ESPN's Brickyard TV ratings are in, and the verdict:

  Jimmie and Chandra Johnson: a memorable day at the Brickyard (Photo: IMS)
  

   By Mike Mulhern
   mikemulhern.net

   TV ratings are out for ESPN's Brickyard 400 Sunday, and the coverage pulled a final household number of 4.8, which the network says is the highest-rated Sprint Cup event on cable this year.
   And ESPN says the average viewership was 6.4 million, the second-most-viewed NASCAR event ever on the network (a tick off last year's Brickyard viewership of 6.6 million)
    In fact the Brickyard was the most-viewed NASCAR race on any network since Fox' Talladega 500 in April.
    However the Brickyard ratings were off last year's 5.1 and 2007's 4.9.
    On the NASCAR Nationwide scene, Saturday's short-track race across town at O’Reilly Raceway Park drew a final household rating of 1.5, ESPN said. That's the same as last year, and it matches the Daytona 300 in February as the highest-rated Nationwide race on cable. The network says the Nationwide telecast averaged 1,903,383 viewers in 1,498,805 households.