Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway opened up the round of 8 of the 2025 playoffs, and it also closed off a seven-race portion of the broadcast schedule that started when the four-round, 10-race postseason began back in late August.
NBC's portion of the broadcast schedule began back in early August at Iowa Speedway, but it began with three consecutive races on USA Network, which has been the NBCUniversal-owned alternate channel during NBC's portion of the broadcast schedule since 2022. NBC Sports Network had held that role before it initially shut down at the end of 2021.
The first three races after this year's summer switch from TNT Sports to NBC were shown live on USA Network rather than NBC, and NBC's first race of the year wasn't until the regular season finale at Daytona Internatioanl Speedway.
That race is still the most recent Cup race to be shown on the main NBC channel, as the playoffs opened up with seven consecutive races on USA Network, giving the network 10 out of 11 races to open up NBC's part of this year's calendar.
No more NASCAR races on USA in 2025
But Sunday's South Point 400 was the 10th and final race set to be shown live on USA Network this season, as the season is set to conclude with three consecutive races on NBC.
Those three races include the two remaining round of 8 races at Talladega Superspeedway and Martinsville Speedway in October, as well as the Championship 4 race at Phoenix Raceway in early November.
USA Network is actually in the process of being spun off from NBC into a new Comcast-formed company called Versant, along with most of NBCUniversal's other U.S. cable channels. So what NBC's portion of the 2026 broadcast schedule looks like remains to be seen, though NBC itself is still set to show only four of the 14 races. NBC Sports Network is also being revived, though that doesn't necessarily mean it will return to the NASCAR schedule.
The broadcast booth trio is the same during NBC's portion of the schedule whether a race is shown live on NBC or USA Network. Leigh Diffey is in his second season as the lead play-by-play announcer, and he is joined by analysts Jeff Burton and Steve Letarte, who have both been in the booth since the start of NASCAR's previous media deal in 2015.
The current deal, featuring Fox, Amazon Prime Video, TNT Sports, and NBC, is a seven-year deal valued at $7.7 billion. The 2025 season is year one of that deal, which is scheduled to run through 2031.
Tune in to NBC at 2:00 p.m. ET on Sunday, October 19 for the live broadcast of the YellaWood 500 from Talladega Superspeedway. Begin a free trial of FuboTV and catch all of the upcoming NASCAR Cup Series playoff action on NBC!