Weather Delayed Daytona 500 Draws 9.3M Viewers

Fox's coverage of Sunday's Daytona 500 -- which was delayed for more than six hours -- averaged 9.3 million viewers, according to Nielsen.

That was down 44% from last year's record audience of 16.7 million; Sunday's delay pushed the race into primetime against NBC's coverage of the Closing Ceremonies of the Winter Olympics.

The race was broken out into two parts: from 1:30-2:17 p.m. ET the race averaged 10.1 million viewers and 9.1 million from 8:25-11:23 p.m. ET. The six-hour, 22-minute rain delay was the longest in Daytona history.

Fox said that its network's nearly five hours of rain-delay coverage (which featured a rebroadcast of last year's race) averaged a 4.0 rating in the metered markets.