Upward trend in TV viewership continues at NHRA season opener

Published Feb. 17, 2017 3:03 p.m. ET

Samuel Reiman

NHRA’s TV viewership continues to grow. The series kicked off its second season on the FOX Sports family of networks last weekend with the Circle K NHRA Winternationals from Auto Club Raceway at Pomona in Pomona, California.

Final Eliminations were shown LIVE on the FOX network channel from 4-7 p.m. ET on Sunday, Feb. 12 with 1,224,000 viewers. It was the most-watched broadcast in NHRA’s 57-year history.

Including the re-air on FS1, viewership of the final eliminations from the Winternationals was up 91 percent over last year’s FS1 broadcast. In total, over 1.9 million viewers watched an NHRA broadcast during the course of the season-opening event.

“The second year of our partnership with Fox is off to a great start in 2017,” said Ken Adelson, NHRA vice president, executive producer and chief content officer. “We’ve only just begun and appreciate our long time and new fans who support the NHRA. We also have a great production team that made it all happen and we look forward to continuing the season.”

Round 2 of the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series takes place from the Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park in Phoenix, with three hours of Final Elimination coverage starting at 6 p.m. ET on Feb. 26 on FS1.