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Feb 22Liked by Neil Paine

Has NASCAR seen any hit to its popularity with the ascendance of F1 or are they more complementary to each other?

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That's a good question.

I tend to think they're mostly complementary, in part because the F1 races tend to be on Sunday mornings and NASCAR is on Sunday afternoons. F1, NASCAR and IndyCar all rose in U.S. viewers in 2022 (https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2022/06/nascar-ratings-fox-fs1-viewership-indycar-nbcsn-f1-espn-increase/), which backs up that theory.

But... in 2023, F1 stayed steady while NASCAR dipped slightly. I'm also not sure how the Venn diagram of viewership breaks down between series fanbases. There's definitely some overlap among racing fans, but there's always been a simmering rivalry between the two fandoms. I'd be curious what polling data is out there about what % of F1 fans are also NASCAR fans and vice-versa.

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