Kevin Harvick won his first NASCAR Sprint Car Championship by taking the final race at the Homestead-Miami Speedway, (Credit: AP/BleacherReport photo)

By Lou Modestino

ESPN’s live telecast of the Ford Ecoboost 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday, Nov. 16, the final race in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, had a rise in viewership for the second straight year, leading to an increase in overall viewership during the 10 races of the Chase. The Miami event averaged 5,223,000 viewers, up from 5,119,000 for last year’s race and 4,769,000 for the race in 2012, according to Nielsen Media.

The race telecast earned a 3.1 U.S. household rating, the same as last year, but up from a 3.0 rating in 2012. The 10 races in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup averaged 4,408,000 viewers, up from 4,283,000 for last year’s Chase. The 10 races averaged a 2.7 U.S. rating in both years. This report came from ESPN.

Also Kevin Harvick won his first NASCAR Sprint Cup championship. It was also the first time that the other three finalists Joey Logano, Ryan Newman and Denny Hamlin were all looking for their first Cup title which added to the suspense.

NASCAR CEO Brian France was elated at the final race of the season and  claimed that this latest format, that had only four drivers competing for the Sprint Cup Championship, was a major success. We’ll admit that it was a better rating by only 104,000 viewers. After all the work France put into his latest tweak plus all of the hype surrounding the last race in The Chase, an increase of just 104,000 viewers isn’t anything to rave about. Though, it’s better than having less viewers than last year. It only goes to show that NASCAR has a lot more work to do in getting back more TV viewers and fans to fill the grandstands at Homestead. The big problem for NASCAR, though, is that its year end also comes towards the end of the NFL season. That’s going to be a difficult strategy to figure out. That factor has always been a very big problem for NASCAR going back decades when all of their Cup races started to be aired live.

From the latest ratings report NASCAR has a lot of work to do. While we like The Chase format, we are in the minority, so far. We’ll be watching the comments of the race fans, who are still watching NASCAR on TV and buying the tickets. Also, what do they think of The Chase to the Nextel Cup format for 2014? One motor sports radio guy, out of Orange, MA, Ed Dornig likes the new format. He said, “With only four drivers in the final race, if they all crashed together then the race would be all over. I think that there should be at least ten drivers or even better like sixteen in the final Chase race.”

Formula 1 will end it’s season this weekend at Abu Dahbi in the middle east. Drivers Nico Rossburg and Lewis Hamilton will be fighting it out for the world championship. NBC will air that event.