First Look at NASCAR on the CW in 2025
What’s Happening? Ahead of Saturday’s United Rentals, 300 fans have their first look at just how the Xfinity Series will look…
The NASCAR Xfinity Series made a full-time switch to the CW this season. While most fans have no problem with the actual broadcast quality, one major issue reared its head this past weekend during coverage of the Xfinity Series race at Phoenix.
So far this season, NASCAR fans have enjoyed the fresh feel that the CW has brought to the NASCAR Xfinity Series. Though it’s technically the debut season, the channel first covered the sport last season with help from NBC Sports.
For the last eight races of the 2024 Xfinity Series season, the CW utilized a modified NBC Sports graphics package and the network’s Xfinity Series booth.
However, this season, the CW unveiled a new modern graphics package and a new booth. The new graphics package is unlike any other in NASCAR. The network’s new booth consists of Adam Alexander, Jamie McMurray, and Parker Kligerman. For the most part, fans welcomed these changes and viewed them as a refreshed take on NASCAR production.
What’s Happening? Ahead of Saturday’s United Rentals, 300 fans have their first look at just how the Xfinity Series will look…
That being said, NASCAR on the CW has had its fair share of complaints.
Most of these have centered around confusion about the broadcast location. However, in rare cases, some issues have caused fans to miss out on races.
The location issue centers on two points of confusion involving the CW App. First, some fans are still uninformed of the location of the race broadcast. Yet, as the season has gone on, most have realized that races do not stream on the CW App.
However, one question that continues to be asked almost weekly is where to watch practice and qualifying coverage. This is partially due to the lack of notification at the start of the season that practice and qualifying are exclusive to the CW App.
What’s Happening? The NASCAR Xfinity Series will be exclusively on the CW in 2025. This deal brings the Xfinity Series to…
Aside from these, there have been small flare-ups of fans claiming in their region that NASCAR is not available.
During the Feb. 22 race in Atlanta, a reader contacted The Daily Downforce, claiming that coverage of the final stage was interrupted for coverage of a hockey game. Though we were unsure of the location of this disruption, discourse from NASCAR fans on X seems to have confirmed this claim.
We also found similar issues in which CW affiliates interrupted race coverage for regional sporting broadcasts. For example, CW 14 in Green Bay, Wisconsin, pushed the Xfinity Series race to an affiliate channel, COMET CW 14.2, to air the WIAA State Hockey Championships this weekend.
These reports were few and far between entering this weekend. Yet, the interruptions took a turn when a major market CW affiliate interrupted the final lap of Saturday’s GOVX 200.
As the leaders came around for the white flag in NASCAR Overtime, fans nationwide were treated to a memorable finish between Aric Almirola and Alex Bowman. However, this was not broadcast nationwide.
Peachtree TV, the broadcast affiliate of the CW located in Atlanta, missed the end of the race. The network cut to an Atlanta Braves commercial as drivers entered the dog leg one last time. Not only did the channel make a tremendous error, but they transitioned coverage to NBA action between the Atlanta Hawks and Indiana Pacers.
As a result, one of the ten largest U.S. media markets missed out on this great finish. The stress and headlines from this mess led to the CW itself releasing a statement on the matter.
The CW claims on its LinkedIn profile that it is “one of America’s major broadcast networks and reaches 100% of US television households.” This has been reflected in the large viewership numbers for NASCAR on the CW this year, but if fans keep having their coverage interrupted, it makes that network feel small.
What’s Happening? Following a major increase in viewership for the season debut at Daytona, the Xfinity Series saw yet another viewership…
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