There are just two races remaining on the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series schedule, and Sunday's Xfinity 500 at Martinsville Speedway is set to eliminate two of the six championship contenders who are aiming to join Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Denny Hamlin and Chase Briscoe in next weekend's Championship 4 at Phoenix Raceway.
Hamlin secured his first Championship 4 berth since 2021 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway two weekends ago on USA Network, and Briscoe secured his first career Championship 4 berth at Talladega Superspeedway this past Sunday on NBC.
Sunday's Talladega race was just the second race of the season to be shown live on NBC, even though the switch over from TNT Sports took place back in early August at Iowa Speedway, and it was the first to be shown on NBC since the August regular season finale at Daytona International Speedway.
NBC is once again responsible for live coverage of this weekend's 500-lap race around the four-turn, 0.526-mile (0.847-kilometer) "Paperclip" oval in Ridgeway, Virginia.
Martinsville NASCAR race not being shown on USA
USA Network took over from NBC Sports Network as the alternate channel during NBC's portion of the Cup Series broadcast schedule after NBC Sports Network shut down at the end of 2021.
Prior to 2025, which marked the start of NASCAR's new seven-year, $7.7 billion media rights deal with not only existing partners Fox and NBC but also newcomer Amazon Prime Video and returning partner TNT Sports, the 20 races during NBC's portion of the schedule had been split up evenly between NBC and USA Network.
That was not the case this year. USA Network remained at 10 races, but NBC dropped down to four, and USA Network was responsible for 10 of the first 11, including the first three after the switch from TNT Sports and the first seven of the playoffs.
NBC finally took over at Talladega, and it is set to wrap up the year with both the round of 8 finale at Martinsville and next weekend's Championship 4 season finale at Phoenix Raceway.
The broadcast booth notably consists of the same trio regardless of whether a race is shown on NBC or USA Network. Leigh Diffey is in his second season (first full season) as the lead announcer after coming over from the IndyCar side to replace Rick Allen, before IndyCar moved from NBC to Fox, and Jeff Burton and Steve Letarte are both in their 11th seasons as analysts.
The Xfinity 500 is set to be shown live on NBC from Martinsville Speedway starting at 2:00 p.m. ET this Sunday, October 26. If you have not yet had a chance to start a free trial of FuboTV, do so now and be sure to catch all of the action!