The television and radio rights to broadcast NASCAR are among the most expensive broadcast rights of any American sport, with the current television contract with Amazon Prime Video, CW Sports, Fox Sports, NBC/USA Sports and TNT Sports being worth around .
In the early days of NASCAR, sports programs like CBS Sports Spectacular and ABC Wide World of Sports would air video highlight packages of the races. These packages were typically 15 to 30 minutes long and were cut from film of the entire race, similar to video packages created by NFL Films. For major races like the Daytona 500, ABC Sports would show footage live for a certain number of laps at the beginning, then show the end of the race. A few races were shown in their entirety in the 1970s, but these were always recorded and shown days or weeks later.
In 1979, CBS Sports televised the 1979 Daytona 500 live from start to finish. With the introduction of ESPN in 1981, more races began being shown live in their entirety. Since 1992, all NASCAR races have been shown from start to finish, and all have been shown live since 1997. Until 2001, race tracks struck individual agreements with networks to broadcast races, but in order to capitalize on the growing popularity of the sport NASCAR announced in 1999 that television contracts would now be centralized; that is, instead of making agreements with individual tracks, networks would now negotiate directly with NASCAR for the rights to air a package of races.
One of the earliest telecasts of a NASCAR race was the 1960 Daytona 500, parts of which was presented as part of CBS Sports Spectacular, with announcer Bud Palmer.
Between that broadcast and 1979, there were three main sources of NASCAR telecasts:
The following table is a list of races from NASCAR's top three series that have been broadcast partially or in their entirety on television during the 1960s.
CBS Sports President Neal Pilson and motor-sports editor Ken Squier believed that Americans would watch an entire stock car race live on television. On February 18, 1979, CBS presented the first flag-to-flag coverage of the Daytona 500. Richard Petty won NASCAR's crown-jewel race for the sixth time, but more attention was drawn by the post-race fight on the track's infield between Cale Yarborough and Donnie Allison, who crashed together on the final lap while leading. The race drew incredible ratings, in part due to the compelling action both on and off the track, and in part because a major snowstorm on the East Coast kept millions of viewers indoors.
As time passed, more Winston Cup races ended up on TV. ESPN broadcast its first race in 1981, from North Carolina Motor Speedway (its first live race was later in the year at Atlanta International Raceway), and TNN followed in 1991. All Cup races were nationally televised by 1985; networks struck individual deals with track owners, and multiple channels carried racing content. Many races were shown taped and edited on Wide World of Sports and syndication services like Mizlou and SETN, but almost all races were live by 1989. By 2000, the last year of this arrangement, six networks televised at least one Cup series race: CBS, ABC, ESPN, TNN, TBS, and NBC.
At the same time, a growing number of races in the Busch Grand National Series and NASCAR Truck Series were made available for broadcast, and some track owners even included support races in lesser series. Likewise, Winston Cup qualifying rounds aired on ESPN2 or regional sports network Prime Network.
NASCAR sought to capitalize on its increased popularity even more, so they decided that future deals would be centralized; that is, the networks would negotiate directly with NASCAR for a regular schedule of telecasts.
On December 15, 1999 Fox Sports, FX, NBC and Turner Sports agreed to pay $2.4 billion for a new six-year television package, covering the Winston/Nextel Cup Series and Busch Series schedules.
ESPN retained the rights to the Truck Series through 2002 under a separate contract. Beginning in 2003, Speed Channel bought out the rest of ESPN's contract and became the exclusive broadcast home of that series.
Initially, practice and qualifying sessions would alternate between Fox Sports Net and FX during the Fox/FX portion of the season, and between TNT and CNNSI during the NBC/TNT portion of the season. By the end of 2002, Speed had replaced Fox Sports Net and (due to CNN/SI shutting down in the spring of 2002) a deal was arranged with NBC/TNT to move most practice and qualifying sessions to Speed, as well using NBC/TNT's production team and Speed graphics.
Late in 2005, NBC announced that they no longer wanted to carry NASCAR races on their schedule. ABC/ESPN took the opportunity to regain the series. On December 12, 2005, NASCAR announced its next TV contract: eight years at $4.8 billion with Fox/Speed Channel, ABC/ESPN, and TNT. This time, the deal bundled the Truck Series alongside the Sprint Cup and Nationwide series:
Starting in 2006, NBC was paying $2.8 billion for six years of Sunday night telecasts of the National Football League. The new NFL and old NASCAR deals overlapped in 2006, which forced some postrace coverage at NBC races to air on CNBC. FX stopped airing sporting events from 2006 to 2010. (It did show the ninth inning of a rain-delayed Fox game between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox when it conflicted with the start of the 2008 Subway Fresh Fit 500, as well as other games which overran into the starts of NASCAR races. Beginning in 2010, Fox's MLB games during NASCAR Saturdays were shifted to early in the afternoon.)
The new contracts increased the amount of coverage from each weekend's races. When the 2007 season began, all practices for NASCAR Cup Series races were televised, whereas only the final practice ("happy hour") had been televised before. In addition, all Nationwide Series final practices and qualifying sessions were shown; before, a few qualifying sessions were not seen and only a handful of practices were seen. Most, if not all, truck series time trials are also broadcast.
From 2007 to 2010, average race viewership fell from 7.85 million at its height to 5.99 million, according to the Sports Business Journal.
Starting in 2013, Spanish-language network Fox Deportes has aired select NASCAR Cup races either live or delayed.
