NASCAR Cup Series: Southern 500 not being shown on NBC

The 2024 NASCAR Cup Series regular season is set to come to a conclusion this Sunday night at Darlington Raceway, where the full 16-driver field for the four-round, 10-race postseason is due to be solidified.

Darlington's Cook Out Southern 500 had hosted the playoff opener from 2020 to 2023, and it is still on the same weekend this year. But because of the three-week summer break in the schedule due to NBC's coverage of the Summer Olympics in Paris, France, the season is scheduled to end a week later than it has in recent years.

But unlike last weekend's race at Daytona International Speedway, which had been the regular season finale from 2020 to 2023, this Sunday night's 367-lap race around the four-turn, 1.366-mile (2.198-kilometer) Darlington, South Carolina oval known as the track "Too Tough To Tame" will not be shown live on NBC.

Darlington NASCAR race set for USA Network

NBC's portion of the broadcast schedule consists of 10 races on main NBC and 10 on USA Network, which took over from NBC Sports Network as the NBCUniversal-owned alternate channel during NBC's portion after NBC Sports Network shut down ahead of the 2022 season.

Four regular season races were shown live on NBC, and Sunday's race is set to be the sixth shown on USA Network. USA Network is then set to lead off the playoffs with four consecutive races, while NBC is then set to take over and air the last six to wrap up the 2024 season, including November's championship decider at Phoenix Raceway.

It is worth mentioning that the announcers are the same whether a race is shown on NBC or USA Network. However, Leigh Diffey recently replaced Rick Allen as the lead announcer, and he is joined by color commentators Jeff Burton and Steve Letarte.

Diffey made his season debut at Daytona on Saturday night and called an epic finish in which Wood Brothers Racing's Harrison Burton, Jeff Burton's son, won with a last lap pass on Richard Childress Racing's Kyle Busch.

Tune in to USA Network at 6:00 p.m. ET this Sunday, September 1 for the live broadcast of the Cook Out Southern 500 from the track "Too Tough To Tame". Hendrick Motorsports' Kyle Larson is the reigning race winner, though it was RFK Racing's Brad Keselowski who went to victory lane back in May. Start a free trial of FuboTV now and don't miss any of the action!