The Nascar Xfinity Series on The CW—Breaking Down the Deal

On Friday the Nascar world was shocked by the announcement that, starting in 2025, the entire Nascar Xfinity Series would air on The CW.  Here’s a breakdown of the stunning deal.

The CW got its start as The WB,
aka That Channel Your Sister Watched

THE MONEY: Nascar will reportedly receive $115 Million dollars a year to air its second-tier series on The CW.  This is widely seen as a major step-up in rights-fees from what was expected, although “widely seen” in this case refers to the dozen or so people who care about racing on television beyond “(announcer’s name) sucks”.  This bodes well for Nascar’s forthcoming new Cup Series TV deals—which also come due after the 2024 season—meaning that Fox & NBC will likely have to pay more money to hold onto the races they have.  This also means that the “Nascar is dying” crowd will have to find something else to pin their negative hopes on.

THE TERM: The CW will have broadcast rights from 2025 through 2031—a seven-year run—for all 33 races on the schedule.  And yes, that means The CW will likely find itself trying to make household names out of Sammy Smith, Ryan Vargas, and Jeremy Clements.

THE PRODUCTION: For the first time Nascar will be producing the broadcasts themselves—reportedly The CW will have control over the commentators, but Nascar will have control over camera angles, graphics, and the like.  While this raises questions as to how objective Nascar’s crew will be in calling controversial moments—not to mention how competent they will be in simply producing the telecast in the first few races—let’s also keep in mind what this likely means: more commentators pretending to be at the track when they’re really in a production studio in North Carolina.  How will they pose them?  Green screen?  Bank of TV’s?  Or perhaps the lost art of the chroma-key to make them look 20 feet tall?

THE NETWORK: The CW is an over-the-air television network, meaning that if you have a TV, you can get it for free.  That’s right—whether it’s by cable, dish, streaming, or old-school antenna, YOU WILL GET THIS CHANNEL FOR FREE—here’s a list of affiliates, and here's where you can search by zip code.  So if you’ve been whining about not getting FS1 or USA, whine no mo—ok, more realistically, find something else to whine about.

The CW also has roots in UPN,
aka That Channel Nobody Watched
(unless it was Smackdown)

THE LOGIC: This really seems like the rare win-win-win-win all around.  For The CW, they get a proven commodity that, while its ratings aren’t stellar, brings in a steady stream of diehard fans.  For Nascar, they get far more money than they ever thought they’d get for the Xfinity Series.  For the race teams, they can now go to their sponsors and brag about getting far more exposure for them on network television.  And for fans, we’ll be able to watch the race wherever we are (The CW will also hold streaming rights) without having to wonder what channel it’s on every Saturday.

…so with all that being said, to The CW: welcome to Nascar, and PLEASE GET THE BROADCAST TEAM RIGHT!!!

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Does this track have lights?

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