NASCAR announced on Thursday that the CW Network will begin its coverage of the Xfinity Series earlier than initially agreed. As per the new media deal that the promotion signed with the Californian broadcast channel last July, the coverage was set to begin in the 2025 season and broadcast all 33 races in the second tier over 7 years. With the terms now changed, it will cover the final 8 races of the ongoing season as well.
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Fox Sports reporter Bob Pockrass revealed the schedule for the same on his X handle recently. He wrote, ”CW — which has the Xfinity Series races starting in 2025 — will now air the last eight races of Xfinity this year instead of NBC/USA. Races will be produced by NBC Sports with Rick Allen in the booth and Steve Letarte and Jeff Burton as commentators.”
CW will take over the race in the Bristol Motor Speedway on September 20 and continue running the events till the finale on November 9 in the Phoenix Raceway. Included in the fixtures are races on the Talladega Superspeedway, the Charlotte Roval, and the Martinsville Speedway amongst others. Notably, this is the first time in history that the Xfinity Series will stream free on over-the-air broadcast television.
CW — which has the Xfinity Series races starting in 2025 — will now air the last eight races of Xfinity this year instead of NBC/USA. Races will be produced by NBC Sports with Rick Allen in the booth and Steve Letarte and Jeff Burton as commentators. pic.twitter.com/zFHdR1bbHm
— Bob Pockrass (@bobpockrass) April 11, 2024
Dennis Miller, the president of the network said in his press release, “We want to thank our partners at the league and at NBC Sports for welcoming the network into the NASCAR broadcast family and for the early opportunity to showcase these thrilling final eight Xfinity Series races of the season.”
Why NASCAR changed its agreement with the CW network
No reasons were given for the unprecedented acceleration other than providing a glimpse at what was coming in 2025. NASCAR’s SVP of media and production, Brian Herbst said, “We’re looking forward to having The CW get a head start as the home of the NASCAR Xfinity Series with the help of NBC Sports and continuing to deliver our fans thrilling on-track action.”
According to Forbes, NASCAR’s deal with CW is valued at $115 million a year. The Xfinity Series races were sporadically aired in the 1990s on the now-shut cable network TNN. Fox Sports picked up coverage in 2001 and covered the first half of the season while NBS and TNT took hold of the second half. When this arrangement ended in 2007, ESPN became the partner and split duties with ABC.
Fox and NBC got back on board in 2015 before the programs on NBC moved to the USA Network. After this long journey of alterations between various networks, the dust has finally settled with the CW Network. The series currently attracts a viewership of around 1 million for each race and is expected to increase with the influence of CW.
