Memorial Day weekend is one of the best weekends of the year for race fans. This weekend, you have NASCAR in Charlotte, the Indianapolis 500, Formula 1 in Monaco, motoGP at Silverstone and more. There’s basically something for everyone, though we’re focused here on the NASCAR TV schedule this weekend.
NASCAR Charlotte TV Schedule
- NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Practice: 3:35 p.m. ET Friday on FS2
- NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Qualifying: 4:40 p.m. ET Friday on FS2
- ARCA Menards Series General Tire 150: 6 p.m. ET Friday on FS1
- NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series North Carolina Education Lottery 200: 8:30 p.m. ET on FS1
- NASCAR Xfinity Series Practice: 11 a.m. ET Saturday on The CW App
- NASCAR Xfinity Series Qualifying: 12:10 p.m. ET Saturday on The CW App
- NASCAR Cup Series Practice: 1:30 p.m. ET Saturday on Amazon Prime Video
- NASCAR Cup Series Qualifying: 2:40 p.m. ET Saturday on Amazon Prime Video
- NASCAR Xfinity Series BetMGM 300: 4:30 p.m. ET Saturday on The CW
- NASCAR Cup Series Coca-Cola 600: 6 p.m. ET Sunday on Amazon Prime Video
In the world of NASCAR, this weekend is effectively a home game for most teams. Charlotte Motor Speedway is located within 90 minutes of the vast majority of the race shops for the teams. In the case of Hendrick Motorsports, it’s borderline walking distance if they had a back entrance to their property.
Charlotte’s race weekend is a quadruple-header with plenty of on-track activity to keep fans occupied. Of course, the NASCAR Cup Series will be the headliner.
For Cup teams, this weekend marks the first full race weekend that will air on Amazon Prime Video. Practice and qualifying have been on there since Atlanta in February, but this will be the first of its five-race package of races.
Practice is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. ET Saturday afternoon. Qualifying will follow shortly afterwards.
Coverage of the Coca-Cola 600 will begin with pre-race coverage at 5 p.m. ET. Race coverage will begin at 6 p.m. ET with the green flag around 6:15 p.m. ET.
On the undercard this week is the NASCAR Xfinity Series, back in action after two weeks off. They will only be on-track Saturday, while inspection will go on Friday.
Practice is scheduled for 11:05 a.m. ET Saturday morning. Coverage will begin at 11 a.m. ET on The CW App and on The CW’s website. Qualifying will follow shortly afterwards. Some CW affiliates may choose to air these sessions live. Check your local listings to see if your affiliate is doing so.
Coverage of the BetMGM 300 will begin with NASCAR Countdown Live at 3:30 p.m. ET on The CW. Race coverage will start at 4:30 p.m. ET with the green flag around 4:40 p.m. ET.
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series will anchor Friday’s action at CMS as part of a one-day show. It will be a long day for everyone involved.
On-track activities for Truck teams will begin with practice at 3:35 p.m. ET. Coverage of the session will air live beginning at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 2. Qualifying will follow shortly afterwards.
Coverage of the North Carolina Education Lottery 200 will begin at 8:30 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1. The green flag will fall around 8:45 p.m. ET.
Prior to Truck action, the ARCA Menards Series will also be on the undercard as the quaternary series on the card.
ARCA teams have a 45-minute practice session starting at 1:30 p.m. ET. Qualifying follows shortly afterwards. Neither session will be televised.
Coverage of the General Tire 150 will air live on FS1 starting at 6 p.m. ET. The green flag will fall around 6:10 p.m. ET.
What’s the Weather Looking Like?
For Friday, the weather looks great. The forecast is for sunny skies and a high around 78° with no chance of rain. Since the Truck race will start around 8:45 p.m. ET, it’ll be in the upper 60s to low 70s by that time.
Saturday is pretty similar to Friday. You’ll have partly cloudy skies with high temperatures around 78°. The late afternoon start for the BetMGM 300 will mean that it will get cooler as the race continues on.
Sunday is probably the worst of the three days, but it’s likely to still be decent. Forecasts call for a high around 80° with a 30% chance of scattered showers. The chances will increase as the night continues. All three days will not be humid, so it will be comfortable if you make the trip for the race.
TV Ratings — North Wilkesboro
Sunday night’s broadcast of the NASCAR All-Star Race earned a 1.06 rating with 1.965 million viewers. This rating was down significantly from 2024, 23.6% in viewership and 24.2% in ratings. Last year’s race earned a 1.4 rating with 2.573 million viewers.
Why did the viewership drop for an event that was quite a bit better than last year’s race? The NASCAR All-Star Open can provide some clues.
While a Nielsen rating for the Open isn’t available, that race drew an audience of 1.428 million viewers. This is actually up almost 10% over last year. However, a number of people may not have liked what they saw in that 100-lap race and chose not to stick around.
Viewership information for Saturday’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Window World 250 is currently 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.