Despite being impacted by a nearly four-hour rain delay, last Sunday’s Indy 500 averaged a preliminary Total Audience Delivery (TAD) of 5.344 million viewers across NBC, Peacock, and NBC Sports digital platforms on Sunday.
By comparison, those numbers are up by up 8% vs. the 2023 race (4.927 million) and 10% vs. 2022 (4.837 million). The final figures will be available on Wednesday.
This year’s edition of “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing” was won by Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden. It marked the second consecutive victory in the race for the Tennessee native, becoming the first driver to win the event back-to-back since Helio Castroneves in 2001-2002.
Fans that tuned in were gifted a thrilling finish as Newgarden passed Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward on the final lap with a daring move to the outside entering Turn 3. Eighteen different drivers led at least one lap, an event record.
The race also featured 2021 NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Larson, who started fifth and finished 18th in his debut in an Arrow McLaren entry co-owned by legendary NASCAR team owner Rick Hendrick. Larson was attempting to become the fifth driver to complete ‘The Double’ – running the Indy 500 and 600-mile Cup race in Charlotte on the same Sunday of Memorial Day weekend. The delay in Indianapolis left Larson to show up late to the Cup race in Charlotte, which was also hit by rain and called after 249 of 400 laps.
Last Sunday’s Indy 500 peaked at 6.46 million viewers from 7:30-7:45pm ET. It was also the most-streamed IndyCar Series race ever, with an Average Minute Audience (AMA) of 286,000 viewers across Peacock and NBC Sports digital platforms and is NBC Sports’ most-watched Sunday sports event since the NFL playoffs in January (Tampa Bay-Detroit; Jan. 21).
Pre-race coverage for NBC Sports began at 11am ET, with the green flag originally scheduled for 12:45pm ET. Due to severe weather that caused the delay, though, NBC Sports’ race window was moved from 4:45-8:15pm ET.
NBC Sports filled the rain-delayed hours with periodic live updates and an encore presentation of the 2023 race, resulting in more than nine hours of broadcast network coverage for the entire day. IndyCar removed the local blackout in Indianapolis, which delivered an 18.15 household rating and 54 share.
Through six races, including the non-points exhibition at The Thermal Club in March, the 2024 NTT IndyCar Series is averaging a TAD of 1.95 million viewers (5 on NBC; 1 on USA Network), up from 1.94 million last year at the same point (all NBC). Total Audience Delivery (TAD) is based upon live-plus-same day fast national figures from Nielsen and digital data from Adobe Analytics.
NBC Sports’ coverage of North America’s premier open-wheel championship continues this weekend with the Detroit Grand Prix on the streets of Detroit. Coverage begins at Noon ET on USA Network and Peacock.
