Truck race gives Speed highest rating ever

T

TonyB

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That's Racin'

SPEED Channel's live coverage of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race on Friday night from Daytona International Speedway scored a Nielsen Rating of 2.1 (1,330,000 households), the highest rating for any program in network history.

"We're obviously very excited to start our 2005 NASCAR season like this," said SPEED Channel President Jim Liberatore. "SPEED enjoyed a strong offseason in the ratings and a lot of us had an expectation that this could be a breakout year for the network.


"Of course, when you have a race where two teams are both convinced they belong in Victory Lane until 15 minutes after the event is over, you know you had a great race with a memorable finish. That's the kind of close, exciting racing the NASCAR Craftsman truck series brought to the network when we started broadcasting it three years ago."


The rating for the Florida Dodge Dealers 250 was up 31 percent over 2004 (1.6).


Now in its 10th year on the air, SPEED Channel brings viewers live, exclusive coverage of the entire NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series schedule. The next race will be Friday at 9 p.m. ET from Fontana, California.


Other live racing from Daytona on SPEED Channel also earned strong ratings, with the ARCA RE/MAX event scoring a 1.11 (701,000 households) on Feb. 12 and the Crown Royal IROC race getting a 1.47 (932,000 households) on Feb. 18.
 
I love the trucks.

But if the race had not been in Daytona, during Speedweek, wonder what the ratings would have been?

Oh, and as to the commentators, am I the only one who finds one them a bigger pain than his famous bro ever was? He won't shut up! Knows it all. Hate that.
 
Maybe he DOES know what he is talking about.. He grates on my nerves too, but I do consider where he came from and what he has done to give him all that knowledge..
I'd a lot rather have him than a polished, schooled and well mannered Boston commentator. Yeah a Boston guy that knows how to speak the Kings English and knows absolutely NOTHING about our sport... NAAAAAW!
Betsy
 
thats great. i love the trucks. it just kinda hurts them that it is only on speed and not everyone can get it. i wish it could be on like FOX or FX
 
Well it's certainly a lot better for the trucks to be on SPEED than it was for ESPN to broadcast the. ESPN rarely (if ever) broadcast them live, Showed them at wierd hours in the middle of the night and early morning hours and people just plain never knew when they'd be shown. I reamember searching and searching trying to find them only to find out they were on like 1am PT.
Auto racing in general is ESPN's unwanted stepchild. Last year there was a night IRL race at Texas, they didn't show it live (started right after the truck race) they aired it the next day going head to head with the Cup race! Now how smart is that? I watch all the series, but if it goes head to head with a NASCAR event, NASCAR wins out in my mind.

The Truck Series has only been able to show what great racing they have to offer since SPEED has taken over, before that if you talked about the truck series most people didn't have a clue. In the past ASA got more exposure than the trucks did.
 
never really been a fan of the truck series for some reason...but they got some good ole former cup drivers in there now...think im gonna have to follow it this year
 
Betsy said:
Maybe he DOES know what he is talking about.. He grates on my nerves too, but I do consider where he came from and what he has done to give him all that knowledge..
Click to expand...
Just because he may have a lot of knowledge, doesn't mean he has to be a know-it-all, does it? He used to be real funny. Now I can't even watch Inside Nextel Cup anymore if he is on.

NASCAR's version of Ophra. :p
 
I love the trucks! Im so gald they got good ratings! Im alwasy watching SPEED unless F1 is on. Sorry but its just boring.. I did miss the truck race at Daytona though, usually im better about it or at least Tivoing it..
 
I've been saying this for a while now but the trucks seem to have the best racing. Its about time they are starting to get noticed. Speed has done a wonderful job of covering the events. I'm excited for this year to have some of the series starters back running with good teams (Sprague, Hornaday, Skinner). It should make for some exciting racing for 05!
 
Seems to me with all these Cup guys that are going back to the Truck Series there will be a lot more than 36 teams trying to run full time in that series. In the begining they mandated 36 trucks to start because the fields were small and there weren't that many planning on running full time. I think in the near future NASCAR will change the starting field from 36 to 43. I also wish they would raise the ticket price to the same as Busch races so these teams could get a decent payday. At Daytona Cup Prize money was over 17 million, Busch was 2.5 million Trucks was 800,000 total purse. That's pretty pathetic when you consider their expeses. JMHO
 
Yeah, but with more exposure, the salary will eventually go up hopefully.
 
I like the trucks. You will see just about as good a racing in the trucks as you will Cup.
 
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