The USA Network aired the NASCAR Cup Series Playoff race at Darlington Raceway on Sunday, and the ratings have been revealed. Per Jeff Gluck of The Athletic, the Southern 500 drew 1.88 million viewers. Gluck pointed out that Last year’s Southern 500 at Darlington drew 2.4 million on USA.
One reason the ratings for the Darlington race dropped could be it was going up against the Miami vs. Notre Dame game that aired on ABC. According to Programming Insider, the game drew 10.404 million viewers. Miami vs. Notre Dame ran from 7:37 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. ET, and the Darlington race ran from 6:09 p.m. to 10:05 p.m. ET.
The Darlington race was a hit for NASCAR fans despite the lower ratings. In Gluck’s weekly poll, 61 percent of the 23,230 fans who voted said that Darlington was a good race.
Chase Briscoe wins the NASCAR playoff race at Darlington
Chase Briscoe won the Southern 500 to advance to the second round of the playoffs. The 30-year-old led 309 laps and won both stages. After the race, Briscoe was asked about winning at Darlington for the second consecutive year.
“So cool to win two Southern 500s in a row,” Briscoe said. “This is my favorite race of the year. Just because you race fans, every time we come here, the place is sold out, the atmosphere here is like nowhere else. A great way to start our Playoffs. That was a lot of fun.”
Briscoe was then asked if the performance on Sunday showed what the No. 19 team is capable of doing in the playoffs. “Yeah, I think this is definitely what we’re capable of doing. We haven’t been able to go out and dominate a race like that. The potential has been there from day one. Yeah, so thankful once again that Joe Gibbs, Toyota, Johnny Morris, J.P. Morris, to be able to run this red, white and blue Bass Pro Shops car into Victory Lane, it’s the most American brand there is. To have the Star Spangled Banner on this is pretty cool.”
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