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Nashville was most watched IndyCar race on cable in 23 years

NBC has revealed that the incident-packed inaugural Music City Grand Prix on the streets of Nashville was the most-watched IndyCar race on cable TV for over two decades.

Colton Herta, Andretti Autosport Honda

Colton Herta, Andretti Autosport Honda

IndyCar Series

Despite 33 of 80 laps run under caution, a total of nine caution periods including two red flags, and well over 2hr30mins between the initial green flag and the checkered flag, NBC Sports was able to deliver a Total Audience Delivery [TAD] figure of 1.212 million viewers.

That makes the 11th round of the 2021 NTT IndyCar Series the most-watched in NBC Sports’ history of covering the series (and the most since ESPN in 1998). It surpassed NBC Sports’ previous cable rating record of 934,000 viewers for Mid-Ohio in 2016. 

NBC Sports has now had two of its four most-watched IndyCar races on cable during the 2021 season, the other being Road America in June.

The 1.212 million viewership figure is up 181% compared to NBCSN’s 2020 IndyCar race average (432,000 viewers) and up 187% vs. the 2019 cable average (423,000).

Streaming across NBC Sports digital platforms delivered an Average Minute Audience of 11,500 viewers, another NBC Sports record for an IndyCar race, excluding the Indy 500.

Through its first four races this season, NBCSN’s TAD of 761,000 viewers is up 110 percent compared with 2020 and up 92 percent compared with 2019. Across both NBC and NBCSN, the 2021 season is averaging a TAD of 1.532 million viewers, up 35 percent vs. 2020 and up seven percent compared with 2019.

NBC Sports will cover three of the remaining IndyCar rounds this season – this Saturday’s race on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course, next week’s final oval race of the IndyCar season at World Wide Technology Raceway, and the finale at Long Beach. The Portland and Laguna Seca rounds will be shown on NBC.

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