Racing Viewership Goes To New Heights

Figures released by the NASCAR Winston Cup stock-car sanctioning organization show that TV viewership exceeded 91 million fans for 31 Cup points races in 1995. Combined with 26 nationally televised NASCAR Busch Series/Grand National Division events and 20 races from the first-year SuperTruck series, total viewership grew to more than 120,000,000.

The Texas Motor Speedway, which figures to tap into the NASCAR schedule perhaps as soon as the 1997 season, has its eyes on big prizes.

But whenever Texas Motor Speedway officially joins the NASCAR network, it will operate as an independent contractor as far as TV rights. Each speedway playing host to NASCAR races is free to negotiate its TV rights fees, unlike, for instance, NFL franchises.

So Eddie Gossage, vice president and general manager of developer Bruton Smith’s $100 million facility, met with ESPN representatives while in New York City this month. Smith, meanwhile, huddled with representatives of one of the big three networks last week.

Gossage said speedway management will likely market its NASCAR TV rights as a “time-buy” package. As such, management would “buy” a three or four-hour block for, say the Interstate Batteries 500, on a network. The speedway then would sell its own advertising, because that air time “belongs” to the speedway.