What’s Happening?

This year marks the second season of NASCAR’s groundbreaking 2025 media rights deal, and fans are curious to see just how year two will stack up with year one. This article will walk you through the 2026 season race by race, comparing viewership week by week to NASCAR’s 2025 season.

• The goal of this article is to keep a tally of each race on the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series schedule. Our tracker will also compare head-to-head each week’s race (or closest comparable race) to its 2025 counterpart.
• This tracker will mostly focus on how NASCAR fared week to week, regardless of schedule changes, such as Watkins Glen, which shifts from the fall in 2025 to 2026.
• To understand how a race stacked up against itself from the prior season, turn to our race-by-race list to see the totals of compared weeks. Look below to the season as a whole section, which only counts races up to a specific week.
• Throughout this tracker, alongside breakdowns by race type, broadcast availability, and Chase races, there will be notes about any potential delays or changes to the broadcast network or the race weekend.
• For tracks like Chicagoland, which replaces the Chicago Street Circuit, their race will be compared head-to-head with last season’s most comparable race. In Chicagoland’s case, that would be the 2025 Chicago Street Race.

The 2026 Season as a Whole: Through Week 1 (2026 Clash & 2025 Clash)

All Races (1 Total in 2026): Including The Clash, Daytona Duels, and the All-Star Race

• 2026 (1 Race) Total/Average Viewership to Date: 2.349 Million/2.349 Million Per Race
• 2025 (1 Race) Total Viewership to Date: 3.077 Million/3.077 Million Per Race
• Total Viewership Difference (2025 vs 2024): -0.728 Million (-23.659%)
• Average Viewership Difference (2025 vs 2024): -0.728 Million (-23.659%)

Network Races to Date (1 Total in 2026): Points and Exhibition/Qualifying Races

• 2026 (1 Race) Total/Average Viewership to Date: 2.349 Million/2.349 Million Per Race
• 2025 (1 Race) Total Viewership to Date: 3.077 Million/3.077 Million Per Race
• Total Viewership Difference (2025 vs 2024): -0.728 Million (-23.659%)
• Average Viewership Difference (2025 vs 2024): -0.728 Million (-23.659%)

Exhibition/Qualifying Races (1 Total in 2026): The Clash, Daytona Duels, and the All-Star Race

• 2026 (1 Race) Total/Average Viewership to Date: 2.349 Million/2.349 Million Per Race
• 2025 (1 Race) Total Viewership to Date: 3.077 Million/3.077 Million Per Race
• Total Viewership Difference (2025 vs 2024): -0.728 Million (-23.659%)
• Average Viewership Difference (2025 vs 2024): -0.728 Million (-23.659%)

NASCAR Cup Series 2026 Cook Out Clash on FOX/FS2 via Frontstretch

• 2025 Viewership: 3.077 Million Viewers
• 2026 Viewership: 2.349 Million Viewers**
• Viewership Comparison (2024 vs 2025): -0.728 Million Viewers (-23.659%)

**2026 Clash was pushed from Sunday to Wednesday due to snow, and moved to FS2 due to overrunning time on FOX.

This tracker will be updated throughout the season. Make sure to check back in for the latest!