The season is continuing to wind down. That said, there’s still some racing to be had. Endurance racing fans have the European Le Mans Series to look forward to this weekend at Mugello. The Super DIRTcar Series is at Atomic Speedway in Chillicothe, Oh. But the main show this weekend is in Kansas City.
Where to Watch NASCAR This Weekend
This weekend, Kansas Speedway will host a quadruple-header of racing on their 1.5-mile tri-oval. It is likely to be very competitive and lack a lot of the issues that sadly come with short track racing with the Next Gen.
For the NASCAR Cup Series, on-track activity will begin with practice Saturday at 1:05 p.m. ET. This will air live on NBCSports.com and on the NBC Sports App. Qualifying will follow shortly afterwards.
Coverage of the Hollywood Casino 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.
The weather for Sunday looks good. The forecast is for partly cloudy skies with a high around 82°.
The NASCAR Xfinity Series playoffs will begin this weekend at Kansas Speedway. Teams are scheduled to pull into the garage Friday afternoon.
Practice is scheduled for 11:05 a.m. ET Saturday morning and will be streamed on NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports App. Qualifying will follow shortly afterwards.
Coverage of the Kansas Lottery 300 will start with NASCAR Countdown Live at 3:30 p.m. ET on The CW. Race coverage is scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. ET with the green flag around 4:10 p.m. ET.
Weather on Saturday will be nearly identical to Sunday with a low chance of rain and highs around 81°.
Kansas Speedway will hold a doubleheader on Friday. First up is the ARCA Menards Series. They will practice for 45 minutes at 1:10 p.m. ET with qualifying shortly afterwards. Neither session will be televised.
Coverage of the Reese’s 150 will begin at 5:30 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1. The green flag should fly around 5:45 p.m. ET.
The second half of the doubleheader will be the final race of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Round of 10. Truck teams will practice starting at 3:30 p.m. ET with live coverage on FOX Sports 2. Qualifying will follow shortly afterwards.
However, there is some disagreement here. NASCAR lists the sessions as airing on FS2 and so does TV Guide. However, FOXSports.com and some cable on-screen guides do not. Check your local listings.
Coverage of the Kubota Tractor 200 will begin at 8:30 p.m. ET on FS1. The green flag will fly around 8:45 p.m. ET.
Weather for Friday is going to be a little cooler than Saturday and Sunday, but still nice. The forecast is for partly cloudy skies with a high of 79°. You’ll have that during the ARCA race, but it’ll cool down during the Truck race at night. If you’re going, take a light jacket or sweater to put on late in the race.
TV Ratings Check — Bristol
Generally, things are looking up for Bristol. Saturday night’s Bass Pro Shops Night earned a .98 rating with 1.868 million viewers. That was up significantly from last year.
Last year, NASCAR was at Texas Motor Speedway on this weekend. That race earned a 1.16 rating with two million viewers.
The NASCAR Xfinity Series’ debut on The CW earned a .52 rating with 906,000 viewers. This is down 87,000 viewers (~9%) from last year’s race. However, it is up by .04 of a point and 78,000 viewers from Texas last year on this weekend.
Last Thursday night’s UNOH 200 presented by Ohio Logistics for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series had an audience of 289,000 viewers. This is down 23% from last year’s race that had 377,000 viewers.
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.