NASCAR Chicago Street Race averages nearly 3.9 million viewers, but is down from last year after two-hour rain delay

The NASCAR Chicago Street Race lost some viewers during a lengthy rain delay Sunday, nearly a million fewer than last year’s national TV audience for the Cup Series race at Grant Park.

The extended broadcast of Grant Park 165 on NBC, interspersed with nearly two hours of filler programming while the street course was closed during a steady summer rain, averaged 3.87 million viewers, according to preliminary Nielsen data released Monday night.

Last year, the inaugural July 4 event saw record rainfall that limited racing, canceled concerts and left fans standing soaked. But the telecast averaged nearly 4.8 million viewers, making it the most-watched Cup Series race on NBC since 2017.

Viewership for this year’s race plummeted from the start Sunday afternoon, peaking just after the green flag dropped at 4:11 p.m. When the red flag came out about an hour later, amid increasing rain and crashes, it precipitated a lengthy delay that kept viewers away.

Many didn’t return to see Alex Bowman take his first Cup Series victory of the year on all-season tires, outpacing the field before a NASCAR-mandated stop at 8:20 p.m. While the audience was down from last year, it was still the largest audience for a Cup Series race on NBC this season, the network said.

The Chicago Street Race once again featured a 12-turn, 2.2-mile course lined with temporary fencing, grandstands and hospitality suites. The Grant Park 165 was reduced this year from 100 laps to 75, the de facto length of last year’s rain-delayed Cup Series race.

But once again he failed to reach the planned finish line.

Despite a sunny start to Saturday’s Xfinity Series race, the skies opened up and rain fell before Sunday’s main event, which was canceled after 58 laps when the clock stopped at sunset on the mostly unlit street course.

“Sure, the rainy weather on Sunday wasn’t ideal, but despite that, we were able to hold the race,” Julie Giese, president of NASCAR’s Chicago street racing, said Monday. “And everything I’ve heard from the participants and people who watched the broadcast on either day has been nothing but positive.”

Last year, torrential rain delayed the start of the inaugural Grant Park race by several hours. But once the race got underway, audiences swelled, reaching nearly 5.4 million viewers in prime time as New Zealand Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen claimed his first NASCAR victory after a dramatic comeback.

In November, NASCAR renewed a seven-year media rights deal with NBC and Fox worth an estimated $7.7 billion, no doubt bolstered by Chicago’s strong performance.

This year, the entire race weekend aired on NBC, including the Xfinity Loop 110 on Saturday and the Grant Park 165 on Sunday. Last year, NBC aired the Cup Series race, but the lower-tier Xfinity Series aired on cable channel USA, which it co-owns.

NBC marshaled a 200-person crew to cover the Chicago races, stationed in a sea of ​​trailers south of Turn 6, near the pickleball courts at Grant Park. The network used more than 90 cameras, drones and a helicopter to capture the racing action and the telegenic backdrop provided by the lakefront, skyline and park itself.

In addition, 11 drivers were also equipped with on-board cameras.

The weather was perfect for Saturday’s Xfinity race, won by van Gisbergen, the favorite to repeat as Cup Series champion on Sunday.

But after winning the opening stage of Sunday’s race, van Gisbergen was eliminated on lap 25, in steady rain and slippery roads, when he was hit from behind and crashed at Turn 6 of Balbo Drive.

The red flag was flown and the race was stopped while NASCAR let the rain run its course.

NBC’s broadcast team was once again left to fill the programming void.

“We’ve been through weather scenarios so many times that there’s a game plan in place,” Jeff Behnke, NBC Sports’ vice president of motorsports production, said Sunday night. “We have choices that are already built in. But it always starts with staying live and talking to the drivers, because that’s what the fans love.”

NBC sprang into action during the two-hour delay, offering a series of live interviews with the pilots, footage of soaked fans sipping drinks and pre-taped Chicago-themed segments peppered with plenty of deep-dish pizza and hot dogs.

The driver interviews were aired as “reality TV” in an effort to keep loyal NASCAR fans tuned in during the break, Behnke said. But as the minutes ticked by, fans tuned out and a significant number of viewers apparently changed channels.

“I hate to see this happen two years in a row,” said Ryan Blaney, the reigning 2023 NASCAR Cup Series champion, dripping under an umbrella. “The city deserves better weather than this when we come here.”

When the rain finally stopped and the race resumed under the green flag around 7:20 p.m., there was still an hour left before the NASCAR-imposed deadline expired.

The Cup Series broadcast was once again broadcast on radio, with a main booth near the start/finish line at Buckingham Fountain and announcers stationed at various points along the track to provide real-time commentary at each turn.

The announcers served another function Sunday, with micro-weather reports along the 2.2-mile track, which was so extensive that some areas were dry while others were soaking wet.

“It was kind of funny actually,” Behnke said. “The track is so big that there were different weather conditions all over the track.”