NEW YORK -- The Daytona 500 drew its highest ratings ever for start-to-finish coverage and was the most-watched auto race since 1984.

NBC's telecast, its first airing of the race under a six-year deal with NASCAR, drew a 10.9 rating Sunday with a 26 share, a jump of 9 percent from the 10.0 rating for last year's Daytona 500 broadcast on Fox.

The previous record for NASCAR's season-opening race was the 10.4 that CBS received in 1979, the first time the Daytona 500 was shown live in its entirety on network television.

Sunday's Daytona 500, won by Ward Burton and marred by two big wrecks, had the highest rating for any auto race since the 1984 Indianapolis 500 got a 12.9 rating on ABC.

About 35 million people watched at least part of Sunday's race, which was heavily promoted during NBC's Olympics coverage.

"Part of Daytona's great success had something to do with being in the middle of the Olympics," NBC president Randy Falco said Monday.

Each rating point represents about 1.05 million U.S. television households,while share is the percentage of in-use TVs tuned to a given program.