NASCAR Achieves Increased Television Viewership For Daytona Events

NASCAR was rewarded with significant viewership increases during the 2026 Daytona 500 and NASCAR Truck Series race at Daytona, while the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series event remained flat from 2025.

Michael Jordan at Tyler Reddick on Victory Lane. The 2026 Daytona 500 was held on February 15 at Daytona International Speedway. | Tim Shortt/ News-Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway, which drew a sold-out crowd and 150,000 fans on-site, according to NASCAR, saw a significant increase in television viewership compared to the 2025 edition of the event.

According to FOX Sports, the Daytona 500 race broadcast on FOX garnered an average viewing audience of 7.489 million viewers, which equates to an increase of 11% from last year's Daytona 500 (6.761 million viewers). The average viewership of Sunday's race marks the most-watched Daytona 500 since the 2023 event, which recorded 8.173 million viewers.

🚨 Ratings slam dunk! FOX Sports delivered 7,489,000 viewers for Sunday’s Daytona 500, an +11% jump over 2025 (6,761,000)! 🏁

▪️Outscored every non-prime Winter Olympics window on broadcast and cable
▪️Topped all broadcast and cable networks in viewership during the race from… pic.twitter.com/gmg5qlk1zP

— FOX Sports PR (@FOXSportsPR) February 19, 2026

The peak viewership of the race was 9.154 million viewers, which was achieved on FOX from 5:30-5:45 PM ET during Sunday's race broadcast.

Tyler Reddick collected his first Harley J Earl trophy in dramatic fashion, as the final lap of the Daytona 500 featured a couple of multi-car crashes, including one that wiped out the remainder of the top-five finishers in the race, behind Reddick.

The win for Reddick was also the first-ever Daytona 500 win for 23XI Racing, a team founded in 2021 by NBA legend Michael Jordan and NASCAR racer Denny Hamlin.

In addition to the Daytona 500, the other NASCAR National Series events of the Daytona International Speedway race weekend also achieved favorable television viewership numbers.

Friday's NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Fresh From Florida 250 at Daytona recorded a 37% increase in average viewership from a season ago. The race, which was won by Chandler Smith in a wild four-wide battle to the finish line, scored 1.387 million average viewers, compared to 1.014 million in 2025.

🚨 Big trucks, big numbers! Friday’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series season opener on FS1 from Daytona drove a +37% average viewership increase over 2025 (1,387,000 viewers vs. 1,014,000)! 🚀

🏁Most-watched Truck Series race since 2016

🏁1,604,000 peak viewership (9:45-10:00 PM… pic.twitter.com/pAlstqhjMW

— FOX Sports PR (@FOXSportsPR) February 18, 2026

The solid number makes Friday night's race at Daytona the most-watched NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event since the 2016 season.

The NASCAR Truck Series event had a peak viewership number of 1.604 million viewers from 9:45-10:00 PM ET.

To round things out, the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series United Rentals 300 at Daytona, which was won by Richard Childress Racing's Austin Hill, recorded 1.812 million viewers on average. While that was not an increase from last season, it was enough to keep the viewership flat year-over-year.

pic.twitter.com/m3t5nJii1P

— The CW Sports (@TheCW_Sports) February 18, 2026

Saturday night's NOAPS event peaked in viewership with 2.321 million viewers, and the race reached 340,000 adults in the 18-49 years old demographic, which is the largest total in that category for the series in nearly 8 years.