Can NASCAR capitalize on Yankees early exit?
They’d never say it publicly, but you’ve got to believe the folks at NASCAR are happy that the Yankees got bumped out of the baseball playoffs early this season. That’s because with the Yankees out of the running, the New York market loses a powerful audience draw right at the time when NASCAR is hoping to draw attention for the final stages of its Chase for the Championship. So far, the audience for NASCAR in New York this season is up about 11% when compared to last year, with each race averaging 147,000 viewers a week. It’s not a bad number by any stretch. And, the numbers locally have benefited from more night races, later starts, allowing more people to watch and relatively weak summer competition. But, in the fall, competition changes dramatically, between postseason baseball and the start of football, the No. 1 draw in TV. Yet, even without the Yankees in the picture, NASCAR proved no match locally against baseball last Saturday night when the Bank of America 500 from the Lowes
