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Larry McReynolds Suggests Network Execs Won’t Be Pleased With Latest Fox TV Ratings

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Kyle Dalton | Last updated Apr 17, 2025 10:38 AM ET

The NASCAR Cup Series raced on Sunday at Bristol Motor Speedway. There were plenty of fans dressed up as empty seats inside the Last Great Colosseum.

The television numbers came out on Tuesday and revealed that 2.054 million tuned into the race on FS1. However, the 3.809 million viewers that tuned in to last year’s race at the half-mile track aren’t comparable because it aired on the main Fox channel.

The 2025 Xfinity Series race from The World’s Fastest Half-Mile, which aired on The CW, had just over a million views for Saturday’s event.

Interestingly, what many fans are talking about from the weekend’s motorsports television coverage are the numbers from IndyCar and the Grand Prix of Long Beach, which aired on Fox’s main channel and received 552,000 viewers. Again, not a direct comparison to last year’s numbers of 307,000, which aired on USA Network.

Larry McReynolds and show co-host Danielle Trotta talked about the television ratings for all three series on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio and unsurprisingly focusing on the latter.

“Now they're on the big network, but only got just north of half a million people. Is that a win for IndyCar?” Trotta asked. “Is this glass half-full or glass half-empty? How do you look at that number?”

The motorsports TV ratings have been a topic of conversation this week and @LarryMac28 sounded off on it. pic.twitter.com/4RP88RC9qy
— Kyle Dalton (@kdsportswriter) April 17, 2025

“Well, it's a different floor than I work on,” McReynolds admitted. “But if we (NASCAR) had a race on Fox – I don't care if it was on Christmas day and we didn't bust a million, I gotta believe there'd be a lot of disappointed people walking around.

“Yeah, to be on the mothership (Fox) and only have half a million, just north of a half a million, that's not – I don't think that's what my bosses are looking for.”

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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