NBC Sports' portion of the NASCAR Cup Series broadcast schedule is now officially known as USA Sports' portion of the broadcast schedule following Versant's offseason split from Comcast and NBC; Versant Media is the parent company of USA Sports.
Still, the channels remain the exact same as they've been since 2022, with races split between USA Network and NBC.
But because of NASCAR's new seven-year, $7.7 billion media rights deal, which went into effect ahead of the 2025 season, the season-ending portion of the calendar was reduced from 20 races to 14. And instead of the races being split evenly between USA and NBC, the majority are now on USA.
Of the 11 races contested thus far since the switch from TNT Sports' portion of the schedule and USA Sports' portion of the schedule in late July and early August, just one race has been shown live on NBC, and that was the late August regular season finale at Daytona International Speedway.
The first three races after the switch were shown live on USA Network, as were the first seven races of the postseason.
Many have blamed some of NASCAR's low postseason TV ratings on the fact that races are shown live on USA. Perhaps this weekend will put that theory to the test.
No more NASCAR Cup races on USA Network in 2026
Sunday's YellaWood 500 at Talladega Superspeedway is the first of three consecutive races set to be shown live on NBC to wrap up the 2026 season and decide the champion in the first year under the new "Chase" playoff format.
That stretch is also set to include next Sunday's race at Martinsville Speedway and the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
Again, the only thing set to change is the channel, and NBC should be more accessible for the average fan. In fact, with a free trial of FuboTV, you can catch all of the action from the four-turn, 2.66-mile (4.281-kilometer) high-banked oval in Lincoln, Alabama this Sunday afternoon.
Leigh Diffey is still the lead announcer, just as he's been since 2024 and he's still set to be joined by analysts Jeff Burton and Steve Letarte, who have been together in the booth since the previous media rights deal went into effect back in 2015.
Tune in to NBC this Sunday, October 25 at 2:00 p.m. ET for the live broadcast of the YellaWood 500 from Talladega Superspeedway. Don't miss any of the action from the antepenultimate race on the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series schedule!
Add us as a preferred source on Google