TNT Sports returned to the NASCAR Cup Series for the first time since 2014 as a part of the sport's new seven-year, $7.7 billion media rights deal. After making its long-awaited return in this past Saturday night's race at Atlanta Motor Speedway, it is now set to provide live coverage of the street race in Chicago, Illinois.
Under the previous media rights agreement, this 75-lap Grant Park 165 around the 12-turn, 2.2-mile (3.541-kilometer) temporary street course, which was added to the schedule in 2023, would have been shown live on NBC.
In fact, the Chicago street race, which is still the only street race in Cup Series history, was one of NBC's biggest races during its season-ending 20-race portions of the broadcast schedule in 2023 and 2024.
Chicago street race moved to TNT from NBC
But this year, NBC's season-ending portion of the calendar was dropped from 20 races to 14. New partners Amazon Prime Video and TNT Sports were each given five races, with Fox's season-opening portion also being reduced from 18 races (16 points races) to 14 (12) to make room.
TNT Sports took over after Amazon Prime Video's first-ever five-race broadcast stint wrapped up, though it is worth pointing out that the announcers remained the same. Adam Alexander served as the lead announcer, alongside color commentators Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Steve Letarte, for Prime, and the entire trio is now in the TNT Sports broadcast booth.
TNT Sports' five-race stint includes the entirety of the inaugural five-race in-season tournament. All five races are still typical regular season races, but NASCAR introduced something new this year by setting up a 32-driver bracket with head-to-head matchups during this five-race stretch. The tournament field is now down to 16 drivers following the opening "round" in Atlanta.
Remaining on TNT Sports' broadcast schedule after this weekend are the races at Sonoma Raceway on Sunday, July 13; Dover Motor Speedway on Sunday, July 20; and Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday, July 27, with the Brickyard 400 serving as the tournament "championship" between the final two drivers left standing.
When does NBC take over?
As for NBC, their coverage is not scheduled to begin until Sunday, August 3 from Iowa Speedway. However, this race, along with the next two races after it at Watkins Glen International and Richmond Raceway, is actually set to be shown live on USA Network.
USA Network took over from NBC Sports Network as the NBCUniversal-owned alternate channel during NBC's portion of the schedule after NBC Sports Network shut down at the end of 2021. In total, only four of NBC's races are actually set to be shown on NBC this year, with the other 10 set to be shown live on USA Network.
Similarly, Fox's portion of the schedule consisted only of five races on Fox, while the other nine were shown live on Fox Sports 1.
The first race of the year actually set to be shown live on NBC is the regular season finale at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday, August 23.
Tune in to TNT Sports at 2:00 p.m. ET this Sunday, July 6 for the live broadcast of the Grant Park 165 from the Chicago Street Course.