Thursday, February 15, 2024

Anyone still watching NHRA racing? Not as many as a decade ago, etc. So, how long can the NHRA go on existing, when it's cost prohibitive to race anymore? Here's a comparison example of spectators

Drag racing commentator Cole Coonce recently had this to say: 

 “(Last) February, the 10,000-hp modern nitro dragsters were testing at Phoenix on the same weekend as Sick Week, which was five days of 350 of the fastest street cars shooting it out in Florida. Both events were livestreamed. On the day I tuned in to both on YouTube, 160,000 people had watched the Street Legal shoot ’em up and 800 people were watching the professional cars test and tune—800.

“These numbers are unscientific, but the reality is that 160,000 YouTube viewers watching street cars on skinny tires are about what watches a sports channel broadcast of nitro qualifying at a national event.”



3 comments:

  1. Sick Week is a bit different than described above, anyone can participate, there are 4, 1/4 mile drag strips involved, participants have to drive their cars to each track equaling about 800 miles of street use between tracks, it's a rolling/racing car show for a week which is just as much fun as a spectator, as it is the racer.......it's also the Youtube culture as a lot of the folks racing have youtube channels.......

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  2. The 800 people watching the NHRA on Youtube were the few people who didn't get Fox or FS1. Sick Week was NOT on a broadcast network, Youtube was the ONLY way to watch it. Not a good comparison at all. NHRA viewership is actually up overall.

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    Replies
    1. You aren't refuting what he stated, "On the day I tuned in to both on YouTube, 160,000 people had watched the Street Legal shoot ’em up and 800 people were watching the professional cars test and tune—800."
      and you haven't offered my a published source of statistical information to compare the viewing numbers with.
      But, thank you for the bigger broader view of the context that this drag racing commentator wasn't mentioning

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