This weekend is bound to be crazy. You have the NASCAR Cup Series all over the place due to recent penalties, the NASCAR Xfinity Series entering a wild night and the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series starting their playoff run.
Where to Watch NASCAR This Week
This is the final split weekend of the season. The NASCAR Cup Series will be headlining this weekend in Daytona. Meanwhile, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series will be in Milwaukee.
For the NASCAR Cup Series, it is a traditional summer trip to Daytona for the Coke Zero Sugar 400. In past years, teams would have been on-track Thursday, but that’s no longer the case.
There will be no practice this weekend. Qualifying is scheduled for 5:05 p.m. ET Friday afternoon. Coverage will air live on USA Network starting at 5 p.m. ET.
Coverage of the Coke Zero Sugar 400 will begin with Countdown to Green at 7 p.m. ET Saturday on NBC and Peacock. Race coverage is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. ET with the green flag around 7:45 p.m. ET.
There are two new elements that will be in play on the Cup broadcast this weekend. First off, Saturday night will mark Leigh Diffey’s first Cup race in the broadcast booth since 2017. He was officially announced as NASCAR on NBC’s new play-by-play commentator for the NASCAR Cup Series for the remainder of the 2024 season Tuesday.
In addition, NBC Sports announced Wednesday that Saturday night’s broadcast will only feature NASCAR NonStop commercial breaks during green flag action. As a result, viewers will see every green flag lap live (the press release underlines this).
The move is explained as a “production enhancement,” much along the lines of the Radio style broadcasts that are used on road and/or street courses. However, this setup will be different than a Radio style broadcast since it doesn’t appear that the broadcast as a whole will be all that different than normal.
The first thing that comes to mind here is the question of how local breaks will be handled. You can’t do those side-by-side and they’re mandated to occur at least once per hour. Will those be placed solely during stage breaks? That remains to be seen.
Then, there is the weather. It’s Daytona Beach in August. The forecast is for a high in the upper 80s with a 50% chance of scattered thunderstorms.
Granted, the temperature will have dropped off a little by race time. However, the forecast could mean anything from nothing unusual happening and the race starting on time, or that they’re racing at 10 a.m. ET Sunday morning like in 2022. You might remember what happened back then.
I’ve covered six summer Daytona races onsite for Frontstretch. Two of those started late due to rain, most notably the 2015 race that started at 11:45 p.m. ET. The 2014 race was postponed to Sunday, then rain-shortened due to NASCAR starting at Noon ET instead of 10 a.m. ET.
That forecast goes for the NASCAR Xfinity Series in Daytona Friday as well. Xfinity teams arrived Thursday morning in Daytona to go through inspection.
Qualifying is scheduled for 3 p.m. ET Friday afternoon in Daytona, the heat of the afternoon. If you’re there, make sure to keep yourself hydrated since the sun is fierce. The session will be televised live on USA Network.
Coverage of the Wawa 250 powered by Coca-Cola will begin with Countdown to Green at 7 p.m. ET on USA Network. Race coverage is scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m. ET with the green at 7:40 p.m. ET.
Meanwhile, 1250 miles away, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series will begin their playoff run this weekend at The Milwaukee Mile in West Allis, Wis. It will be a very different atmosphere at NASCAR’s oldest track.
Practice is scheduled for 4 p.m. ET Saturday afternoon at the one-mile oval. Qualifying will follow shortly afterwards. Neither session will be televised.
Coverage of the LiUNA! 175 is scheduled to air live on FOX Sports 1 Sunday at 4 p.m. ET. The green flag is scheduled for 4:25 p.m. ET.
Alongside the Craftsman Truck Series in Milwaukee will be the ARCA Menards Series. Running their third race in nine days, the series will hold a combination race with ARCA Menards Series East.
Practice is scheduled for 2 p.m. ET Saturday with qualifying shortly afterwards. Neither session will be televised.
Coverage of the Sprecher 150 is scheduled to air live on FS1 starting at 1 p.m. ET Sunday. The green flag is tentatively scheduled for 1:09 p.m. ET.
TV Ratings Check — Michigan
Once again, NASCAR had their parade rained on. Sunday saw a two-hour rain delay during the pace laps, then another red flag 51 laps in that resulted in the race getting moved to Monday. That broadcast earned a 1.2 rating with 2.11 million viewers, down significantly from the 1.5 rating and 2.603 million viewers that the Sunday portion of last year’s race drew.
The Monday portion of the race earned a .6 rating and 1.11 million viewers. That number is down on ratings (.7), but up in viewership by roughly 28,000 viewers from last year’s broadcast. It’s never particularly great that you can have an apples-to-apples comparison of rain delayed broadcasts like this, but that is what the rain gave us this week.
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.
Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.