There is a considerable difference between perception and reality.  The “reality” of American motorsports is that NASCAR’s Cup Series is the behemoth of the myriad forms of racing we enjoy.  But the “perception” of the media is that IndyCar runs a fairly close second to NASCAR, with NHRA Drag Racing running a very distant third.  That perception is about as far from reality as Justin Bieber is from winning the Nobel Peace Prize.  Last weekend’s races were a perfect case in point.

While the IndyCar series was appearing at the Long Beach Grand Prix, one of the series’ premier events, NHRA Drag Racing was running the 4-Wide in Charlotte.  Despite considerable pre-broadcast promotions on the host NBC network, which has a much larger audience reach than does ESPN, the Nielsen rating for the LBGP, which appeared on the newly named NBC Sports (formerly Versus) cable channel, the race drew a .32 national rating, reaching an audience of 468,000 viewers.  Despite the fact that this was an improvement over last year’s .22 rating and audience of 323,000 viewers, it paled in light of the numbers generated by ESPN2’s coverage of the 4-Wide Nationals.  Charlotte pulled a .65 rating, with an audience of 897,954, up 27 percent over the previous year’s race telecast.  Those are excellent numbers for the NHRA Full Throttle series.

 
There is a considerable difference between perception and reality.  The “reality” of American motorsports is that NASCAR’s Cup Series is the behemoth of the myriad forms of racing we enjoy.  But the “perception” of the media is that IndyCar runs a fairly close second to NASCAR, with NHRA Drag Racing running a very distant third.  That perception is about as far from reality as Justin Bieber is from winning the Nobel Peace Prize.  Last weekend’s races were a perfect case in point.

While the IndyCar series was appearing at the Long Beach Grand Prix, one of the series’ premier events, NHRA Drag Racing was running the 4-Wide in Charlotte.  Despite considerable pre-broadcast promotions on the host NBC network, which has a much larger audience reach than does ESPN, the Nielsen rating for the LBGP, which appeared on the newly named NBC Sports (formerly Versus) cable channel, the race drew a .32 national rating, reaching an audience of 468,000 viewers.  Despite the fact that this was an improvement over last year’s .22 rating and audience of 323,000 viewers, it paled in light of the numbers generated by ESPN2’s coverage of the 4-Wide Nationals.  Charlotte pulled a .65 rating, with an audience of 897,954, up 27 percent over the previous year’s race telecast.  Those are excellent numbers for the NHRA Full Throttle series.

One of the real problems with trying to dissect television ratings is the manner in which they’re calculated.  For both Long Beach and Charlotte the numbers quoted are the national ratings.  However, by way of comparison, SPEED TV reported a .88 coverage area rating for its Truck race telecast from Rockingham, which can be an incredibly deceiving number.  According to nielsenmedia.com, “coverage area rating” means “The estimate of the size of the audience relative to the total number of homes or people that can receive this channel. Coverage Area Ratings are used for each individual cable network. The Coverage Area Rating for one cable network can not be compared to another cable network’s coverage area rating or a broadcast network rating. Only total U.S. Ratings or audience projections (estimated number of households or persons) can be compared between/among networks.”

On-site attendance at Charlotte was up 20 percent over the previous year, but with inclement weather impacting every day of the 2011 race, there was bound to be significant improvement at the gate if the weather cooperated, which it did.  Meanwhile, IndyCar was claiming a crowd of 170,000 for the three days of the LBGP, which trackside observers considered laughable.  Friday was a complete washout, and while Saturday was somewhat better, Sunday was considered nothing special.  The observers we spoke with regarding the LBGP are seasoned motorsports veterans, more than one of them being a highly experienced journalist familiar with both crowd estimation and the LBGP in particular.  Since we mentioned the Truck race we should also point out that from the visual perspective the facility appeared less than half full.

There is little question that the media’s perception of NHRA Drag Racing continues to place the endeavor in third place when, in reality, it should be considered second only to NASCAR’s Cup Series while being easily ahead of its supportive series.  Convincing a hidebound media that NHRA Drag Racing is a first-rate activity with astonishing on-track action that includes the kind of visceral excitement that no other form of motorsports in North America can even come close to delivering is a daunting task.  It’s made even more so by prominent and important members of that media repeatedly refusing to attend an event in person despite knowing the numbers.  How and why they’re able to continue short-changing NHRA Drag Racing escapes us.