This weekend is the wild card. Basically, the last thing that should happen in a playoff scenario is what we have this weekend. Outside of NASCAR, Formula 1 makes its annual visit to Circuit of the Americas in Texas. Finally, SRO America wraps up its 2025 season with the Indianapolis 8 Hour at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
NASCAR Talladega TV Schedule
- NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Qualifying: 12:30 p.m. ET Friday on FS2
- NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Love’s RV Stop 225: 4 p.m. ET Friday on FOX
- NASCAR Xfinity Series Qualifying: 11:30 a.m. ET Saturday on The CW App
- NASCAR Cup Series Qualifying: 1:30 p.m. ET Saturday on TruTV/HBO Max
- NASCAR Xfinity Series United Rentals 250: 4 p.m. ET Saturday on The CW
- NASCAR Cup Series YellaWood 500: 2 p.m. ET Sunday on NBC/Peacock
That’s right. This weekend, NASCAR will descend upon Talladega Superspeedway for its second visit of the year. This time, spots in the Championship 4 will be on the line in all three of NASCAR’s National Series.
As is the norm for superspeedway races, there will be no practice. It’s not a good idea, but one that is designed to basically save the teams from themselves.
NASCAR Cup Series teams are scheduled to pull into the garage Friday morning. The only on-track activity before the race is qualifying, which will air live on TruTV and HBO Max at 1:30 p.m. ET Saturday afternoon.
Coverage of the YellaWood 500 will begin with Countdown to Green at 1:30 p.m. ET Sunday afternoon on NBC and Peacock. Race coverage will start at 2 p.m. ET with the green flag around 2:10 p.m. ET.
The NASCAR Xfinity Series is back for another Talladega race. Those teams are scheduled to load into the garage at sunrise Friday. Qualifying is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. ET Saturday morning and will air on The CW App and The CW’s website. Some affiliates may also air the session, but make sure to check your local listings.
Coverage of the United Rentals 250 will begin with NASCAR Countdown Live at 3:30 p.m. ET on The CW. Race coverage will start at 4 p.m. ET with the green flag around 4:10 p.m. ET.
Finally, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is back for its 20th visit to Talladega. Teams arrived Thursday morning and have already had a full day of work in the garage.
Qualifying is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. ET Friday afternoon. The session will air live on FS2.
Coverage of the Love’s RV Stop 225 will air live at 4 p.m. ET Friday on FOX. Given the time of the day, check your local listings to see if your affiliate is airing the race. If they are not, FOXSports.com will still provide the broadcast if your local affiliate does not have an alternate location to air the race. The green flag should fly around 4:20 p.m. ET.
What’s the Weather Look Like?
Talladega Superspeedway is not the place to be if it rains. Almost any interruption due to weather can be a long stop down. Take it from someone who’s experienced such delays in person. It’s not fun.
I’ve covered three races at Talladega for Frontstretch. Two of them (2019 and 2021) got delayed to Monday due to rain. The 2019 race might be best remembered for Brendan Gaughan’s flip and Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s colorful description of the rear spoilers. 2021 saw Bubba Wallace earn his first win in a rain/lightning-shortened race (trust me when I tell you that it poured after NASCAR called the race).
Luckily for race fans, the track has a decent track record in avoiding rain issues. The 2021 YellaWood 500 is the only race at Talladega that was rain-shortened in this century. The last rain-shortened Talladega race prior to that was the 1996 DieHard 500, which ended up being delayed at the start long enough that it is the last Cup race to not air live on TV (CBS had to get to golf and didn’t have anywhere to move the race broadcast). That 1996 adventure was the impetus to move the summer race to the fall.
However, when events get postponed, it can cause a cascading issue. In 1997, the Winston 500 was washed out completely twice due to rain. That forced NASCAR to push the race to Mother’s Day weekend so that the teams could haul out to Sonoma. When they came back from California, they ran a caution-free race that still stands as the fastest race in the history of NASCAR at an average speed of 188.354 mph.
For this weekend, most of it looks good, but Sunday is a question mark. Friday’s forecast is for partly cloudy skies with a high of 86°. It’ll be a touch humid, but otherwise pretty good with no chance of rain.
Saturday’s forecast is somewhat dependent on your source. The temperature is pretty constant with a high around 85°. Some sources indicate sunny skies while others indicate more clouds.
Sunday is the tricky one, unfortunately. Temperatures will be cooler in the 70s. However, there is a high chance of rain. ABC 33/40’s James Spann is forecasting rain up until about noon CT Sunday. If that comes to pass, the race would likely start late.
However, there is also a chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon. If that comes to pass Sunday, we’re going to have problems.
TV Ratings Check — Las Vegas
Sunday’s broadcast of the NASCAR Cup Series South Point 400 earned a .84 rating with 1.717 million viewers. This is down significantly (30% in ratings and 23.1% in viewership) from last year’s broadcast, which earned a 1.2 rating with 2.23 million viewers. Then again, last year’s race aired on NBC while Sunday’s race, the final cable race of the year, aired on USA Network.
Saturday’s Focused Health 302 for the NASCAR Xfinity Series earned a .43 rating with 753,000 viewers. This is basically flat with last year’s broadcast, which had a .44 rating with 755,000 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.