FOX NASCAR ratings at Martinsville see major improvement in 2025 for Denny Hamlin's win

The NASCAR Cup Series’ trip to Martinsville Speedway was a major win for FOX Sports. Denny Hamlin took home the win for the first time since April of 2024, and the ratings were up for the broadcast.

According to FOX Sports PR, 2,422,000 viewers tuned in for Hamlin’s win this past Sunday. That’s an 11% increase from last year’s spring race at Martinsville Speedway. Additionally, it was the most-watched cable telecast, peaking at 2,853,000 viewers. All told, it’s a 1% improvement over last year’s FS1 average, as well.

A strong showing for #NASCAR on @FS1 from @MartinsvilleSwy 💪 pic.twitter.com/5iINRBbh33

— FOX Sports PR (@FOXSportsPR) April 1, 2025

Viewers who tuned in saw some fantastic action in Virginia. Hamlin was able to win his race No. 55 of his NASCAR Cup Series career. He’s now locked himself into the playoffs, where he’ll be looking to chase his first title of his illustrious career, the one accolade that’s eluded him.

“When you have a car that is that good, it makes it feel like you’re invincible and certainly gives you a lot of confidence,” Hamlin said, regarding his win. “I said this at post-race in the media center, winning a race and dominating a race both gives you the same credit on the stat sheet. It shows the same. But it does not do the same thing to your confidence. When you dominate a race, it’s like we whipped their ass, nobody was even close, and now it gives me dramatic confidence.”

All told, Hamlin grabbed the lead on Lap 126 of 400 and never looked back. He led 274 of the final 275 laps and won his first race at Martinsville since the 2015 season. Hamlin’s now tied with Rusty Wallace for 11th on the all-time victory list.

“I scratch my head. I study this racetrack more now than I ever have in my career,” he added. “It was way easier to win 10 years ago, 12 years ago, when it was me, Jimmie [Johnson] and Jeff [Gordon]. I knew it was going to be the three of us. Our cars were good. We had the feeling we were just better than anyone else. It was easy. I didn’t have to put in all the work that I do now.”

Denny Hamlin put in the work, and FOX benefitted from another strong weekend of NASCAR action. The sport seems to be in a solid spot at the moment, and we’ll see if the growth continues in the coming weeks.

— On3’s Brian Jones contributed to this article.