The Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway was the most watched sporting event of the March 15-16 weekend, according to the Television Performance Summary issued by NASCAR today.

The Food City 500 topped the No. 2 event, the NCAA Selection Show, as well as the PGA Arnold Palmer Invitational, the NCAA men's basketball conference basketball tournaments and NBA coverage.

The sold-out NASCAR Sprint Cup event scored a 5.5 rating on FOX, up +8% over the 5.1 rating for the 2007 event, which also aired on FOX. The pre-race show, aired by FOX, earned a 3.4 rating.

The Sharpie MINI 300 Nationwide Series event was the third most viewed Nationwide Series event in the history of Bristol Motor Speedway and the green flag portion of the race earned a 2.0 rating on ABC.

The ratings of the summary were based on the live and same day data information, as well as the size of the network.