The sports industry was\nchallenged during 2020 like no other time in recent memory. We will review how motorsports responded and its\nresults after its season of racing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The early portion of race\nschedule was subject to typical weather delays. The Daytona 500 finished on Monday\nand posted lower ratings and attendance. \nThe next several races were run with solid viewership until the shutdown\nin Mid \u2013 March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over the next seven weeks, Fox\nbroadcast eNascar iRacing competitions. \nThese races were a completely new concept for professional sports \u2013\nvirtual competition on broadcast networks. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They used the regular\ncommentators calling the contests remotely from their converted home\nstudios. Started off a little rough,\nbut was refined each week. Towards the end the entire technology work flow\nprocess was seamless and served as a foundation for a new operating\nenvironment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The iRacing events ranked as\nthe highest rating esports television programs of all time. There were about 2.0 million new unique\nviewers who had not previous watched NASCAR this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NASCAR returned to live racing\nin early May with a Darlington race. \nOver the next nine weeks, they made up the postponed races and got the\nseason caught up by mid-season at the Brickyard in early July.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was a phenomenal task\nwhich included dozens of scenarios and running midweek races and double headers\non new circuit configurations. Practice\nand qualifying was limited to condense travel time and lower costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the end, they finished the\nseason on time in early November and crowned a new champion in Phoenix. Chase Elliott, age 24, became the third\nyoungest title holder in NASCAR Cup history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Statistically, the NASCAR races\nwere competitive with record green flag passes, lead changes and narrow margin\nof victory. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The delayed season caused\nNASCAR to move the introduction of the Next Gen car to the 2022 season. A revised testing timeline was announced to\nallow manufacturers and teams additional time to evaluate performance data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Overall, the television ratings\nfor the NASCAR Cup 2020 season held up relatively strong. Average viewership was 3.05 million, a\ndecrease of 2.0% from the previous year. Without the major impact of the\nDaytona 500 rain delay, there was actually a slight increase for the season. There are over 190 countries and territories\nreceiving NASCAR related content. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most major sports properties\nexperienced double digit declines in 2020. \nThe regular seasons for MLB, NBA, and NHL were off by over 30% and\nplayoffs even more. Early games for the\nNFL are down less.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NASCAR early return to the\ntrack was not just about racing. It\nrequired a massive effort to meet the hurdles imposed by the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They had to work with health\nand government officials to develop protocols that would protect its\ncommunity. Assuring the safety of its personnel\nwas critical. The number of drivers,\nrace team and at track personnel who contracted the coronavirus was not\nextensive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
They did not utilize testing\nregimes or operate in a bubble environment used by other professional\nleagues. Instead they utilized health\nquestionnaires and temperature checks, to each person entering the race track. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sponsors supported the sport throughout\nthe season. NASCAR moved from a single\nseries entitlement to a premier partner model. \nBusch Beer, Coca-Cola, Geico, and Xfinity were recognized as NASCAR 2020\nMarketing Achievement Award winners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The financial health of NASCAR\nwas challenged. The received the annual\nbroadcast contract fees of approximately of $850 million by completing its\nseason. The lack of fans attending races\ncost them over $100 million in lost revenue. \nThe debt associated with going private last year raised interest\npayments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Overall, NASCAR met the\nchallenges with strength in a difficult year. \nEncounters on many fronts, but they moved forward with a methodical\napproach that will pay dividends as they moved towards next season. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The sports industry was challenged during 2020 like no other time in recent memory. We will review how motorsports responded and its results after its season of racing. The early portion of race schedule was subject to typical weather delays. The Daytona 500 finished on Monday and posted lower ratings and attendance. The next several […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":828,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/businessofspeed.speedwaysonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/businessofspeed.speedwaysonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/businessofspeed.speedwaysonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/businessofspeed.speedwaysonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/businessofspeed.speedwaysonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=827"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/businessofspeed.speedwaysonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":829,"href":"http:\/\/businessofspeed.speedwaysonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827\/revisions\/829"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/businessofspeed.speedwaysonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/businessofspeed.speedwaysonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/businessofspeed.speedwaysonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/businessofspeed.speedwaysonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}