This weekend will see the schedule start getting much busier. The FIA World Endurance Championship starts their season on Friday, while the NTT IndyCar Series enters their new deal with FOX. Meanwhile, NASCAR will be in Texas.
Where to Watch NASCAR This Week
NASCAR will make their fifth visit to Circuit of the Americas this week. However, unlike the previous four years, they will race on the National Circuit as opposed to the full circuit. Almost no one that will be in the field Saturday or Sunday has raced on it…except for Shane van Gisbergen.
Back in 2013, the now-Repco Supercars Championship came to the United States and held four sprint races on the short course at COTA. Three of the races were won by Jamie Whincup, while the other was won by Fabian Coulthard. This video of Race No. 3 from that weekend will give you something of an idea of what to expect.
With the different layout in play, practice has been expanded for this weekend. Coverage of practice will begin at 11 a.m. ET Saturday morning with live coverage on Amazon Prime Video. Qualifying will follow at 12:35 p.m. ET. Note that group qualifying will be in play for this weekend.
Coverage of the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix will begin with NASCAR RaceDay at 2:30 p.m. ET Sunday afternoon on FOX. Race coverage will start at 3:30 p.m. ET with the green flag around 3:45 p.m. ET.
The NASCAR Xfinity Series will be on the undercard once again. They will be on-track for practice Friday afternoon. Coverage will start at 5 p.m. ET on The CW app. Qualifying will follow at 6 p.m. ET.
Some local CW affiliates may air the sessions live as well. Check your local listings to see if this could be possible for you.
Coverage of the Focused Health 250 will begin with NASCAR Countdown Live at 2 p.m. ET Saturday on The CW. Note that it is scheduled to begin immediately after the Syracuse-Virginia Tech college basketball game, so like last weekend’s Cup race in Atlanta, pre-race coverage could be affected. Race coverage will start at 2:30 p.m. ET with the green flag around 2:45 p.m. ET.
IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge is also on the undercard. They will have two 45-minute races on Saturday that will bookend the schedule for the day.
What’s The Weather Looking Like?
For Friday, which has practice and qualifying for both the Xfinity Series and VP Racing SportsCar Challenge, the forecast is just about perfect. 74° for a high with sunny skies and basically no chance of rain.
Saturday will be warmer. Once again, sunny skies with a high of 80° with no chance of rain. Bring sunscreen if you go.
Sunday’s forecast is a little iffier. It’ll be nice in the morning, but it will cloud up as the day goes on with a high of 79°. How much of a chance of rain there is depends on your source. As of this writing, it is 60% on AccuWeather, but 20% or less everywhere else. If it happens at all, it’ll happen in the final 25 laps or so of the race.
TV Ratings Check — Atlanta
Ratings-wise, Atlanta was technically a mixed bag, but mostly positive.
Sunday’s broadcast of the Ambetter Health 400 on FOX earned a 2.4 rating with 4.59 million viewers. This is down one-tenth of a ratings point from last year, but viewership is up by 44,000 people. It was the highest-rated Spring race in Atlanta since 2021 and was the highest-rated sporting event of the weekend by quite a bit.
Saturday’s Bennett Transportation & Logistics 250 for the Xfinity Series had a .7 rating with 1.31 million viewers. This is flat ratings-wise, but up by 120,000 viewers over last year. My guess is that the rating is up as well, but the only site with Nielsen ratings for the race is Sports Media Watch and they only show tenths of a ratings point above a .6 rating.
The viewership was the most for a Xfinity Series race at Atlanta since 2017, when the race earned a .93 rating with 1.46 million viewers on FOX Sports 1. The race was also the second-most watched sporting event on broadcast television on Saturday, outrating college basketball games, the NHL on ABC, the PGA Tour on NBC and more.
Adding in college basketball games on ESPN’s channels, the race was the sixth most-watched sporting event of all for the day. The only over-the-air sporting event that outrated the race was the Los Angeles Lakers-Denver Nuggets game on ABC Saturday night.
On the other hand, FS1’s coverage of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Fr8 208 earned a .40 rating with 675,000 viewers. This is down .14 of a ratings point from last year’s .54 rating. Viewership is down 239,000 (26.1%) from last year.
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.