NASCAR officially got its 2026 season underway at Daytona International Speedway last weekend, and the TV figures are finally in, including for the Daytona 500.

After TV ratings were down circa 14% year-on-year in 2025, there was plenty of anticipation to see how the sport would do this time around, and thankfully, it's positive news.

Below, you can find a full breakdown of the numbers throughout the week across the Cup, O'Reilly Auto Parts, and Truck Series.

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Daytona 500 TV ratings

Let's start with the big one, the Daytona 500. It is NASCAR's biggest race of the season and drew a viewership of 7,489,000 as Tyler Reddick took the victory.

Alarm bells had been ringing earlier in the day when a false claim was made that the figures were circa the 5 million mark and over 1 million down on last year.

However, the official figure is actually 11% up on the figure from 2025 (6,761,000), and also higher than in 2024 (5,964,000). Of course, 2024's race was delayed until Monday, while last year there was also a significant rain delay which saw the race take place in the evening.

But, this is still a win for NASCAR and a step in the right direction, particularly with the peak viewership figure standing at 9,154,000 and the fact that this year's race was also moved forward by one hour due to the threat of rain.

The above figures also mean that NASCAR outscored every non-prime Winter Olympics window on broadcast and cable, and also topped all broadcast and cable networks in viewership during the race from 2:15-5:45pm ET.

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NASCAR O'Reilly and Truck Series TV Ratings

There was also positive viewership for the NASCAR Truck and O'Reilly Series races that took place earlier in the weekend.

Friday's Truck Series race won by Chandler Smith attracted 1,387,000 viewers on FS1, which was a 37% percent increase on last year, and had a peak viewership of 1,604,000.

The race featured several Cup Series drivers and also saw the legendary Tony Stewart make an anticipated NASCAR return. Social media sensation Cleetus McFarland also raced.

The above figures made it the most-watched Truck Series race since 2016.

Elsewhere, on Saturday, the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series won by Austin Hill had a viewership figure of 1,812,000, with a peak at 2,321,000.

This was ever so slightly up from last year's figure of 1,800,000 flat.

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