Denny Hamlin Suggests That NASCAR Race on Fridays Amid Low Viewership Numbers

What’s Happening?

During a discussion about NASCAR’s declining TV viewership, NASCAR driver/owner Denny Hamlin pitched that NASCAR should “own Friday night” during the latest episode of his podcast Action’s Detrimental.

It’s no secret in the NASCAR community that over the past decade, NASCAR’s viewership tends to decline upon the kickoff of the College and NFL football seasons. However, this season, fall race viewership has declined from last season.

For the most part, the decline in overall viewership can be attributed to NASCAR’s new TV deal. With this deal, fewer races are on free Network TV, such as FOX and NBC, while more move to FS1, USA, and TNT. However, despite this shift to more cable races, NASCAR’s average cable viewership is still down by 3.642%.

For example, the first four playoff races, which were also broadcast on USA in 2024, have seen a decline of 1.263 million viewers, or 16.853%, from last season. This was capped off with a season low of 1.290 million viewers watching last weekend’s race at New Hampshire.

This low number sparked a conversation among both NASCAR’s fan base and the garage area, one that has carried over into this week.

“There’s Only So Many Sports Eyeballs”

On the latest episode of Action’s Detrimental, Denny Hamlin gave his take on the sport’s diminishing fall viewership.

In his opinion, NASCAR has taken on the role of a guinea pig for TV networks, earning massive paydays while sifting race fans across channels in recent years.

“In each one of the TV deals that we’ve signed over the last few years or the past few agreements that we’ve had, we’ve always just taken the most amount of money. . . It’s not been about ‘What’s going to put us on in the most households.’ “We were the guinea pigs to get Channel X off the ground, Channel Y off the ground. And you’re asking so much of your fans to just keep chasing you around all these different networks.” — Denny Hamlin

Hamlin says that there are “only so many sports eyeballs” to target, and right now, those eyeballs are focused on the NFL. That means going head-to-head with the most popular sport on Sundays during the fall is, as Hamlin puts it, “tough route.”

However, to resolve these head-to-head battles, the NASCAR veteran suggested that NASCAR should move its product to Fridays and “own Friday night.” While Hamlin stresses that this is just a brainstorming idea, he claims that Friday nights would work as a non-school night, though it does have some issues, such as limiting fans’ ability to travel to races.

“I’m just saying it’s not a school night,” Hamlin said. “It definitely would be harder for those that travel, so you don’t want to just alienate them. I’m just brainstorming here.”

It’s easy to see the potential pushback to this idea (with Hamlin receiving immediate pushback from his co-hosts), such as people going out that night or challenging counter-programming like Friday Night Smackdown or Big 12 Football.

Although the idea of racing midweek, or at least on a different day when you would be the center of attention, has long been suggested by fans and industry members, NASCAR even hosted midweek races during the pandemic-shuffled 2020 season.

Nonetheless, even if this did work, other issues face the sport in rebuilding its viewership base. During this episode, Hamlin also cited the timeslot in which NASCAR races on Sundays and the atypical cable channels, such as USA, which are not typically known for carrying sports, as some of these factors.

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