FOX Sports stated Friday that the NASCAR Cup Series Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway on March 17 averaged 3.8 million viewers, up 11% from the fifth race in the 2023 season at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
This is 10% more than last year's Food City Dirt Race in April, which took place on Easter in prime time.
A 3.8 rating made the Food City 500 the weekend's most-watched sports event, along with the NCAA Basketball Tournament selection show (3.1) and the Players Championship golf tournament in Florida (2.45).
It became a tire-management race when Denny Hamlin beat teammate Martin Truex Jr. in thick lapped traffic. His fourth Bristol win came because the race fell into his comfort zone, according to Hamlin.
“That's what I grew up doing in the Mid-Atlantic short tracks,” Hamlin told reporters after the race. Once it became a tire management race, I liked our chances.
Our car and team were wonderful. The pit crew excelled all day.”The framework led to record passing.
NASCAR officials revealed early this week that the loop data had two more records: 61 green flag passes for the lead and 3,589 overall passes. Sunday's reported record was 54 lead changes among 16 drivers. These two Cup Series milestones were previously 47 and 2,427.
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