While the branding is now officially USA Sports, rather than NBC Sports like it had been in previous years, this portion of the NASCAR Cup Series broadcast schedule is still considered NBC's portion of the schedule under the current media rights agreement, which went into effect ahead of the 2025 season.
This seven-year, $7.7 billion deal saw Fox's season-opening portion reduced from 18 races (16 points races) to 14 (12) and NBC's season-ending portion reduced from 20 to 14, with Amazon Prime Video and TNT Sports added and given five races each in between.
The NBC portion of the calendar got underway at Iowa Speedway a week ago, although that race was shown live on USA Network. USA Network has served as the alternate channel during this part of the schedule since 2022, the year after NBC Sports Network initially shut down.
When the new deal went into effect, USA Network retained 10 races, while it was NBC that dropped down from 10 to four. And like the race at Iowa, this weekend's race at Richmond Raceway will also not be shown live on NBC.
Richmond NASCAR Cup race not being shown on NBC
Saturday night's Cook Out 400 at the four-turn, 0.75-mile (1.207-kilometer) Richmond, Virginia oval is the second of 10 races set to be shown live on USA Network this season, although it's worth noting that the broadcast booth is set to consist of the same three individuals whether a race is shown live on USA or NBC.
Leigh Diffey is in his third season as lead announcer, after replacing Rick Allen in 2024, while Steve Letarte and Jeff Burton are in their 12th seasons as analysts. Letarte has done every race this year since May's Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, as he's also been with Prime and TNT since 2025.
NBC's first race of the year, which is still set to be produced under the new USA Sports branding after parent company Versant split from Comcast and NBC in late 2025, is scheduled to be the regular season finale at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday, August 29.
Its only other three races this year are set to be the final three races of the playoffs at Talladega Superspeedway in October and at Martinsville Speedway and Homestead-Miami Speedway in November.
All other races between now and the end of the 2026 season, including next weekend's race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and the first seven races of the postseason, are set to be shown live on USA.
USA Network's live coverage of the Cook Out 400 is set to begin at 7:00 p.m. ET on Saturday, August 15. Team Penske's Ryan Blaney took the pole position in Friday afternoon's qualifying session. Begin a free trial of FuboTV today and don't miss any of the action from Richmond Raceway!
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