Report: NASCAR posts 2.1 million viewers for Chicago street race on TNT, TruTV

The ratings from the weekend at Chicago are in for NASCAR. And unfortunately they’ve ticked down quite a bit from the last two years.

Adam Stern of the Sports Business Journal reported that TNT and TruTV got 2.1 million viewers for Sunday’s edition of the Chicago street race. That figure notably does not include streaming.

How does that stack up to previous years? Well, last year the race was on NBC’s linear channel on network television and delivered 3.9 million viewers. And even that was down from the prior year on NBC, the inaugural running of the Chicago street race, which drew 4.6 million viewers.

It’s a significant decline and one that could force NASCAR to do some long, hard thinking about the future of the race in Chicago. Those discussions were already ongoing, with this year being the third and final year of the contract.

Regardless, the three races at Chicago have provided plenty of drama. Shane van Gisbergen claimed Sunday’s win with relative ease, but there were plenty of other dramatic incidents on the track.

Joey Logano calls out Ross Chastain

One of the most high-profile incidents in the race on Sunday at Chicago involved beef between Joey Logano and Ross Chastain. The two got into it on the track, then tempers flared and things spilled over into a heated confrontation after the race.

Logano called on NASCAR to fine Chastain for the contact after Chastain reportedly admitted on pit road that he had intentionally wrecked Logano. The two got caught up in traffic in the middle of the race, with Chastain initially taking contact into a tire barrier.

Whatever the case, Chastain seemed to think Logano was at fault for that contact. He came after Logano and spun him in the next section of the track.

Reporters had a chance to catch up with Logano after that incident, and he was blunt. To him, there was no gray area surrounding the wreck and whether it was intentional from Chastain.

“Do I think so? Yes, he admitted he wrecked me on purpose,” Logano told FOX Sports’ Bob Pockrass. “He admitted it. Which means he should get fined if he admittedly wrecked someone on purpose. That’s not OK.”

Logano has had more than one run-in with Chastain this NASCAR Cup Series season. That’s part of the reason he was so heated after the race.

“Typical Ross,” Logano said. “He just sees red and does dumb stuff. That’s all. That’s twice this year on road courses at the end of these things I’ve been cost by Ross. I’m just over it.”