Although there are plenty of races left on the Cup Series schedule, NASCAR might officially have a ratings problem.
Nielsen’s newest data shows that last Sunday’s race at Bristol Motor Speedway averaged 1.945 million viewers on FS1. That’s down 5% from last year, making it the least-watched Bristol race in spring.
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It’s also worth noting that only two Cup Series races this season got a bump in year-over-year viewership: Daytona (11% increase) and Phoenix (1% increase). The Daytona 500 was televised exclusively on FOX.
The ratings on broadcast television haven’t been bad for NASCAR, but the product is spread across four networks now due to its media rights deal. The supply might not be large enough to meet sports fans’ demands. After all, there are only five races on FOX this season.
What’s the problem for NASCAR?
As of this moment, NASCAR’s media rights deal with FOX Sports, NBC Sports, Amazon’s Prime Video and TNT Sports runs through the 2031 season.
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“Our goal was to secure long-term stability with an optimized mix of distribution platforms and innovative partners that would allow us to grow the sport while delivering our product to fans wherever they are — and we’ve achieved that today,” NASCAR said when the deal was made. “NASCAR has been a cornerstone property for both new and established platforms for several decades. These agreements demonstrate the staying power of our sport and the consistent, large-scale audience it delivers. This landmark deal underscores our collective growth opportunity to drive engagement across this diverse collection of platforms — whether on broadcast, cable or direct-to-consumer.”
Awful Announcing pointed out that viewership for the Xfinity Series in 2025 was up 22% in large part because every race was on The CW.
Now, fans of the Cup Series will need to have cable and streaming services to watch every race.
This story was originally published by The Spun on Apr 16, 2026, where it first appeared in the NASCAR section. Add The Spun as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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