Last Sunday afternoon's Iowa Corn 350 at Iowa Speedway got NBC's portion of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series broadcast schedule underway in year number one of NASCAR's new seven-year, $7.7 billion media rights deal.
NBC and Fox were both a part of the old agreement, but the new agreement added Amazon Prime Video, a newcomer, and TNT Sports, a former longtime partner, into the mix.
To make room for Prime and TNT, which each took on five-race stints from May to July, Fox and NBC had to reduce their prior race counts. Fox, which still opened up the season, dropped from 18 races to 14 (16 points races to 12), while NBC, which is still set to conclude the season, dropped from 20 races to 14.
Last year's race at Iowa also kicked off NBC's portion of the schedule, albeit in mid-June.
Which six NASCAR Cup races did NBC actually lose?
Based on the schedule alone, NBC's portion of this year's broadcast schedule, under the previous media rights agreement, would have gotten underway on Sunday, June 22 from Pocono Raceway.
It also would have included the entire five-round inaugural In-Season Challenge at Atlanta Motor Speedway, the Chicago Street Course, Sonoma Raceway, Dover Motor Speedway, and Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The two biggest losses here were unquestionably the Chicago Street Race and the Brickyard 400 at Indy, and to no one's surprise, their viewership dropped significantly by being moved off of NBC and placed on TNT this year.
The June races at Pocono and Atlanta are two races that were indeed a part of NBC's portion of the calendar in previous years, while the July races at Sonoma and Dover were races that were previously on Fox's portion of the calendar before being pushed back later in the year this year.
Sonoma had traditionally wrapped up Fox's coverage in June, while the Dover race had been contested in late April/early May.
Last year's races at Nashville Superspeedway and Michigan International Speedway were contested during NBC's portion of the schedule in late June and mid-August, respectively, but they were moved up to Fox's portion this year, both in early June.
Additionally, the race at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway had been slotted in during Fox's portion of the regular season schedule from 2022 to 2024, but now it is a part of NBC's during the playoffs.
On the flip side, the race at Homestead-Miami Speedway was moved from the playoffs back into the regular season for the first time since 2021 and was thus a part of Fox's schedule this year, rather than NBC's.
So all in all, NBC lost Pocono, Atlanta, Chicago, Indy, Nashville, and Michigan, and it traded Homestead for Gateway.
It is worth mentioning that most of NBC's races aren't actually on NBC, similarly to how most of Fox's races weren't actually on Fox. Nine of Fox's 14 races were shown on Fox Sports 1, while NBC's schedule consists of four races on NBC and 10 on USA Network, with the Iowa race being the first of 10 on USA.
NBC isn't actually set to air its first race of the year until the regular season finale at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday, August 23. After that, it isn't responsible for any playoff races until the final three races of the postseason at Talladega Superspeedway (Sunday, October 19), Martinsville Speedway (Sunday, October 26), and Phoenix Raceway (Sunday, November 2).
USA Network effectively took over from NBC Sports Network as the alternate NBCUniversal-owned channel during NBC's portion of the schedule in 2022, as NBC Sports Network shut down after 2021.
Whether a race is shown on NBC or USA Network, the broadcast booth consists of the same trio. Leigh Diffey, who replaced longtime lead man Rick Allen last August, is the lead announcer, while Jeff Burton and Steve Letarte are both longtime (2015 to present) color commentators.
Diffey has been with NBC since 2013 and came over from IndyCar last year after it was announced that IndyCar coverage would be moving to Fox for 2025 and beyond. Will Buxton replaced him alongside James Hinchcliffe and Townsend Bell.
USA Network is set to provide live coverage of the Go Bowling at The Glen from Watkins Glen International beginning at 2:00 p.m. ET this Sunday, August 10. Begin a free trial of FuboTV now and don't miss any upcoming NASCAR Cup Series action!