Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Las Vegas Winston Cup race fifth on TV list

Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2001 | 9:59 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. Reach him at bh@lasvegassun.com or 259-4089.

The UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 from Las Vegas Motor Speedway in March ranked as the fifth-highest rated NASCAR Winston Cup television broadcast of the season, according to figures compiled by motorsportstv.com.

The March 4 race, which was broadcast by Fox and won by Jeff Gordon, drew a 6.5 national rating. Only the season-opening Daytona 500 (10.0), the Dura-Lube 400 from North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham (8.2), the Harrah's 500 from Texas Motor Speedway (7.0) and the Cracker Barrel 500 from Atlanta Motor Speedway in March (6.7) received better ratings.

Although NASCAR's new multi-billion dollar television package that went into effect this season was a ratings success -- with a nearly 30-percent increase in ratings -- The Sports Business Journal reported that Fox, NBC and Turner lost a cumulative $100 million this year on the NASCAR contract.

SBJ reported that NBC/Turner lost close to $50 million this year while FOX -- which paid a higher rights fee to broadcast the first half of the season -- lost even more.

With rights fees increasing from $255 million this year to $300 million next year, fans can expect the networks to add more commercials (and charge advertisers higher rates) next season.

Gordon surpassed the late Dale Earnhardt, who entered the season with more than $41 million in career earnings.

The posthumous award was the first for the seven-time Winston Cup champion and was made possible when Bill Elliott, the perennial winner of the honor, took himself out of the running for the award in deference to Earnhardt.

Earnhardt received more than 56 percent of the nearly 400,000 votes cast by fans either online or by mail. Jeff Gordon was a distant second with 14 percent of the votes.

NMPA president David Poole announced that the Most Popular Driver award would be renamed the "Bill Elliott Trophy" upon Elliott's retirement from driving. Elliott has won the award 15 times in the past 18 seasons.

Roush will carry the flame on Wednesday for a two-tenths of a mile segment near downtown Charlotte, N.C., and Irvan's run also was scheduled this week in either North Carolina or South Carolina.

The RPDE held similar fund-raisers at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C., and Walt Disney World Speedway in Orlando, Fla., and raised an estimated $22,300.