Commissioner Steve Phelps applauds Prime Video NASCAR coverage, hits back at doubters

While it was only here for five weeks, Amazon’s Prime Video NASCAR coverage has earned a ton of praise for its overall product. Even when others thought that the move to streaming would be a flop, it ended up being a solid move. What is sacrificed in overall viewership, it made big gains in reaching a younger audience.

Commissioner Steve Phelps has expressed his pleasure with Prime Video. Speaking with Brian Sullivan of CNBC Sports, Phelps revealed there was even a little bit of doubt in the industry. All things considered, the NASCAR streaming experiment was a success in many ways.

“[Amazon’s] averaging a million viewers on average per minute in their post-race show,” Phelps said before continuing. “Amazon, which is on Amazon Prime, which is those numbers are unheard of. And I think they brought their own flair to it, which we knew they would. And I think they have the fan, both fan as well as the garage reaction to Amazon Prime has been overwhelmingly positive, so we’ve been thrilled with them. Everything they said they would do, they’ve done. And for us, it’s an important thing.”

The pre- and post-race coverage from NASCAR on Prime Video was great. Carl Edwards is a natural. Corey LaJoie gives a great modern perspective. Dale Earnhardt Jr. is going to be the face and voice of this sport for many more years to come. The overall product was wonderfully put together.

Phelps celebrates NASCAR on Prime Video numbers

When the NFL moved Thursday Night Football to Prime Video, they took a hit in viewership. At this point, the viewership matches what the NFL sees on regular TV. NASCAR took a hit on Prime Video, too. But it picked up in other areas. And still outdid the expectations many in the industry had.

“I think we’ve been surprised pleasantly by the Prime numbers, as I said, the Amazon Prime numbers,” Phelps continued. “If you go on Amazon and buy something this Sunday, you will – and the race is, you know, the Pocono race. It will say that the Pocono race is there. We are up on, you know, on the top of that screen, which is tremendous. And they have plugged in different places for us. So was there a fear about dilution, around distribution?

“Yeah, there was a fear. But for us, we thought it was really important to test a streamer, right? So there were lots of people who doubted that the numbers would be as good as they are. I mean, there’s a pundit who thought the numbers, and I won’t say who it is, because it’s a current partner, their research person, thought Amazon Prime would do 1.2 million average viewers on for the Coke 600 …  2.7 [million]. So he missed by just a smidge.”