Daytona 500 ratings take hit due to rain

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- Ratings for the rain-shortened Daytona 500 declined about 10 percent from last year's record.

Fox's telecast, its second airing of the race under a six-year deal with NASCAR, drew a 9.8 rating Sunday, compared with NBC's 10.9 rating in 2002.

The Fox telecast was actually outpacing last year's ratings early in the race. But two rain delays that totaled more than two hours made it difficult for the network to hold the audience.

Preliminary figures showed about 29.4 million viewers tuned into some part of the race. That was the fifth-largest TV audience in the race's history.

"Given the fact that we had just over two hours of live racing and never got the huge bump that is normal at the end of an uninterrupted race, to have this be among the most-watched Daytona 500s ever is remarkable, " Fox Sports president Ed Goren said.

Each rating point represents about 1.06 million U.S. television households.