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.
Race
2025 Viewership
2026 Viewership
Bowman Gray Clash
3.077 Million
2.349 Million
Daytona Duels
1.837 Million
1.835 Million
Daytona 500
6.761 Million
7.489 Million
Atlanta (Spring)
4.586 Million
4.487 Million
Circuit of the Americas
4.132 Million
3.933 Million
Phoenix (Spring)
2.820 Million
2.841 Million
Las Vegas (Spring)
2.771 Million
3.011 Million
Darlington (Spring)
2.517 Million
2.429 Million
Breaking Down and Analysing the 2026 Season as a Whole
Through Week 8 (2025 Homestead Spring and 2026 Darlington Spring)
In this section, we will break down and dissect the 2026 season week by week and compare it to the 2025 season.
This breakdown will look at factors like broadcast locations, such as on network TV stations, like NBC or FOX, and cable networks like USA, FS1, and TNT, and compare this year’s viewership to the 2025 season’s viewership.
We will also break down the schedule by race types, with select looks at all 39 NASCAR Cup Series events, points-paying races, exhibition races, and chase races.
A breakdown of these select stats can help show trends surrounding the sport. For example, one storyline to follow from this section throughout 2026 is a comparison of NASCAR’s 2026 cable viewership with 2025’s cable viewership, as this is the second season of NASCAR’s expanded Cable race schedule.
Each subsection is based on the current race weekend to date, as opposed to a race, so in the event that a race has changed weekends, there is no worry, as this section compares this season’s viewership up to the same week from the 2025 season.
Not all data from 2025 is present in this section, as it will be added as the season progresses week to week.
All Races (8 Total in 2026):
This includes all points races, exhibition races, and qualifying races as they occur.
2026 (8 Races to Date) Total/Average Viewership to Date: 28.134 Million/3.517 Million Per Race
2025 (8 Races to Date) Total Viewership to Date: 28.688 Million/3.586 Million Per Race
Total Viewership Difference (2026 vs 2025): -0.554 Million (-1.931%)
Average Viewership Difference (2026 vs 2025): -0.069 Million (-1.931%)
Points Races (6 Total in 2026):
This only includes the 2025 and 2026 seasons’ 36 points-paying races week-to-week as they occur.
2026 Total/Average Viewership to Date: 27.883 Million/3.983 Million Per Race
2025 Total/Average Viewership to Date: 27.906 Million/3.987 Million Per Race
Total Viewership Difference (2026 vs 2025): -0.023 Million (-0.082%)
Average Viewership Difference (2026 vs 2025): -0.003 Million (-0.082%)
Cable Races to Date (4 Total in 2025):
This only includes races on FS1, TNT, and USA, including all points races, exhibition races, and qualifying races as they occur.
2026 (4 Races) Total/Average Viewership to Date: 9.876 Million/2.469 Million Per Race
2025 (4 Races) Total/Average Viewership to Date: 10.132 Million/2.533 Million Per Race
Total Viewership Difference (2026 vs 2025): -0.256 Million (-2.527%)
Average Viewership Difference (2026 vs 2025): -0.064 Million (-2.527%)
Network Races to Date (4 Total in 2026):
This only includes races on FOX and NBC, including all points races, exhibition races, and qualifying races as they occur.
2026 (4 Races) Total/Average Viewership to Date: 18.258 Million/4.565 Million Per Race
2025 (4 Races) Total Viewership to Date: 18.559 Million/4.640 Million Per Race
Total Viewership Difference (2026 vs 2025): -0.301 Million (-1.622%)
Average Viewership Difference (2026 vs 2025): -0.075 Million (-1.622%)
Exhibition/Qualifying Races (2 Total in 2026):
This is only applicable to the Clash, Daytona Duels, and the All-Star Race as they happen.
2026 (2 Races) Total/Average Viewership to Date: 4.184 Million/2.092 Million Per Race
2025 (2 Races) Total Viewership to Date: 4.913 Million/2.457 Million Per Race
Total Viewership Difference (2026 vs 2025): -0.729 Million (-14.838%)
Average Viewership Difference (2026 vs 2025): -0.365 Million (-14.855%)
Comparing the 2025 and 2026 Season Race by Race
Las Vegas Speedway (Spring) – Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube – FS1
2025 Viewership: 2.517 Million Viewers**
2026 Viewership: 2.429 Million Viewers
Viewership Comparison (2025 vs 2026): -0.088 Million Viewers (-3.496%)
**In 2025, week 8 of the NASCAR Cup Series season was at Homestead-Miami Speedway and drew 2.464 million viewers. This number will be used in our breakdown above.
Las Vegas Speedway (Spring) – Pennzoil 400 presented by Jiffy Lube – FS1
2025 Viewership: 2.771 Million Viewers
2026 Viewership: 3.011 Million Viewers
Viewership Comparison (2025 vs 2026): -0.240 Million Viewers (-7.971%)
