Denny Hamlin’s NASCAR Dover victory sees major viewership hit due to rain delay 

Denny Hamlin collected his second straight win at Dover Motor Speedway on Sunday, but the broadcast audience for the NASCAR Cup Series race took a hit during a late rain delay.

The No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota driver took the checkered flag in the Autotrader EchoPark Automotive 400 after a sudden downpour forced race officials to halt proceedings for nearly an hour. The cable networks TNT and TruTV drew a combined 2.009 million viewers for the event. However, viewership dipped 27% during the rain delay from last year's 2.401 million on FS1.

Adam Stern of Sports Business Journal shared the ratings update on X, writing:

"@TNTdrama + @TruTV got 2.009 million viewers for Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series race @MonsterMile that wound up being rain delayed for nearly an hour toward the end."

The Cup Series has four broadcast partners this season. After Fox Sports’s early-season stretch, Prime Video streamed five mid-season races, starting with the Coca-Cola 600 in late May. Five more races were broadcast TNT Sports (on TNT, truTV, and Max) and the last 14 races of the season will air on NBC.

The series has seen viewership fall due to scheduling and network shake-ups multiple times this season. The EchoPark Raceway on TNT and The Great American Getaway 400 at Pocono Raceway on Prime Video both saw a more than 20% fall in TV viewership compared to last year.

Fans slam TNT's Dover telecast for bungling NASCAR Cup race coverage

During last weekend's NASCAR Cup race at Dover Motor Speedway, where Denny Hamlin took home his fourth win of the season, some fans condemned TNT for on-air mistakes for showing JJ Yeley's picture for Shane van Gisbergen during opening laps and neglecting race action.

Several fans also complained it focused on leaders during crashes and ignored Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s calls highlighting incidents.

"It takes the NASCAR TNT production/camera operators 8 years to see what Dale Jr. sees in 4 seconds," a fan wrote. "Tv production is showing that they are not good at or care about racing. NBC will either will be the final nail in the coffin or a chance at a rebirth. (Prime spoiled and knows what the race fans want)," another fan shared.

When the rain started during a caution caused by Ross Chastain’s crash, NASCAR red‑flagged the race with just 14 laps to go and TNT showed workers carrying the trophy through the pouring rain as if they expected an early finish.

When racing resumed, Christopher Bell spun and pushed Hamlin for the lead from William Byron, and fans also criticized TNT for glossing over Byron's crash.

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Edited by Tushar Bahl