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Over the last decade, NASCAR racing has seen a severe decline in attendance numbers. It may be because all cars are created the same, or it could be from the Covid-19 pandemic stipulations and lockdowns. When you watch the race from your living room, you can see a substantial amount of empty seats, but there are still thousands and thousands of people there. So, it comes down to one simple question; what is the average attendance at NASCAR?
The maximum Occupancy of all 23 regular season NASCAR Race tracks is 2,287,553, divide this by the 2 races in the season and the average attendance, if all venues are sold out, is 99,489 per race. However, since 2014, NASCAR no longer releases exact information on its attendance figures.
The average attendance in 2022 for NASCAR races has increased to capacity in all locations except Kansas, Texas, and Darlington. Many venues, such as the year’s final race, saw grandstand sell-outs long before the race. The average attendance for NASCAR is around 2.5 million live viewers annually.
Unfortunately, the average attendance can only be estimated because NASCAR stopped releasing those numbers back in 2014. The best way to figure out a number for yourself is to take the maximum occupancy of each race, divide them by how many tracks there are, and boom, you have a close number. Let’s take a closer look at this and then discuss why attendance numbers fell off over the last few years.
Average Attendance Based on Maximum Occupancy At NASCAR
Since NASCAR refuses to give out the annual or racetrack attendance numbers, the only way to find an average attendance number is to estimate one. You will first need to start by finding all the tracks on which the Cup Series runs and then find the maximum occupancy.
| NASCAR CUP SERIES TRACKS | MAX OCCUPANCY | |
| 1 | Atlanta Motor Speedway | 125,000 |
| 2 | Auto Club Speedway | 122,000 |
| 3 | Bristol Motor Speedway | 153,000 |
| 4 | Charlotte Motor Speedway | 171,000 |
| 5 | Chicagoland Speedway | 75,000 |
| 6 | Darlington Raceway | 47,000 |
| 7 | Daytona International Speedway | 101,500 |
| 8 | Dover International Speedway | 135,000 |
| 9 | Homestead-Miami Speedway | 65,000 |
| 10 | Indianapolis Motor Speedway | 257,325 |
| 11 | Kansas Speedway | 48,000 |
| 12 | Kentucky Speedway | 107,000 |
| 13 | Las Vegas Motor Speedway | 131,000 |
| 14 | Martinsville Speedway | 65,000 |
| 15 | Michigan International Speedway | 137,243 |
| 16 | New Hampshire Motor Speedway | 76,000 |
| 17 | Phoenix International Speedway | 51,000 |
| 18 | Pocono Raceway | 76,812 |
| 19 | Richmond International Raceway | 51,000 |
| 20 | Sonoma Raceway | 47,000 |
| 21 | Talladega Super Speedway | 175,000 |
| 22 | Texas Motor Speedway | 159,585 |
| 23 | Watkins Glen International | 38,900 |
The formula now needs to know the amount of seating for all the tracks, which comes up as 2,287,553 maximum occupancies for all of the 23 NASCAR race tracks
that the Cup Series cars run on.
When you divide the total occupancy by the number of tracks, you come up with 99,489 as an average occupancy amount for each race.
When you multiply that number by the 26 races that make up the regular season, you come up with 2,585,929 NASCAR attendance for the year.
We also have an Infographic on NASCAR attendance and viewers which may help if you need. Feel free to share or use, but please credit if you do so.
Why Has Attendance Been Down the Last Few Years
Over the last few years, the attendance of NASCAR races has dropped to a point where the company estimated a loss of over $170 million in 2020. Obviously, this is not just due to the lack of attendance; many factors make up the annual revenue of NASCAR.
- In-person attendance
- TV viewership
- Merchandise sales
In-person attendance is the income stream that nets NASCAR the least amount of profits, while TV viewership and the money it brings in are the biggest. There is so much involved in revenue that the overall profits cannot be blamed solely on the attendance numbers. But why has attendance been such an issue over the last couple of years?
- Cars – When stock car racing first came into existence, back when the moonshine runners, known as bootleggers, it was all about who had the better car. It was based on speed, power, and the driver. Now, all the cars are basically the same because of the rules, which make it up to the driver to win. It can get boring when you always see the same people in the front of the pack, with inexperienced drivers never having a chance.
- Safety – Safety is the number one consideration for drivers, their families, and their teams. It is also essential for the fans, but true fans love seeing massive, out-of-control wrecks. Human nature enjoys watching the bad luck of others. Since the new cars are safer than ever, the guardrails are designed to take impacts, and the stock cars are so grounded that they can spin in circles at 200 mph, NASCAR is simply not as entertaining as it used to be.
- Covid-19 – The global pandemic definitely had an impact on the attendance numbers for NASCAR, and not in a positive way. Lockdowns and newly implemented rules made it unsafe for fans to go in person to watch the races. It has been said that during the pandemic, the racetracks made altercations that allowed people to view their favorite teams in person, but it is hard to say without seeing the year’s sales numbers.
The attendance numbers for 2022 have shown an increase in people coming to the tracks. The change in the rules, the addition of new tracks, and the implementation of the new generation cars have not seemed to have impacted the appeal of NASCAR for most fans and if it has it seems to be for the better.
The last couple of years are in the books, and they did show a substantial decline in attendance, so time will tell whether fans will continue to pack the grandstands. Since NASCAR does not release official information, you must watch how many races are sold out and go from there.
Conclusion
NASCAR is not in the habit of giving out attendance numbers for any of its races, so it is challenging to find the average attendance at NASCAR. The other problem you run into when trying to figure this number out is that there are 23 tracks that the Cup Cars race on, and each has a different maximum capacity number. Plus, there are 26 main season races and only 23 tracks, so some of them are used twice.
It boils down to that the attendance numbers are still high, with no signs of decreasing enough to cause NASCAR any serious financial issues. 2.5 million people buy tickets and attend the races every year, which does not even include the sold-out playoffs and final race. So the numbers are what they are until NASCAR decides to share the genuine numbers.
Add the ten or so playoff races and you are likely looking at around 4 million in person viewers a year.
