Ryan Blaney Comes to NASCAR’s Defense After Fans Bash Atlanta Numbers

The 2025 NASCAR broadcasting landscape has undergone a major change. Thanks to the mega $7.7 billion media rights deal, partners like Amazon Prime Video and Warner Bros. hopped on board with FOX and NBC. Five races each to Prime Video and WB’s TNT were set to change the dynamics of the NASCAR viewership for the fans, and they did that. Prime Video, in particular, had a stacked talent lineup led by Dale Jr., along with a fresh approach.

The Burn bar feature allowed viewers to understand the strategy behind fuel mileage racing, and the post-race extended coverage was a game-changer. But as far as numbers go, the five races from Charlotte to Pocono averaged at 2.16 million. It was 15% less than last year, but they attracted a younger audience. The median age for this stretch of five races was 56.1, and the 18-34 demographic was also up by 36%. Now, as the Cup Series moved from Prime Video to TNT, there was uncertainty on how the numbers would stack up.

As far as racing goes, the Quaker State 400 was nothing less than a thriller, and Chase Elliott winning in his hometown made it more special. For veterans like Kyle Petty, this race solidified Atlanta as the best racing track on the current schedule. However, the numbers do not exactly back this sentiment felt by Petty and a lot of race fans. Motorsports reporter for the Sports Business Journal, Adam Stern, provided stats for Saturday’s Atlanta race on X. On TNT Drama and truTV, the race grabbed an average of 1.608 million viewers.

This did not include the viewers on Max. He also clarified his stance that the race could not be directly compared to last year, as the Atlanta race took place in September, and the teams raced at Nashville on Sunday, June 30, 2024. Adding to these numbers was veteran journalist Jeff Gluck, who mentioned, “Also, if you were wondering about F1 viewership on the F1 movie’s premiere weekend, the Austria race got 1.1 million viewers (a record for that race, but only up two percent over last year).”

But, for Ryan Blaney, this rhetoric didn’t make sense as he clapped back with his stern take. “So, we got 500k more folks tuned in. Why do people make it out to be a bad thing? We crush the parade every week, so why do we get down in the dumps by this? Nascar is currently crushing it.”

Last year, the Atlanta race that took place in September on a Sunday managed to get a 2.02 million average viewership. Was it a lone rider? Absolutely not. That very same Sunday, it went head-to-head, clashing with the NFL, which had eight matches played that day. And not just this, for the same weekend last year, the race at Nashville garnered around 3.24 million viewers on NBC. That’s exactly twice the viewership of this race.

However, Blaney’s point about the “parade crush” is valid, too. The thrilling competition that was seen in the Atlanta race was absolutely mind-blowing. Moreover, the In-Season tournament has just kicked in, with events like the Chicago Street Race, the Brickyard 400 and the entire playoffs yet to come, there’s still a long season ahead for NASCAR to recover. Moreover, the split between multiple media partners makes it tough for the average NASCAR fan to tune into races, and that should resolve now with TNT and NBC taking over the broadcasting roles.

Needless to say, with the changes that the sport is undergoing in terms of building a younger fan base, it’s definitely going to take a while before we see the annual viewership graph rising steadily once again.

NASCAR is following the NFL model

When NASCAR rolled in for the Coca-Cola 600 this year, traditional fans were confused that it wasn’t available on linear TV network. Prime Video, the streaming platform, was seen as another roadblock and a hurdle for them to cross. Not to mention the extra bucks they had to spend. The five-race stretch was productive, and fans appreciated the quality of the broadcast. The average viewership did fall, but there’s a bigger plan in motion.

When the NFL moved its Thursday Night Football exclusively to Prime in 2022, there was a massive drop-off in the first year; they nearly lost forty percent of their audience. What NASCAR is banking on with this twist in the media rights deal is Gen-Z and the young audience coming on board. The sanctioning body isn’t competing with rivals like F1 or IndyCar alone, they are looking to attract the attention of the audience on the web, who haven’t heard about NASCAR racing.

“And I think it’s really not just motorsports, actually not even just sports, it’s entertainment. And we are competing for that dollar. We are competing for your time and other people’s time because if they’re if they’re not watching NASCAR, are they watching Netflix? Are they watching movies? Are they watching, you know, CNBC? What are they doing when they’re not doing that? So it’s super competitive,” NASCAR President Steve Phelps said this to CNBC.

While the current average looks to be in decline, there’s a lot of racing left. The In-season challenge, and the playoffs can swing that number right back in NASCAR’s favor.