Press Snoop: NASCAR ratings rise.

The latest news from around the world courtesy of Press Snoop Lynne Huntting...

All that hype worked over the weekend - and the TV ratings for the NASCAR telecasts were higher than ever before.

Friday night's Florida Dodge Dealer's NASCAR Craftsman Truck race received the highest ever ratings in the history of SPEED TV, not just for Truck races, but for any programme ever shown on the ten-year cable channel devoted strictly to motorsports and automotive shows. The Truck's Nielsen Rating was 2.1, which converts to 1,330,000 households. The ratings for the race were up 31 percent over 2004, which had a rating of 1.6. Both the Truck Series and SPEED TV have been around ten years, but not always together. SPEED TV has been telecasting the Truck Series exclusively since 2003, with NASCAR Images as the production company. The TV reporters are PHIL PARSONS and MICHAEL WALTRIP in the booth, and RAY DUNLAP and WENDY VENTURINI in the pits.

The Truck Series started in 1995 and Craftsman has been with them the whole time. The first year it was called the NASCAR Super Trucks Presented By Craftsman and then it became and still remains the Craftsman Truck Series. Now it's Ten Years Tough. Tough Trucks. Tough Drivers.

Along with Craftsman, there is longevity within the series in other areas. WAYNE AUTON has been the race director almost since the beginning, and OWEN KEARNS has been the NCTS manager of communications since the very beginning, back in the days when the series ran a four-race exhibition season, prior to its first full year - when it had a field of five Fords and one Chevrolet.

SPEED TV is bragging also about ratings for its other Daytona coverage - the Crown Royal International Race of Champions (IROC) and the crash-filled ARCA RE/MAX race. IROC received a rating of 1.47=932,000 households on Friday 18 February, before the Truck race. The ARCA race got 1.11=701,000 households on the preceding Saturday. All were part of the annual Daytona Speedweeks.

The crown jewel in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series is its season's opener, the Daytona 500 race. Its TV ratings were also up, almost equal to the highest overnight Nielsen Media Research rating ever for a NASCAR race, which was the 2002 Daytona 500 shown on NBC. The numbers were befitting the excitement generated at the end of the 200-lap race. The 500 received an overnight rating of 10.9 with a 23 share on Fox Network, which is a three percent increase over last year's broadcast on NBC, which received a 10.6 rating and a 24 share. The 2005 rating almost equals, which almost equals the NBC TV rating in 2002. This year's race was seen by 18.7 million people, right behind the 18.8 million viewers for the 2002 Daytona 500 race. Last year's Daytona 500 race was telecast by .

NBC and Fox rotate the Daytona 500 Broadcast, and split the season. This year Fox starts the year with the Daytona 500 and covers the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series until Fourth of July, when NBC and its affiliates take over starting with the Pepsi 400 at Daytona. Fox always shows the races on the Fox Network. NBC shows most of the races on NBC, but sometimes on one of its affiliates, such as TNT. The current TV contracts expire in 2006.

This year, Fox enhanced its Daytona 500 coverage with all kinds of camera angles including the new overhead moving Cablecam. All the better to catch the fast and furious lead changes in the final laps. The coverage was provided by MIKE JOY, LARRY McREYNOLDS and DARRELL WALTRIP in the booth, and DICK BERGGREN, MAT YOCUM and JEANNE ZELASKO in the pits.

NASCAR is second only to NFL for televised sports ratings in the US, has 75 million fans nationwide, the longest season among pro sports in the US, and has long been known for having the most brand loyal fans in all sports.

Now, in addition to blanketing the TV sets across the country, NASCAR will now continue to make inroads on the airwaves. NASCAR just signed an agreement for a 24/7 NASCAR Channel on SIRIUS Satellite Radio starting in 2007. will be granted satellite radio broadcast rights for NASCAR racing and events. It will live broadcast all races in the top three NASCAR Series, Nextel Cup, Busch Series and Craftsman Trucks, and it will be the only satellite radio access to NASCAR.

SIRIUS will be come the 'official satellite radio partner' for NASCAR, with rights payments of $107.5 million over the length of the contracts, but the length was not revealed. Presently, NASCAR satellite radio broadcasts are handled by XM Radio.

SIRIUS is already the 'official satellite radio partner' for other professional sports, including the NFL and the Barclays English Premier League Soccer. SIRIUS also has that partnership with NHL, but that season was officially cancelled twice in the last week after never getting off the ground due to financial differences between the owners and players.

I'm still looking for information on the Busch Broadcast Saturday afternoon on Fox.