NASCAR Hits TV Ratings High Hopes While Ryan Newman Gets Trounced

 Last night's Richmond race was the race to watch on TV, as drivers were getting seeded into the 2013 Chase for the Championship.

And the race delivered a pretty suspenseful evening as the laps started to wind down and some were in, some were not, depending on where in the field they were at what point in the closing laps we were in.

Poor Newman.
Ryan Newman got himself into the lead with ten laps to go.  This effectively had him eliminate MWR driver Martin Truex Jr. from the Chase.

But suddenly another MWR driver spun down the front stretch bringing out a caution.  Everyone up front pitted and Newman lost the lead in the pits.

If the race had stayed green, many think Newman would have won it and found himself in the Chase.  But via a fortuitous (or questionable) spin by his teammate, Truex found himself in the hunt to get into the Chase.  And he did, via a points tie-breaker over Newman.

Then there was the restart where Carl Edwards beat the race leader to the line on the restart.  You know that rule where back in June, Jimmie Johnson was black-flagged for "jumping the start" while Montoya bobbled, hung back (I mean never got going) and never let Johnson get back behind him?  Yea, that rule was in neutral last night it seems.

Yea, well, any way, if Edwards was dinged for that move, one wonders if Newman would have still lost to Truex?

Be it as it may, after the race, Newman said that his chances to win the race were eliminated because he did not have a championship contending pit crew.

Sure, Newman was upset at the time.  But one has to wonder if that also wasn't a shot at the team that let him go for lack of funding, then replaced him and added another team to the garage.

Be it as it may, (rumors suggest Newman is headed to RCR, if I heard right the other day), it is what it is.

But what's of interest to me this morning is that the estimation for last night's live programming TV ratings for NASCAR have it prety much tied with FOX's college football broadcast.

And if you know anything about TV, college football is the monster TV ratings monster to beat.

And early indicators are that NASCAR tied it.

Sure, tied.  It's not a win. But who else could contend with college ball?

Check it out:

"

ABC and FOX tied for number 1 among adults 18-49 while ABC was on top with total viewers.

On ABC, NASCAR scored a preliminary 1.1 adults 18-49 rating.

On FOX, College Football garnered a preliminary 1.1 adults 18-49 rating.

"

For overall viewers, NASCAR pulled in 4.98 million while FOX pulled in only 3.58 million.

Sure... NASCAR had more viewers, but advertisers don't truly care about that number.  They care about the demographic of the 18-49-year-olds that are swayed by the ads and go out and spend their (excess) money on the products they've been brainwashed to buy.

OK...  in NASCAR's case, it's a lot of Cialis, Viagra, and other products!  LOL.

{Ratings info: TBTN}

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