■ A new cast of characters will grab the many microphones used in NASCAR's TV coverage this weekend -- Bill Weber, Kyle Petty, Wally Dallenbach and company taking over with TimeWarner/Turner's TNT coverage at Pocono Raceway.
The new guys have a six-week gig -- the NASCAR tour stops at Pocono, Michigan, Sonoma, Loudon, Daytona and Chicago. Then ABC-ESPN picks up the last half of the season at Indianapolis with the Brickyard 400.
■ Fox has just released the final Nielsen numbers from its four months of NASCAR, and it reports an increase overall over 2007 ratings, modest, yes, but still the first year-to-year increase in two years.
Fox said that its Sprint Cup broadcasts averaged a 5.7 rating from February's Daytona SpeedWeeks through June's Dover 400, with about 9.4 million viewers on average, up two percent over 2007's 5.6 rating and 9.3 million average viewers.
And Fox said that its NASCAR coverage was again "the top-rated and most-watched regular-season sport from February through June for the eighth consecutive year."
Fox said that 11 of its 13 Cup races either attracted more or equaled their 2007 viewers.
Demographically, males 35-54 were up five percent (to 6.5); males 25-54 were up two percent (to 5.4)
Fox boasted of its advantage with NASCAR over other major sports events, pointing to the 5.7 as besting the entire NCAA Tournament on CBS (which drew a 5.6), the NBA regular season on ABC (2.2), the NBA playoffs on ABC (3.7), and the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs on NBC (2.4).
And Fox boasted of its Coca-Cola 600 coverage beating ABC's Indy 500 coverage for the eighth straight year.
Fox's Dover finale drew a 4.5 rating, with 7.1 million viewers), as the weekend's top-rated event. (The 2007 Dover race was rain-delayed until Monday.)
■ ABC-ESPN also reports better Nielsens for its Saturday NASCAR Nationwide package: Dover ratings, despite a three-hour rain delay, were up eight percent, reaching 1.5 million households. Even the three-hour rain fill-in broadcast was watched in about 1 million households. And for the season on ESPN2, NASCAR's Nationwide coverage is up 14 percent (not including the California rainout).
■ And Fox's SPEED said that last Friday's Dover Truck race (won by F1 racer Scott Speed, with his blue toenails) showed increased ratings too -- reaching nearly 600,000 households, up 15 percent from last year's 513,000. It peaked with 720,000 households, up 16 percent.
SPEED said that the last four NASCAR Truck races were up nearly 20 percent from 2007. The next race is Friday night's typically frantic action at Texas Motor Speedway, where Kyle Busch will be going for a bit of history, with the first leg of a three-stop weekend, at Fort Worth, Nashville and back to Pocono.
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