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By SHARON GINN
© St. Petersburg Times, published March 24, 2001
It seems even in death, Dale Earnhardt is influencing the growth of his sport.
NASCAR ratings, which hit near-record levels for the Daytona 500, have been consistently impressive in the five weeks since Earnhardt's fatal crash.
The accessibility of broadcast television, combined with massive promotion, seemingly got the season off to a strong start. But Earnhardt's death prompted unprecedented exposure for the sport.
It doesn't appear interest will wane any time soon.
Fox Sports, which is carrying the first half of the Winston Cup series before NBC takes over in July, won the weekend ratings again Sunday when it posted a 6.1 national rating for the race at Darlington, S.C. That was 15 percent better than the average rating for the CBS broadcasts of the first and second rounds of the NCAA men's basketball tournament. And it was 24 percent better than the first two games that aired at the same time as the race.
Overall, ratings were 75 percent higher than ESPN, which broadcast the race last year. One network TV ratings point equals about 1.022-million homes.
In today's sports market, "(ratings) erosion is the norm," Fox spokesman Lou D'Ermilio said. "To have any growth is positive. To have significant growth is astounding."
Through five races, Winston Cup ratings are up 26 percent (7.2 vs. 5.7). Among men 18-49, the most coveted group in sports viewership, the rating is up 46 percent.
Cable channels FX, which carries the Busch series, and Fox Sports Net, which airs a post-race show and a daily NASCAR show, also have seen ratings rise since adding racing programming.
"It's been very consistent and what's great is that the demographics have been solid," D'Ermilio said. "That's the strength of having it on network television every week. The promotion we put into it prior to Daytona obviously paid off. There's a larger NASCAR fan base than people give credit for."
Early on, it wasn't clear how that fan base would accept Fox's coverage. The week before Daytona, the network had a brief spat with NASCAR over its decision to blur the ads on some cars during driver introductions.
And some who were loyal to ESPN were perturbed when NASCAR refused speedway credentials to ESPN2's racing show RPM2Night.
But even RPM2Night has benefited. Viewership is up 40 percent this season over the same time period in 2000. Since Feb. 4, an average of 388,000 households has tuned in nightly, compared with 278,000 last year.