The first annual NASCAR Cup Series in-season tournament featured a 32-driver bracket over five weekends, beginning with the late June race at Atlanta Motor Speedway and concluding with last weekend's Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The five-race tournament, officially dubbed the "In-Season Challenge", made up the entirety of a new portion of this year's broadcast schedule.
The 2025 season is the first season of NASCAR's new seven-year, $7.7 billion media rights deal. In addition to existing broadcast partners Fox and NBC, Amazon Prime Video and TNT Sports were also added to the mix beginning this year.
Before TNT Sports took over, Amazon Prime Video's first five-race stint wrapped up with the race at Pocono Raceway in June after getting underway four weeks prior with late May's Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway, the crown jewel event that used to belong to Fox.
Fox's portion of the schedule dipped from 18 races (16 points races) to 14 (12) to make way for the two new partners, and a similar reduction occurred at NBC. NBC, which is still scheduled to wrap up the season, is now responsible for 14 races, rather than 20.
And like Fox, NBC also lost a big one.
The Chicago Street Race, officially known as the Grant Park 165, was shown live on TNT Sports as a part of the tournament. The race at the Chicago Street Course was of the more popular events on the calendar in both 2023 and 2024 after being added to the schedule on Independence Day Weekend, and in both years, it was shown live on NBC.
In 2025, it drew an average of only 2.1 million viewers, down from 4.6 million in 2023 and 3.9 million in 2024, a drop that can largely be attributed to the fact that it was no longer shown on NBC.
You could make the case that NBC actually lost two big events, with the Brickyard 400 also on TNT Sports this year. That race, which returned to the calendar in 2024 for the first time in 2020, drew an average of 3.63 million viewers last year on NBC and dropped to 2.449 million this year.
NBC's portion of this year's schedule is still set to include the entire four-round, 10-race playoffs, but it only includes the final four races of the regular season, rather than the final 10. Additionally, just four races are set to be shown live on NBC itself; the other 10 are set to be shown live on USA Network. Last year, each channel got 10 races each.
NBC's portion of the schedule is set to begin this Sunday, August 3 at Iowa Speedway. That race, along with the next two races at Watkins Glen International and Richmond Raceway, is actually set to be broadcast live on USA Network rather than NBC.
Excluding the races on USA Network, which took over from NBC Sports Network as the NBCUniversal-owned alternate channel during NBC's portion of the broadcast schedule when NBC Sports Network shut down at the end of 2021, NBC is not set to air a race until the regular season finale at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday, August 23.
NBC is then not set to air another race until the round of 8 of the playoffs. It is responsible for the final two races of the semifinal round at Talladega Superspeedway and Martinsville Speedway in October, as well as the Championship 4 title decider at Phoenix Raceway in November.
Be sure to tune in to USA Network this Sunday, August 3 fat 3:30 p.m. ET for the live broadcast of the Iowa Corn 350 from Iowa Speedway and also be sure to take advantage of FuboTV's free trial offer today!