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NASCAR, Motorsport, USA Xfinity: NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoff Race at Bristol Sep 12, 2025 Bristol, Tennessee, USA NASCAR Xfinity Series driver Sam Mayer 41 leads driver Justin Allgaier 7 and driver Connor Zilisch 88 during the Food City 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway. Bristol Bristol Motor Speedway Tennessee USA, EDITORIAL USE ONLY PUBLICATIONxINxGERxSUIxAUTxONLY Copyright: xRandyxSartinx 20250912_cec_bs1_064
Imago
NASCAR, Motorsport, USA Xfinity: NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoff Race at Bristol Sep 12, 2025 Bristol, Tennessee, USA NASCAR Xfinity Series driver Sam Mayer 41 leads driver Justin Allgaier 7 and driver Connor Zilisch 88 during the Food City 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway. Bristol Bristol Motor Speedway Tennessee USA, EDITORIAL USE ONLY PUBLICATIONxINxGERxSUIxAUTxONLY Copyright: xRandyxSartinx 20250912_cec_bs1_064
Essentials Inside The Story
- Cup Series' falling viewership shows how fans feel about the broadcaster.
- However, The CW seems to be getting all the love.
- Fans want the NASCAR Cup Series to be more accessible.
In 2023, NASCAR rolled out what looked like a game-changing blueprint for its future: a $7.7 billion media rights deal running from 2025 through 2031 with FOX Sports, NBC Sports, Amazon Prime Video, and TNT Sports under Warner Bros. Discovery. The vision was clear. They wanted to blend traditional TV with streaming to usher the sport into a modern, multi-platform era. Then-president Steve Phelps even labeled it a landmark move, but while the boardroom celebrated, many fans saw things differently.
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In the very first year of the deal, the NASCAR Cup Series saw a decline of 15% from the season before. But the first season of the O’Reilly Series, then known as the Xfinity Series, under The CW, saw a 10% increase from the season before. In fact, the O’Reilly Series numbers were so good that the average of 1.03 million viewers over 33 races was the best average since 2021. But in the Truck Series, FOX’s coverage saw another fall of 5% from the season before.
And for better or worse, the story continued into 2026. The most recent Cup race at Bristol on FOX Sports saw its viewership go below 2 million, with a decline of about 100,000 viewers from last season. But the O’Reilly race on The CW turned out to be the most-watched Bristol spring race ever, with a 22% growth from last season.
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The fact that the O’Reilly race and the O’Reilly Series under The CW is growing so fast, while the Cup under FOX is on the decline, left a lot of fans with a sour taste. But here’s the thing:
This isn’t exactly new territory for FOX Sports. Take their early coverage of Bristol Motor Speedway, for example: there was plenty happening, including Ross Chastain storming from sixth to first on the opening lap. But for viewers at home, much of that early action never quite translated on screen. The latter stages of the race felt far more lively on TV.
The broadcast has started to feel predictable as well, often kicking off with a full-screen graphic comparing the current points standings to where they were at the same point last season.
The CW says Saturday night’s O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race was the most-watched Bristol spring race ever. It also “beat NHL prime on ABC head-to-head by 21% in total viewers.”
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— Kelly Crandall (@KellyCrandall) April 15, 2026
Plus, their coverage misses out on key moments. Fans hardly get to see the green flag on the final restart because the broadcast is focused on the grandstands as the cars come out of Turn 4, and the camera switches back to the track too late. Such instances have left NASCAR fans annoyed.
Fans are not happy with the current NASCAR Cup setup with FOX
As the reports of the viewership numbers from the Cup and the O’Reilly race surfaced from Bristol, a lot of fans singled out the broadcaster involved in the Cup Series, FOX Sports, while praising The CW for their work on Saturdays. Fans wrote:
- “Amazing what happens when you put it on a network that everyone (with an antenna) has access to and not cable. Wish the Cup series could follow suit.”
Currently, the Cup races are on a hybrid model of TV and streaming, as part of the $7.7 billion media rights deal. Another fan mentioned:
- “The racing in the O’Reilly series has consistently been the best race of the weekend over the last few years. I find myself making it more of a priority to watch it flag to flag than the Cup series. It helps that the CW production outshines Fox’s Sunday production 10 fold.”
It’s worth mentioning that FOX’s production quality has come under scrutiny a lot of times in the past. One of NASCAR’s star drivers, Denny Hamlin, has time after time called out FOX. In 2025, he was critical of the audio issues in the broadcast. Even Richard Petty once took a jibe at their broadcasting issues. And fans are on the same page, and that’s the reason they support The CW:
- “Good Product + Easy Accessibility.”
- “It’s almost like being accessible and on network gets you more viewers.”
The CW network operates on a broadcasting medium with replays on streaming, while FOX had the Bristol race on cable. FOX putting NASCAR on cable was something a fan called out as they wrote:
- “The fact that NASCAR went cable heavy instead of a combo of network and streaming for Cup is still insane, even if the cable money is ‘better.'”
Many fans demanded that the NASCAR Cup Series be put on a network instead of cable. Having said that, it’ll be interesting to see how NASCAR deals with the growing fan resentment against FOX and the current broadcasting setup for the Cup Series. They also need to pay attention to the falling viewership in the Cup while it rises in the O’Reilly, while also maintaining their multi-billion dollar deal, which will run until 2031.
Written by
Edited by
Suyashdeep Sason