Dale Earnhardt Jr. isn’t helping NASCAR ratings as an announcer, even at Daytona

DAYTONA, FL - JULY 06: TV personality Dale Earnhardt Jr. during Coke Zero Sugar 400 qualifying on July 6, 2018 at Daytona International Speedway at Daytona Beach, Fl. (Photo by David Rosenblum/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
DAYTONA, FL - JULY 06: TV personality Dale Earnhardt Jr. during Coke Zero Sugar 400 qualifying on July 6, 2018 at Daytona International Speedway at Daytona Beach, Fl. (Photo by David Rosenblum/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /
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On the other hand, there’s definitely reason to believe that Junior isn’t hurting ratings either.

It’s safe to say that if adding Dale Earnhardt Jr. to the broadcast booth, as NBC Sports has famously done this season, isn’t enough to stop sliding NASCAR ratings, there isn’t a person alive who could.

Alas, it seems like that is indeed the case. Earnhardt’s debut at Chicagoland helped NBC Sports, but that race wasn’t an apples to apples comparison with previous years since it also switched dates, away from competition with the NFL last fall. This past weekend’s Coke Zero Sugar 400 was a much better indication for any potential Junior Effect, given that it was in its traditional post-holiday Saturday night slot and was one of Earnhardt Jr.’s best tracks.

That didn’t seem to matter. As Sports Media Watch reports, the summer Daytona race was down more than 15 percent in both ratings and viewers from the previous year, and the least-watched edition of the event since a rain-delayed 2015 race that started after 11:00 p.m. ET. That’s despite an eventful (read: wreck-filled) night that featured several dramatic plot twists, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. making enemies of nearly everyone and a first-time winner in Erik Jones.

You may recall that the previous week at Chicagoland gave us one of the most thrilling finishes at an intermediate track in possibly forever, so the racing has been fine since NBC took over for its half of the 2018 NASCAR season. Junior has also been superb, earning rave reviews for his work in the booth so far.

That doesn’t mean it was a mistake to bring in Earnhardt. NBC has long trailed FOX in terms of the perception of its NASCAR announce team, and if he had gone to the other network, that would be even more true. It was a move the network needed to make, and even though it’s early days, both sides seem happy they found each other.

It just speaks to the oft-reported but no less true factors at work when it comes to NASCAR ratings. People often speak about the sport as if there is a large pool of lapsed viewers out there that could be lured back if only the magic formula was found. That’s probably not the case. Some former fans might be convinced to tune back in under certain circumstances, but as the third decade of the 21st century approaches, all kinds of ratings are down. No one person can change that.

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Not even Earnhardt Jr. NASCAR races are still the top sporting events on TV almost every weekend during the summer, so there’s no reason to panic (except maybe for the well-paid people who worry about such things as part of their jobs). The new normal is a downward trend, and it’s a slide, that, so far at least, not even Junior can prevent.