NBC's season-ending portion of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series broadcast schedule got underway four weekends ago at Iowa Speedway, though none of the races at Iowa, Watkins Glen International, and Richmond Raceway to kick it off were actually shown live on NBC.
Those races were all shown on USA Network, which replaced NBC Sports Network as the alternate channel during NBC's portion of the schedule after NBC Sports Network shut down before the 2022 season.
NBC's portion of the schedule was reduced from 20 races to 14 this year, similarly to how Fox's season-opening portion was reduced from 18 to 14 (16 to 12 points races) to make way for Amazon Prime Video and TNT Sports, the two new broadcast partners introduced as a part of the new seven-year $7.7 billion media rights deal, to enter with five races each in the middle of the season.
No more NASCAR races on NBC until October
USA Network and NBC had each been responsible for 10 races under the previous agreement. USA is still responsible for 10, while NBC itself dropped all the way down to four. A similar situation unfolded at Fox, with Fox Sports 1 responsible for nine of this year's 14 races after Fox had previously been responsible for the majority of the 18.
So what does that mean moving forward? It means that Saturday night's Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway was not only the season's first race on NBC, but the last on NBC for another two months.
The four-round, 10-race playoffs are scheduled to get underway at Darlington Raceway this coming Sunday evening with the Cook Out Southern 500. This race, along with the following six playoff races, are set to be shown live on USA Network rather than NBC.
NBC is then set to wrap up the season with three races in a row. These races include the middle race of the semifinal round of 8 at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday, October 19, the round of 8 finale at Martinsville Speedway on Sunday, October 26, and the Championship 4 title decider at Phoenix Raceway on Sunday, November 2.
The broadcast booth consists of lead announcer Leigh Diffey and analysts Jeff Burton and Steve Letarte, whether a race is shown live on NBC or USA.
Tune in to USA Network this Sunday, August 31 at 6:00 p.m. ET for the live broadcast of the Cook Out Southern 500 from Darlington Raceway. If you have not yet begun a free trial of FuboTV, do so now and don't miss any of the action!