The NASCAR Cup Series playoffs get underway this weekend. However, the schedule crafters have concocted a nasty start to the Round of 16. The playoffs will start with an ultra-stressful superspeedway race in Georgia.
Where to Watch NASCAR This Weekend
This weekend, the NASCAR Cup Series will make their second visit of the year to Atlanta Motor Speedway, this time for the Quaker State 400, a race formerly run at Kentucky Speedway. Unlike next year, this race will be held during the daytime.
Since this is a superspeedway-style race, there will be no practice. Qualifying is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. ET with live coverage on USA Network.
Coverage of the Quaker State 400 will start with Countdown to Green at 2:30 p.m. ET Sunday on USA Network. Race coverage will start at 3 p.m. ET with the green flag around 3:10 p.m. ET.
Weather for Sunday looks pretty good. There will be sunny skies with a high around 80° and a low chance of precipitation. It could still be humid, though.
The NASCAR Cup Series will be supported by the NASCAR Xfinity Series. Coverage of qualifying will air live on USA Network starting at 11 a.m. ET Saturday.
Coverage of the Focused Health 250 will start with Countdown to Green at 2:30 p.m. ET on USA Network. Race coverage will start at 3 p.m. ET with the green flag around 3:10 p.m. ET.
The weather forecast is similar Saturday for Xfinity fans to Sunday’s Cup broadcast. It’ll be a couple of degrees warmer, though. The bad day of the weekend will be Friday, when the facility will deal with tropical rain showers. It’ll make inspection day pretty terrible, but there isn’t any on-track activity scheduled.
Also, remember that the races this weekend will have no full screen commercial breaks during green-flag racing. This will be the second of three race weekends where this will apply.
Finally, NASCAR is launching a new TV show tonight, NASCAR Inside the Playoffs, that will preview each of the upcoming playoff races for the NASCAR Cup Series. The show will air on Thursday nights for the remainder of the season at 7 p.m. ET on TruTV. A simulcast of the show will air on Max’s B/R Sports Add-On.
TV Ratings Check — Darlington
The original version of this column went live without ratings from the Cook Out Southern 500 because none had been released. Shortly after the column went live, we got ratings.
Sunday night’s race earned a 1.26 rating with 2.4 million viewers. That is just short of a 5% increase from last year. That race earned a 1.2 rating with 2.287 million viewers.
Saturday’s Sport Clips Haircuts VFW Help A Hero 200 had 712,000 viewers on USA Network. This is down 39,000 viewers from last year. A full Nielsen rating is unavailable.
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.