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Indy 500 ratings plummet
Posted: Saturday July 04, 1998 04:36 PM
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Indianapolis 500 ratings are the worst since three-years-old split between CART and IRL (Vincent Laforet/Allsport) |
NEW YORK (CNN/SI) -- If Indy Racing League officials needed any confirmation of the
Indianapolis 500's recent popularity tumble,
they got it Tuesday in the form of lousy television ratings.
Just two days after the 82nd Indy 500, IRL officials received news of the worst ratings since the three-year-old split between CART and IRL.
The 5.6 overnight rating for this year's race was down 18 percent from 1996, the last time the race was run on Sunday, and 33 percent from 1995, the last year before the CART-IRL split. A rating point represents 980,000 households.
Last year's race, which ran on a Tuesday afternoon following two days of rain, got a 5.0/18.
The beneficiary of the split has been NASCAR, which has quickly become the ratings king of auto racing. NASCAR's weekly race ratings now regularly more than double those of CART and the IRL.
The Daytona 500, the crown jewel of NASCAR's Winston Cup series, has out-rated Indy each of the last three years. The 7.7 overnight rating for this year's Daytona 500 was 38 percent higher than Indy.
But even less glamorous races, like last month's Diehard 500 on ABC, which got a 5.7, and Texas 500 on CBS, which got a 5.4, post ratings about as high as Indy.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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