We’ve made it to Championship Weekend. By Sunday night, we’ll know who will be the champion in each of NASCAR’s National-level Series. Afterwards, the offseason will begin. For some, they’re looking forward to it. Others are not.
NASCAR Phoenix TV Schedule
- NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Craftsman 150 Qualifying: 3:35 p.m. ET Friday on FS2
- NASCAR Xfinity Series Xfinity 200 Practice: 4:35 p.m. ET Friday on The CW App
- NASCAR Cup Series Season Finale 500k Practice: 5:35 p.m. ET on TruTV/HBO Max
- NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Craftsman 150: 7:30 p.m. ET Friday on FS1
- ARCA Menards Series West Desert Diamond West Valley Casino 100: 1:15 p.m. ET Saturday on FLORacing
- NASCAR Xfinity Series Xfinity 200 Qualifying: 3:30 p.m. ET Saturday on The CW App
- NASCAR Cup Series Season Finale 500k Qualifying: 5:05 p.m. ET Saturday on TruTV/HBO Max
- NASCAR Xfinity Series Xfinity 200: 7:30 p.m. ET Saturday on The CW
- NASCAR Cup Series Season Finale 500k: 2 p.m. ET Sunday on NBC
Before we get started, remember that daylight savings time will end in most of the United States this weekend. Normally, that just means that you fall back an hour at 2 a.m. ET Sunday morning. However, Arizona isn’t like most states.
The vast majority of Arizona does not observe daylight savings. Instead, the state mostly observes Mountain Standard Time for the full year. Places such as reservations are exceptions to the rule.
What does that mean for people that live outside of Arizona? For most of the year, Arizona is effectively in the Pacific time zone. However, once daylight savings ends, the rest of the Mountain time zone joins them. On Sunday, Phoenix will be two hours behind Eastern time instead of three.
As previously stated, Phoenix Raceway will serve as the host for Championship Weekend for the sixth straight year. It will be a busy time with four different series in action.
NASCAR Cup Series teams are scheduled to enter the property Friday morning for what amounts to a traditional three-day race weekend. We should have more of those.
There is one practice session scheduled for Friday at 5:30 p.m. ET. The session will air live on TruTV and on HBO Max. Qualifying is scheduled for 5 p.m. ET Saturday.
Coverage of the Season Finale 500k will begin with a one-hour edition of Countdown to Green at 2 p.m. ET Sunday on NBC. Race coverage will start at 3 p.m. ET with the green flag around 3:10 p.m. ET.
The NASCAR Xfinity Series will finish its season on Saturday with the final event for Xfinity as the title sponsor for the secondary series. Remember that O’Reilly Auto Parts will take over as the entitlement sponsor in 2026.
Teams will have a 50-minute practice session Friday starting at 4:30 p.m. ET. The session will be streamed live on The CW App and on The CW’s website. Some affiliates may choose to air the session on their linear station, but check your local listings to see if they’re doing that.
Qualifying is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET Saturday afternoon with coverage on The CW App and website. This will be a stream-exclusive broadcast as The CW will be airing the Louisville-Virginia Tech college football game at that time.
Coverage of the Xfinity 200 will begin with a one-hour edition of NASCAR Countdown Live at 6:30 p.m. ET on The CW. Race coverage will start at 7:30 p.m. ET with the green flag around 7:40 p.m. ET. Note that if the Louisville-Virginia Tech game goes long, the start of NASCAR Countdown Live could get moved to NewsNation.
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series has already started its weekend in Phoenix. Following Championship 4 Media Day, teams had a 50-minute practice session Thursday at 7:35 p.m. ET. That was not televised.
Qualifying for the trucks is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. ET Friday with live coverage on FS2.
Coverage of the Craftsman 150 will begin at 7:30 p.m. ET Friday night on FS1. The green flag will fall around 7:45 p.m. ET.
Finally, ARCA Menards Series West will decide its champion this weekend as well. Teams are scheduled to practice for 45 minutes at 2 p.m. ET Friday with qualifying immediately afterwards. Neither session will be televised.
Coverage of the Desert Diamond West Valley Casino 100 will begin at 1:15 p.m. ET Saturday afternoon on FLORacing. The green flag will fall around 1:30 p.m. ET.
What’s The Weather Looking Like for NASCAR Championship Weekend?
Phoenix Raceway is in the Sonoran Desert. Typically, that means that’s it’s going to be dry. That has not necessarily been the case over the years.
There have been two occasions in which the fall race at Phoenix has been rain-shortened. The first of which was in 1998, when Rusty Wallace won. The other was in 2015, when Dale Earnhardt Jr. earned his final Cup victory.
Outside of those years, it’s generally been sunny and fairly warm. The main issue has been sun glare. With the large grandstands on the western end of the track these days, it isn’t as bad as it once was. It was really bad the first few years that the Cup Series raced there. Check out the 1990 Checker 500 for an example of the bad glare.
For this weekend, all three days are going to be about the same. There will be sunny, nearly cloudless skies. Highs will be around 90° all three days with minimal wind. If you’re going, grab the sunscreen, sunglasses and fluids.
TV Ratings Check — Martinsville
It actually took quite a long time for ratings to be made available for the Xfinity 500 as no indication was given until Thursday afternoon. We don’t have a Nielsen rating at the moment, but Sunday’s race attracted 2.35 million viewers to NBC, which was down 6% from last year’s audience of 2.5 million.
Saturday night’s Xfinity Series IAA and Ritchie Bros. 250 had a .47 rating with 723,000 viewers on The CW. Unfortunately, we don’t have any viewership information from last year with which to compare these numbers.
Friday night’s Slim Jim 200 for the Craftsman Truck Series earned a .20 rating with 362,000 viewers. That is down 16% in ratings and 21% in viewership from last year’s race, which had a .24 rating with 462,000 viewers.
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the Frontstretch email 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 Frontstretch 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.