NASCAR ratings revealed for Cup Series race at Bristol, facing off against The Masters

The ratings for the NASCAR Cup Series Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway have been revealed after a battle with the Masters. According to Adam Stern of Sports Business Journal, the race, which aired on FS1, received 2.054 million viewers. There is no comparison to last year because the race aired on FOX, but Stern pointed out that the 2024 spring viewership for the Bristol race was 3.809 million.

The Masters dominated the TV ratings over the weekend, earning 12.99 million. It was tough for NASCAR to compete with that since golf fans got to see Rory McIlroy win his first Masters, and the race was not compelling since Kyle Larson led 411 laps en route to a win. But NASCAR dominated IndyCar in the ratings as the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach had just 552,00 viewers on FOX, according to Stern.

The NASCAR Bristol race does not get good reviews

After Larson won at Bristol, NASCAR experts did not hold back on their thoughts about the race. “I think this was a horrible race,” NASCAR insider Jeff Gluck of The Athletic said on The Teardown podcast. “Of course, Kyle Larson, Cliff Daniels, Jeff Gordon are going to say this was better than last year. …They like this style of racing. To me, this was pathetic. This was absolutely pathetic.

“We talked about the NextGen car and how it’s ruined short-track racing in NASCAR. What can you say? You looked at the stands today and you’re like, ‘Man, I hope it’s not going to be a good race because a lot of people are going to miss it.’ Can you blame them for not showing up after what we saw today? That was terrible.”

Denny Hamlin, who finished second at Bristol, admitted the race wasn’t good. “Fans are giving me sh*t because of my interview saying don’t throw mud on it because someone dominated. You got to realize, I’m in a cocoon for 500 laps. All I see is my experience,” Hamlin said. “Now, when I went back and watched the race, I hear you. I know it wasn’t good, and I feel your pain. We’re trying to do our best on this show to get someone in NASCAR to listen to us, to make some of these changes and I wish they would call me and say, ‘What would you do?’

“Because there’s about six things I think we could do to truly make it better, and it have no adverse side effects to it. But this is part of a bigger business plan for them that we’re not preface to, and we just don’t know.”

On3’s Nick Geddes contributed to this story.