NASCAR’s two race experiment paid off. This year, they moved both the Nashville as well as the Atlanta race weekend’s to not only under the lights, but on Sunday night instead of Saturday too. It paid off massively.

Nashville kicked off NBC Sports’ part of the schedule at the end of June and it delivered a sold out event with the TV number being 3.23-million. According to reports, the Ally 400 was the second-highest rated opener for NBC since the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona in 2017.

It was a 9% uptick from last year and 16% higher than the 2022 average race viewership.

Mission accomplished. But, what about Atlanta. This wasn’t on network TV but rather on USA.

The ratings are in for that race and once again, they’re very strong. Sunday’s Quaker State 400 was the largest viewed sporting event of the weekend with 2.56-million viewers.

They got 2.6 million last year with the race in the heat of the day on the same network. Which means that a later start time is better for those in the stands as well as those on TV. Which makes me think that NASCAR has found a new avenue with Sunday night racing.

I mean you can’t do it every week like Sunday Night Football on NBC, but you can do it more than twice.

It further helps NASCAR shift towards most races taking part on Sunday’s now and moving even further away from Saturday night shows.

Martinsville’s race last year was further proof on why NASCAR has went forward with more Sunday races than Saturday night. Nearly 4 million (3.958-million) people tuned into FOX a week prior to that one for the Richmond race. The Martinsville race was more than half of the amount of people tuning in.

From 3.958-million to 1.8-million. That’s a stark drop. Hell, the Truck race on dirt almost had as many people watching than the Cup race at Martinsville a week prior.

While some could say a race on FS1 will naturally drop off than one on FOX, you don’t lose 3-million people because of that and the Truck race was on FS1 too.

Sunday afternoon’s on network get you between 3.5-4-million. Sunday night’s get you at least 2.5-million. Saturday night’s usually range between 1.5-million to 2 million at the most.

That’s because weekend TV spots for primetime is declining in general. It’s a fundamental shift that NASCAR is working on again and they’re not hiding behind that fact either.

“I think from a fan perspective our fans, again, are accustomed to tuning in on Sunday afternoon and seeing NASCAR Cup Series racing,” Ben Kennedy said last year on this topic. “For a fan going out there to the track, to have the biggest event of the weekend on that Sunday afternoon I think gives them something to look forward to and builds anticipation around the weekend.

“I would say a lot of our fans, myself included, are accustomed to turning racing on, NASCAR racing in particular, on Sunday afternoon. I think we all have that habit. Certainly helped us kind of drive the decision to move that there.”

In both 2009 and again in 2010 we had 10 scheduled night races on the schedule. They were at Phoenix, Richmond (x2), Darlington, Charlotte (x2), Daytona, Chicago, Bristol and Atlanta. Last year, that number was down to six (Martinsville, Bristol (x2), Charlotte, Darlington and Daytona). Out of those 6, half would take place on a Sunday night at that. That’s down from 8 of 10 in 2010.

This year, it’s up to 9 races in primetime if you count the All-Star Race and Clash. Among the 9, just 2 of the races this season are even on Saturday night’s with both being in the final 11 races (Daytona, Bristol) with the remaining 7 on a Sunday night (Clash, All-Star Race, Bristol Dirt, Coke 600, Nashville, Atlanta, Southern 500).

This year, you added Atlanta and Nashville to the mix, took Martinsville and Richmond away and opened up a new avenue for future scheduling.

Plus, among the past tracks with lights, Phoenix, Richmond, Kansas, Vegas and Martinsville doesn’t need use theirs anymore for Cup with both visits now being day races. This avenue could allow them to add a Sunday night race and be creative in doing so.

The shift used to be clear. Lights were basically a backup plan now for tracks for the event rain pushes them to night to complete. However, they used to prefer not to have to use them and get them all done in a Sunday afternoon window.

Now, they have an option to move to a night race again, albeit on a Sunday instead of a Saturday.

This also further helps NASCAR in the next TV contract. Sunday night’s are a possibility now. So is racing in football stadiums and on city streets. There’s no where off limits anymore and that has to be attractive to major networks.