The NASCAR Cup Series is now four races into NBC's 14-race portion of the broadcast schedule to conclude the 2025 season, a portion reduced from 20 races as a result of NASCAR's new seven-year, $7.7 billion media rights deal introducing Amazon Prime Video and TNT Sports into the mix alongside existing partners Fox and NBC.
Unlike under the previous deal, the majority of Fox's 14 races were shown live on Fox Sports 1 rather than Fox, nine to be exact. Similarly, after the 20 NBC races were evenly split between NBC and USA Network, USA Network retained 10 races for 2025 while NBC itself dropped all the way down to four.
The first of those four races actually on NBC took place this past weekend to conclude the regular season at Daytona International Speedway after the first three races of NBC's portion of the schedule at Iowa Speedway, Watkins Glen International, and Richmond Raceway were shown live on USA Network.
Sunday's playoff opener, the Cook Out Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, is set to be shown live on USA Network, rather than NBC, to get the playoffs underway.
Darlington first of seven straight NASCAR playoff races on USA Network
The six playoff races after Sunday's 367-lap race around the four-turn, 1.366-mile (2.198-kilometer) egg-shaped Darlington, South Carolina oval are all set to be shown live on USA Network as well.
These races are set to be contested at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway (Sunday, September 7), Bristol Motor Speedway (Saturday, September 13), New Hampshire Motor Speedway (Sunday, September 21), Kansas Speedway (Sunday, September 28), the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval (Sunday, October 5), and Las Vegas Motor Speedway (Sunday, October 12).
The season's final three races at Talladega Superspeedway (Sunday, October 19), Martinsville Speedway (Sunday, October 26), and Phoenix Raceway (Sunday, November 2) are all set to be shown live on NBC to wrap up the season.
Leigh Diffey is the broadcast booth's lead announcer whether a race is shown on NBC or USA, and he is joined by longtime analysts Jeff Burton and Steve Letarte.
Catch USA Network's live coverage of the Cook Out Southern 500 from Darlington Raceway beginning at 6;00 p.m. ET this Sunday, August 31. Begin a free trial of FuboTV today and don't miss any of the action from the "Lady in Black"!