Will F1 Overtake NASCAR As America’s No. 1 Motorsport?

For over three decades when you ask race fans which motorsport is America’s favorite, NASCAR is the answer.

During that time, the tv ratings have been dominated by NASCAR.

Recently though, the gap has closed. While NASCAR still wins in both categories on a weekly basis, Formula 1 is gaining momentum in the United States. Last season’s United States Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas drew nearly 400,000 fans for the weekend and recently the ratings for Formula 1 races have improved greatly in the U.S., while NASCAR’s ratings have remained stagnate after years of drastic decline.

What does the future hold? That’s what we are debating this week. Michael Finley and Luken Glover debate if Formula 1 will ever overtake NASCAR as America’s favorite motorsport.

F1 is Coming

So there does need to be some caveats on the idea of F1 potentially being the king of motorsport in America. Really, it would be more like the government of Canada in that the Queen of England is still the queen of the country, she just doesn’t visit that often.

NASCAR is going to be day-to-day the industry leader in America for at least the new few years. They have the tradition handed down from generation to generation, and they are still in line for a major TV rights increase in a couple of years because of how solid their numbers are to most other sports, and especially to other TV programs in general. They’ve been stagnate, but being stagnate today as thousands of people cut the cord every month is a net win.

That being said, F1 has definitely eclipsed the older brand in a few areas.

Easily the biggest has been just how loyal that 18-49 audience has been to F1. I can promise that if NASCAR cannot outdraw them at that demo at 3:30 pm EST, they aren’t beating them at 9:00 am EST. The F1 rating for Imola a couple of weeks ago drew 503k in the demo at 9 am EST. That’s an insane number right there, only about 30k off of what NASCAR accomplished in the demo on Sunday. Even on…