The power of Danica Patrick

A few tidbits to consider.

UPDATED ON TUESDAY

# Speed Channel reports ratings for ARCA race with Danica Patrick in it this past Saturday.

#Speed had a Nielsen Household rating of 2.3 (1.723,000 households) -- a 59 percent increase over last year's 1.45 (1,062,000 households)

#Race coverage peaked at 2.66 Household Rating (1,997,000 households) -- a 72 percent increase from last year's peak of 1.55 (1,137,000 households)

#According to Nielsen Media Reserach, 2.4 million viewers tuned in to see the ARCA race -- an 87 percent increase over last year's audience of 1.3 million.

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1. As I write this Danica remains the No. 1 trending topic on the Yahoo! website.

2. ESPN2 will broadcast live the Nationwide practice from 3-5 p.m. Wednesday. The network had not planned to air the first Nationwide practice session of the year live. Again, the power of Danica.

3. Speed Channel officials pleased with the numbers they got on the steaming video of Danica they ran on SpeedTV.com during the ARCA race. SpeedTV.com ran streaming video either showing in-car shots, an in-car shot of Patrick or a camera following her progress through the race.

Was told by Speed that their Danica-cam feature on SpeedTV.com drew 18,794 unique visitors with a peak unique visitors count of 8,408 at one time. The average play time for folks on the site was 26 minutes.

As a racing-related item that SpeedTV.com has streamed, this ranked among the highest things it has ever done.

TV ratings for Speed's coverage of the ARCA race hasn't come in yet but one would suspect it will give Speed its highest rating for an ARCA race.

Remember that Thursday's twin 150-mile qualifying races, broadcast by Speed Channel, also can be seen on NASCAR.com. Streaming video from the Speed cameras will be online. However, the Speed broadcast (with the announcers) won't be on NASCAR.com. What will be shown will be meant to compliment what is being aired by Speed.

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