What Could the New TV Schedule Mean For NASCAR’s Popularity?

(Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

What’s Happening?

Yesterday, NASCAR released the 2025 TV Schedule. While the total number of races on streaming, cable, and network TV was already public, the visual of just how many races would be available was interesting to analyze. Here’s one important thing to look out for in 2025.

A New Era In NASCAR

With the 2025 season looming, NASCAR needed to make changes. These changes, however, were not to tires, packages, or qualifying, as NASCAR’s media rights deal expired at the end of this season.

Rumors raged for several months about what would happen. For 2025, the consensus was that a streaming platform, alongside a new cable channel, would join NBC and Fox.

When NASCAR officially announced its new media rights deal on Nov. 29, 2023, these rumors were confirmed. As part of the 7-year, $7.7 million contract, TNT and Amazon Prime joined the current partners for the 36-race NASCAR Cup Series Schedule.

Furthermore, practice and qualifying will move to Prime for the first half of the season and to TruTV and Max for the second half of the season. However, Fox retained practice and qualifying coverage for the Daytona 500, All-Star Race, and the Clash.

While this shook up the TV schedule quite a bit when NASCAR released the official schedule Wednesday, the new look for NASCAR broadcasting became a reality.

What’s Different?

Despite the priorly mentioned changes, the new TV schedule, bunched together, looks like this:

  • Five races on Fox
  • Five races on Prime
  • Five races on TNT
  • Four races on NBC
  • Ten races on FS1 (3 non points races)
  • Ten races on USA

Notably, fans will have to have both cable and streaming to watch at least 30 of the 39 NASCAR Cup Series events in 2025. The most drastic change is to the availability of network or “free” TV races in 2025.

This season, NASCAR had 20 races on network TV, Fox, and NBC, down one from 2023. However, this was due to a downpour in Los Angeles bumping the Clash up one day and on to FS1. Next year, this number drops to Nine.

While Fox is keeping key races on network TV, NBC is cutting the playoffs from five races on network TV to three in 2025.

What Does This Mean

While making up slightly over half of all races in 2025, 51.282%, network TV races made up 62.777% of NASCAR’s 110.685 million viewers. Furthermore, according to our 2024 TV tracker and 2023 comparison, network TV was up 12.683% in 2024, with its average viewership per race up 9.601%.

These numbers say what everyone already knows: Racing on the big networks is extremely important to viewership. However, it is equally important to get new eyes on a race. While ratings were up 1.210% in 2024, that 110.685 million viewers could drop off with this new TV deal.

So, should fans be worried? From the NASCAR perspective, this risk, while it could limit NASCAR’s viewership, gives the sport a fresh start with a new and returning partner.

For some time now, fans have complained of a stale product on Fox and NBC. NBC refreshed earlier this year, with Leigh Diffey taking over play-by-play duties. But the overall refresh from Prime and TNT might be what fans want in 2025.

How this drop-off in network races will affect NASCAR is unknown right now. But when the numbers roll in, fans could be pleasantly surprised. Much like this year, we at the DailyDownforce plan to keep up with this, and when 2025 is over, this topic might return to the forefront.

What do you think about this? Let us know your opinions on Discord or X, and don’t forget that you can also follow us on InstagramFacebook, and YouTube.

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DAYTONA BEACH, FLORIDA - FEBRUARY 11: A general view of Harley J. Earl Trophy on display during Media Day for the NASCAR Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 11, 2026 in Daytona Beach, Florida.

Daytona Man Taken into Custody for Sending Threats through Videos

What’s Happening?

Ahead of the Daytona 500, a troubling incident rattled fans and officials when a Volusia County man, Adrian Morales, was arrested for making threats to kill or harm a former colleague. The 45-year-old sent a video on Feb. 11 to a man he knew, saying, “This is what’s in store,” while cursing and firing a gun.

The Volusia Sheriff’s Office Domestic Security Unit tracked Morales to the Icon One Daytona apartments across from Daytona International Speedway and took him into custody without incident the day before the race.

Authorities released only 28 seconds of the roughly 90-second video, but the arrest report noted that in another segment, Morales said, “This is what’s gonna happen. Got all the sheriff’s department, DEA, FBI, and the rest,” while repeating that he did not care and was done.

Morales’ vicinity to the track raised alarms due to earlier grievances and messages he had sent to a NASCAR executive. His behavior prompted law enforcement to take immediate action, resulting in his detention.

According to the report, a NASCAR executive flagged Morales in 2025 after he requested sponsorship support but did not receive it, though no charges were filed.

In Saturday’s incident, however, deputies cited the video, its statements, and the fact that it was sent to the victim as grounds to believe Morales knowingly made threats to kill or cause deliberate harm.

After his arrest, detectives were able to find the AR-15 seen in the video, along with ammunition from his vehicle, in the Icon One Daytona parking lot. A judge ordered him held at the Volusia County Branch Jail without bond.

Meanwhile, the race went ahead at Daytona on Sunday, where fans saw Tyler Reddick capture The Great American Race, scoring his first Daytona 500 win and his first Cup win since October 2024.

What do you think? Let us know your opinions on Discord or X, and don’t forget that you can also follow us on InstagramFacebook, and YouTube.

What Fans Think of NASCAR’s TV Coverage in 2026 (So Far)

What’s Happening?

As the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season gets underway, The Daily Downforce is once again tracking how fans feel about race broadcasts throughout the year, just as we did last year. This ratings tracker exists to capture fan feedback in a clear, consistent way across the entire season for each TV partner.

How the Tracker Works

After each Cup Series race weekend, we will post a fan poll asking one simple question: “How would you rate this weekend’s Cup Series broadcast?” And fans can vote and comment based on their overall viewing experience. This article will be updated weekly with the most recent race’s numbers added to the tracker.

Where and How to Vote

  • The poll is posted on X (formerly Twitter) shortly after each race.
  • Fans can vote directly in the poll with just one tap.
  • Replies and quote posts are also monitored to gather more detailed feedback for a separate article after the season is concluded

Participation is quick and open to everyone.

Tracker

WeekNetworkRaceVotesGood | Average | BadSource
1FOXBowman Gray Clash36816% | 43% | 42%Check the Poll HERE
2FOXDaytona 50098942% | 46% | 12%Check the Poll HERE

Latest Poll Results

Remember to follow The Daily Downforce on X to catch each weekly poll, share your thoughts, and be part of the conversation.

NASCAR Coming to The Crew Motorfest in New Free Update

What’s Happening?

A new trailer revealed that NASCAR will be a part of The Crew Motorfest’s upcoming free season 9 update.

  • Ubisoft released a new trailer for The Crew Motorfest’s upcoming Island update, including a brief look at NASCAR racing as part of the new content
  • The NASCAR cars appear at the 1:08 minute mark of the trailer
  • The trailer shows officially licensed NASCAR Next Gen cars racing on an unidentified oval track
  • There are limited details on licenses, teams, drivers, tracks or gameplay mechanics, but the trailer shows the cars of Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, Kyle Larson, William Byron, Shane van Gisbergen, Brad Keselowski, Ross Chastain, and Ryan Blaney, all with official paint schemes and sponsors reminiscent of the 2025 season, confirming that the content present will be fully licensed by NASCAR
  • The collaboration is expected to feature a full playlist focused on oval racing disciplines such as drafting and pit strategy
  • Outside of the NASCAR content, Season 9 is likely to introduce a feature for building and sharing of custom tracks, as well as a new RC car playlist featuring miniature-scale racing

Will you be playing The Crew for this new update? Let us know your opinion on Discord or X. Don’t forget that you can also follow us on InstagramFacebook, and YouTube.