This week, the Round of 12 gets underway for the NASCAR Cup Series in New England. Meanwhile, Formula 1 makes its annual trip to Azerbaijan and IMSA invades the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It’s a home game for some of the teams, but not for others.
NASCAR New Hampshire TV Schedule
- NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Practice: 4:05 p.m. ET Friday on FS2
- NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Qualifying: 5:10 p.m. ET Friday on FS2
- NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Team EJP 175: Noon ET Saturday on FS1
- NASCAR Cup Series Practice: 3 p.m. ET Saturday on TruTV/HBO Max
- NASCAR Cup Series Qualifying: 4:10 p.m. ET Saturday on TruTV/HBO Max
- ARCA Menards Series Kentuckiana Ford Dealers ARCA 200: 8 p.m. ET Saturday on FS2
- NASCAR Cup Series Mobil 1 301: 2 p.m. ET Sunday on USA Network
This weekend, the NASCAR Cup Series will begin the Round of 12 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. It is the series’ first visit to the 1.058-mile oval in the fall since the track was cut down from two races to one after the 2017 season.
Friday is scheduled to be very light as teams will parade their haulers in Loudon, then load into the garage. Saturday is a full work day with inspection, practice and qualifying.
Practice is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. ET Saturday afternoon and will air live on TruTV and HBO Max. Qualifying will follow at 4 p.m. ET.
Coverage of the Mobil 1 301 will begin with Countdown to Green at 1:30 p.m. ET Sunday afternoon on USA Network. Race coverage will begin at 2 p.m. ET with the green flag around 2:05 p.m. ET.
Primary support for the Cup Series will be the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, which will make its first visit to the flat oval since 2017. Teams will have a two-day in New Hampshire since very few of the drivers have ever raced at NHMS.
There will be a 50-minute practice session at 3:10 p.m. ET Friday afternoon for drivers to acclimatize themselves to the surroundings. Coverage will begin at 3 p.m. ET on FS2. Qualifying will be held starting at 4:10 p.m. ET.
Coverage of the Team EJP 175 will begin at noon ET Saturday afternoon on FS1. The green flag should fall around 12:15 p.m. ET. For those of you looking for the Whelen Modified Tour event, get there bright and early since that race has a 9:15 a.m. ET green flag and will stream on FLORacing.com starting at 9 a.m. ET.
ARCA Menards Series will travel to Southern Indiana this weekend to an old standby, Salem Speedway. The classic ARCA venue will host the series for the 110th time.
Teams will have a 45-minute practice session starting at 3:45 p.m. ET. Qualifying will be held at 5:15 p.m. ET. Neither session will be televised.
Coverage of the Kentuckiana Ford Dealers ARCA 200 will begin at 8 p.m. ET on FS2. The green flag is scheduled to fly at 8:10 p.m. ET.
TV Ratings Check — Bristol
In recent years, the Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol has been the lowest-rated race of the year, the result of airing in September during football season. This year, it will not be the lowest-rated, but the results are still bad.
The Bass Pro Shops Night Race earned a .79 rating with 1.536 million viewers Saturday night. This is down 19% from last year when the race earned a .98 rating with 1.898 million viewers. Despite that, it was still the fourth-highest rated broadcast in prime-time Saturday night.
Unfortunately, the race was up against two football games Saturday night. The Florida-LSU game on ABC had 7.028 million viewers while the Notre Dame-Texas A&M game on NBC had 5.149 million.
Friday night’s broadcast of the NASCAR Xfinity Series Food City 300 earned a .45 rating with 767,000 viewers. This is down 13.4% in rating and 15.4% in viewership from last year’s race. That event was the first-ever NASCAR race to air on The CW.
Thursday night’s UNOH 250 presented by Ohio Logistics for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series earned a .16 rating with 276,000 viewers. This is down 5.9% in ratings and 4.5% in viewership over last year’s race, which earned a .17 rating with 289,000 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.