NASCAR held its first ever street races in Chicago over the weekend. Despite rain putting a damper on much of the festivities, the inaugural NASCAR Cup Series event in Grant Park delivered its most-watched race in six years.
An average of 4.795 million tuned in on NBC and across Peacock. Viewership peaked at 5.383 million from 9:15p-9:30p ET, when Shane van Gisbergen became the first driver to win his Cup Series debut in 60 years.
As mentioned, it was NBC’s most-watched Cup race since the 2017 Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis. The event was also the second most-watched this year behind the season-opening Daytona 500.
Viewership for NBC was also up 144% compared to the second race in its broadcast window last year, when only 1.962 million tuned in for the Cup race at Road America. That race also aired on USA Network.
Streaming wise, the Chicago event was the network’s most-streamed NASCAR race ever, with 163,500 tuning in across Peacock and NBC Sports digital platforms.
