NASCAR ratings revealed for Shriners Children's 500 at Phoenix

The ratings for the NASCAR Cup Series Shriners Children’s 500 at Phoenix Raceway have been revealed. According to Adam Stern of the Sports Business Journal, FS1 got a 1.43 rating and 2.82 million viewers for the race. Stern said there’s no direct comparison to last year, as the race was on FOX’s broadcast channel (4.028 million viewers).

Peaking at 3.38M viewers, the race was the most-watched on FS1 since 2021. What’s more, the race was the top telecast on all of cable TV on Sunday, according to Fox Sports.

The Phoenix race had an exciting ending, with Christopher Bell, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson battling for the win. When it was said and done, Bell finished first and won his third consecutive Cup Series race. After the race, Bell spoke to FS1 about the finish.

Christopher Bell talks winning NASCAR Phoenix race

“Whenever you’re sitting there dreaming it up, that’s about as ugly as it gets. You put the red tires on, you’re like, All right, what I don’t want to happen is go 20, 30 laps, get a yellow,” Bell said. “That happened. Then we went 10 more laps, had another yellow. It was all about who could get clear on the restart. Neither of us could. We were racing really, really hard there coming to the line.”

Bell then spoke to reporters about winning three straight races. “Three straight, it’s surreal,” Bell told reporters during his post-race press conference. “I will never forget 2021, my first year with Adam Stevens. Kyle Larson won three straight. Me and Adam got off to a rocky patch, rocky start. We’re sitting in his office there at JGR. He looked at me and he said, ‘We can do this.’ He said, ‘I’ve won three straight sitting in these exact same two chairs,’ talking about him and Kyle Busch. I know we can do it. Took a while to get here, but we finally did it. I am just so proud. I’m so proud of all of the mechanics, the engineers, Adam, the pit crew members. Everybody on this 20 car…”

It was a good Sunday for Joe Gibbs Racing as Bell and Hamlin finished first and second. Rounding out the top five of Sunday’s race were Kyle Larson, Josh Berry and Chris Buescher. Despite winning the last three races, Bell is second in the Cup Series points standings. He’s 13 points behind William Byron, who won the Daytona 500.