NHRA's viewership of the Toyota NHRA Sonoma Nationals on FOX provided an 11-percent increase at 998,000 viewers in average hourly viewership over last week's initial foray into live coverage on a major network television. 

Sunday's Sonoma broadcast also presented an 82-percent increase over last season. 

With the rainout of the NASCAR event in Pocono, NHRA went head to head with the tape-delayed IndyCar Mid-Ohio event which attracted 811,000.

Overall, NHRA's television numbers are up an average of 41-percent for Sunday final elimination broadcasts, 79-percent over last season.

Despite the positive numbers, the NHRA faces some significant battles. NHRA major network broadcasts have yet to air on Miami's FOX affiliates, who are not required to run the network broadcasts of the events and choose instead to run infomercials instead. The Miami-Ft. Lauderdale market represents the 16th largest television audience in the United States.

A conflict also exists with DISH subscribers and local FOX channels as well preventing some drag racing fans from viewing Sunday's live final eliminations from Sunday's NHRA Northwest Nationals from Seattle, Wash. DISH recorded 13.7 Million subscribers at the end of 2015.