In August 2013, Speed was replaced by Fox Sports 1, and Fuel TV by Fox Sports 2. All Truck Series races remained on Fox Sports 1, while practice and qualifying sessions and regional series races alternated between Fox Sports 1 and 2 depending on scheduling. For North American markets outside of the United States, coverage of some NASCAR events carried by Speed at the time remained on an international version of Speed (now Fox Sports Racing) that operates in the regions.
In 2014, the Sprint Unlimited moved to Fox Sports 1. Owing to the increased viewership of qualifying sessions under the new "group" knockout format, and being the first restrictor plate race under the new system, qualifying coverage for that year's Aaron's 499 was moved to Fox, marking the only other race besides the Daytona 500 to have a qualifying round televised on broadcast television.
The broadcast teams for each package during this period are as follows:
Bill Weber was forced to leave TNT shortly before the 4th race of TNT's schedule. Officially, Turner says it was due to a personal matter; however USA Today reported that it was due to an incident at a hotel the night before the race. Ralph Sheheen stepped in as announcer for the last 3 races on TNT in 2009. Adam Alexander filled in on pit road for the last 2 races, before moving to the announcer booth for 2010 and beyond. Sheheen returned to pit road, where he remained until the end of TNT's contract. The NASCAR on TNT Live show was discontinued and morphed into an hour-long Countdown to Green which was hosted by Alexander.
On October 15, 2012, NASCAR and the Fox Sports Media Group (FSMG) announced a new $2.4 billion eight-year deal, a 30% increase from their previous deal. On July 23, 2013, NASCAR and the NBC Sports Group announced a new $4.4 billion ten-year deal. Ten days later on August 1, 2013, NASCAR and Fox extended and expanded their agreement, paying an additional $1.4 billion to do so, to complete NASCAR's new TV package through the 2024 season. NBC reportedly bid over 50% more than ESPN and Turner for their portion of the package, despite Turner and ESPN expressing interest in continuing their relationship with NASCAR.
ESPN no longer broadcast NASCAR for the foreseeable future, while TNT no longer broadcast NASCAR until 2025 (see below). The new contract succeeded a partnership with Turner Sports and ESPN which it was paid by $4.8 billion that was covered by the previous contract which was eight years that began in 2007.
In July 2023, broadcast network The CW signed a TV rights deal to broadcast the NASCAR Xfinity Series from 2025 to 2031 for an estimated $115 million annual fee.
In November 2023, NASCAR announced a television and streaming deal for the NASCAR Cup Series from 2025 to 2031 for a $1.1 billion annual fee. Fox Sports and NBC Sports will distribute 14 Cup races each, with five and four races on their broadcast networks respectively. Fox Sports will continue to air early season spring races including the Daytona 500, while NBC will continue to show late-season fall races including the entire NASCAR Cup Series playoffs. Amazon Prime Video will stream five Cup races in the early summer, as well as practice and qualifying for the first half of the season except for the Clash, Daytona 500 and All-Star Race. TNT will show the remaining five Cup races in the late summer, which will also be streamed on HBO Max. Practice and qualifying for the second half of the season will air on TruTV and HBO Max. It was also announced that Fox Sports would continue its arrangement with the NASCAR Truck Series from the previous media deal. Starting in 2026, Versant, a company formed after a spinoff of most of NBCUniversal's cable channels, will produce NBC and USA Network broadcasts as part of NASCAR on USA Sports, of which NBC will broadcast only 4 races.
Below is a table (1960âÂÂpresent) of each NASCAR Cup Series points race and the network upon which it was broadcast:
Note: This table reflects the network upon which each race was predominantly shown, and does not reflect in-race movements, rain delays, and pre-emptions due to time constraints or other commitments, Non-points races from these seasons (Busch Clash, NASCAR All-Star Race and All-Star open, 1988 Goodyear NASCAR 500, NASCAR Thunder Special Suzuka, Coca-Cola 500 (Motegi), and Daytona Duels (even though it has awarded points since 2017)) are also not listed.
Currently, three separate networks cover NASCAR races on radio:
From 2002 to 2006, all races were heard on XM channel 90 across the continental United States. In 2007, national satellite radio rights moved to Sirius channel 90. Among the programs on Sirius NASCAR Radio are a weekly program co-hosted by TV pit reporter Matt Yocum and Tony Stewart, and a morning drive time show formerly hosted by David Poole of The Charlotte Observer and Marty Snider of NBC and TNT. The Morning Drive is now hosted by MRN turn announcer Mike Bagley and MRN lead writer Pete Pistone. PRN's Jim Noble and Richard Childress Racing Museum curator and former fueler Danny "Chocolate" Myers host the afternoon show called Tradin Paint. Longtime MRN turn announcer Dave Moody hosts SiriusXM Speedway. PRN pit reporter and turn announcer Brad Gillie co-hosts the Late Shift with Kenny Wallace. He's also the regular host of the weekend show Press Pass. Pat Patterson, also PRN turn announcer, hosts the weekend show The Frontstretch.
Following the merger of XM and Sirius, Sirius NASCAR Radio is heard on the XM through the "Best of Sirius" package on channel 90.
Both networks also have affiliation deals with hundreds of local radio stations. Many stations sign with more than one of these networks to ensure coverage of the entire season. However, for Indianapolis, if there is a conflict between the INDYCAR Radio affiliate and the radio station that carries NASCAR races, the INDYCAR Radio affiliate has first choice of carrying the race.
In 2020, NASCAR created a worldwide television feed for broadcasts outside the United States.