NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

FOX Sports 1 is adding 30 minutes of live NHRA programming on Saturday during the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals to televise the postponed final rounds of Top Fuel and Funny Car from the Protect the Harvest NHRA Northwest Nationals presented by Lucas Oil.

The added telecast will air from 3 to 3:30 p.m. EST and will feature the Top Fuel final between Antron Brown and Steve Torrence as well as the Funny Car final between Del Worsham and Ron Capps. Both final rounds will take place during the third round of qualifying at the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals at Brainerd International Raceway in Brainerd, Minn. The Pro Stock final from Seattle between Vincent Nobile and Aaron Strong will take place during the Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis.

Persistent rain at Pacific Raceways on Sunday, Aug. 7, forced the postponement of the Seattle final rounds in all three professional categories.

“This is another example of what a great partner FOX has been for us this year,’’ said Ken Adelson, NHRA vice president, executive producer & chief content officer. “FOX officials have stepped up for us every time we needed their help to do what’s best for all our fans and the television viewers at home. We truly appreciate the opportunity to bring to the FS1 viewers the final round live to see which drivers end up with the Wally from the Seattle event.”

The full television coverage of the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals at Brainerd includes the Sunday Finals live on FS1 from 2 pm. to 5 pm ET, along with a qualifying show on FS1 Saturday night at 10 pm to midnight ET.
The first-year partnership between the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series and FOX Sports continues to flourish as the series has seen increased viewership through the course of the 2016 season.   

Through the first 16 races, viewership of the Sunday eliminations broadcasts are up 43 percent, with the 18-49 demographic up 82 percent on the season, according to Neilson Media Research

This season has also witnessed the highest rated eliminations telecast of 1.4 million viewers for the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals from Atlanta Dragway on May 15. There have also been three eliminations shows with ratings over one million viewers.

The series recently completed a stretch of three live events on FOX national broadcast stations and the ratings for the Aug. 7 eliminations program from Seattle was 60 percent higher than the broadcast in 2015, with the 18-49 demographic up 103 percent from the previous season.

The July 31 eliminations broadcast from the Toyota NHRA Sonoma Nationals, the second live show on FOX broadcast network stations, had 998,000 viewers — an 82-percent increase over last season.

On the year to date, the total viewership, including finals, qualifying, and re-air shows, is more than 25.7 million people, over 80 percent more than the previous season.

The world’s largest drag race, the Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis, will be the final live race on FOX national broadcast stations and will feature three hours of live eliminations coverage on Sept. 5.

Attendance at events across the country has seen an increase as well. There have been four days of sellout crowds, including a standing-room-only crowd for the eliminations rounds of the Toyota NHRA Sonoma Nationals — the first Sunday sellout of the year.