For the primary time within the historical past of the NASCAR Cup Collection, a race was featured solely on streaming. The numbers are in and they’re stable for the primary outing. The Coca-Cola 600 peaked a 2.92 million viewers with over a million watching the prolonged post-race present, however most significantly, the typical median age of viewers went down by seven years.
As NASCAR chases a youthful demographic, this alone makes it an enormous win. There have been round 800,000 viewers from the 18-49 demographic, which is greater than any race on cable for the final three years (no less than). And whereas the whole viewership is down from the 600 on FOX, which is to be anticipated, it nonetheless beat six of the eight Cup races this 12 months that had been aired on FOX Sports activities 1.
NASCAR on Prime
NASCAR on PrimeJared C. Tilton/Getty Photographs
Jared C. Tilton/Getty Photographs
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However what made Prime Video an actual winner on Sunday evening was how they approached the occasion. The sales space was energetic and informative, and so they took the occasion critically (apart from the puppet phase). You felt the gravity of it, which FOX managed to do fairly properly for the Indy 500, nevertheless it’s one thing that has been lacking from plenty of their NASCAR occasions. The commercials had been minimally invasive and side-by-side was used always. Even with dominating 283 of 400 laps, the center parts of the race by no means felt boring as Prime went across the monitor to seek out the motion. Stunningly, the ultimate stage went and not using a single industrial interrupting the ultimate two runs of the occasion — about 64 consecutive laps.
The addition of personalities like and was a terrific transfer whereas the sales space unsurprisingly nailed it between Adam Alexander, and Steve Letarte. And the way in which they defined issues with out patronizing the viewer was refreshing as properly. They weren’t explaining what phases had been or how warning flags on the finish of the race work, however they did throw collectively a extremely informative 30-second phase on the fly to elucidate why Denny Hamlin’s crew didn’t get their automobile stuffed with gas.
The unending post-race showCarl Edwards and Corey LaJoie
Carl Edwards and Corey LaJoieJared C. Tilton/Getty Photographs
Jared C. Tilton/Getty Photographs
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However the post-race present was the most important breath of recent air. On cable, NASCAR followers are used to not getting a lot of a post-race present as a result of constraints of that medium. FOX and NBC have their fingers considerably tied in that regard, however Prime took full benefit of that, giving viewers one hour and 18 minutes of post-race protection the place they introduced in race winner and runner-up finisher Byron for full sit-down discussions. Crew proprietor additionally joined the panel to debate the large win for Trackhouse. They even interviewed crew chief Phil Surgen in Victory Lane and had been positive to inform the entire story of Chastain’s outstanding comeback, preventing from final to first in a backup automobile to win NASCAR’s longest race.
Talking on his weekly podcast, Earnhardt Jr. stated of the post-race present: “The opposite luxurious of streaming is that the post-race is fluid. If we really feel like we’ve acquired all the things accomplished, and all the things we will probably share in half-hour, that’s when it’ll finish. if it must go longer, it’ll go longer. we don’t have an out … And if there was ever a lot occurring that we must be on for an hour and a half, they are going to. That’s the wonderful thing about the post-race.”
Prime bought a complete of 5 races this 12 months and for followers not prepared to open up their wallets simply but for streaming, they may nonetheless choose in for a 30-day free trial that covers the complete run on Prime. Round these occasions, Prime is doing a ton of activation between commercials and highly-acclaimed documentaries like the brand new ‘Earnhardt’ docuseries, which shortly turned the No. 1 trending collection on Prime.
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It confirmed that change is usually wanted to shake up the established order, and that is not a knock on FOX. Simply have a look at IndyCar transferring from NBC to FOX and all the things FOX has accomplished for the collection. Simply handing another person the identical ball will end in a completely totally different ballgame. So congrats to Prime, who took the expectations for a NASCAR broadcast and hit that ball proper out of the park.
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