NASCAR Accused Of 'Losing The South' By Former Driver

A five-time NASCAR Cup Series winner made it abundantly clear this week that he's not pleased with the current product.

This past Sunday's race at Bristol Motor Speedway averaged 1.945 million viewers on FS1, per Nielsen's data. That's down 5% from last year, which would make it the least-watched Bristol race ever recorded in spring.

The Masters, meanwhile, had 14 million people tuning in for the final round at Augusta National. It was revealed that viewership for CBS peaked at more than 20 million viewers, which is the most-watched Masters since 2013.

Former Cup Series driver Jeremy Mayfield didn't hold back his thoughts on NASCAR's recent decline in ratings.

Mayfield claims NASCAR has officially lost its fan base in the south.

"Check out what the NASCAR grandstands used to look like when I raced at Bristol. When the biggest story is how many people are staying home to watch a golf tournament in Georgia, the sport is in a coma," Mayfield said, via Racing News. "If the ‘World's Fastest Half Mile' can't out draw a Sunday at Augusta, then NASCAR has officially lost the south. Is it the car? Is it the drivers? Or has the ‘Colosseum' just become a graveyard? Tell me I'm wrong."

NASCAR's ratings are heading in the wrong direction.

Only two Cup Series races this season received a bump in year-over-year viewership: Daytona (11% increase) and Phoenix (1% increase).

What makes this situation quite complicated is the fact that FOX Sports, NBC Sports, Amazon's Prime Video and TNT Sports all have a slice of the pie when it comes to NASCAR's media rights deal.

If NASCAR had a steady home for its Cup Series races, that could potentially help the ratings. Leadership ultimately opted for the most TV revenue, which we can't blame them for doing.

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This story was originally published April 16, 2026 at 4:38 PM.