for the coming weekend. He wrote, “As someone who alternated between the NBA playoff games and the race, I can confidently say next week I won’t be alternating and will stick to playoffs”.

Some fans even chimed in, stating that the Chase Elliott effect is over after his win at Texas. And his inability to compete for the top spots ultimately dented the ratings. “The Chase Elliott Effect!”

Now that the superspeedway race is done, NASCAR will be heading to the true oval race at Dover Motor Speedway. Hopefully, it delivers a better one after a dull show in Talladega.