This weekend will be a busy one for race fans. The main show in the United States will be at Phoenix Raceway, where the NASCAR Cup Series will headline. It will be supported by the NTT IndyCar Series in a rare unification weekend.
Meanwhile, the Formula 1 World Championship starts off at Albert Park in Melbourne, Australia. It will be the first race in the United States to air on Apple TV.
Also, note that daylight savings time begins this weekend in most of the United States. If your clocks have to be manually adjusted these days, make sure that you take care of that before you go to bed Saturday night.
Much of Arizona, where NASCAR and IndyCar are this weekend, is the exception to that rule. They stay in Mountain standard time for the full year. That will mean that they will start the weekend two hours behind Eastern time, but end it three hours behind.
NASCAR, IndyCar Times, Channels for Phoenix
- ARCA Menards Series/ARCA Menards Series West General Tire 150: 6 p.m. ET Thursday on FS1
- NTT IndyCar Series Practice No. 1: 10 a.m. ET Friday on FS2
- NTT IndyCar Series Qualifying: 2 p.m. ET Friday on FS2
- NTT IndyCar Series Practice No. 2: 5:10 p.m. ET Friday on FS2
- NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Practice: 7 p.m. ET Friday on The CW App
- NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Qualifying: 8:05 p.m. ET Friday on The CW App
- NASCAR Cup Series Practice: Noon ET Saturday on Prime Video
- NASCAR Cup Series Qualifying: 1:10 p.m. ET Saturday on Prime Video
- NTT IndyCar Series Good Ranchers 250: 3 p.m. ET Saturday on FOX
- NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series GOVX 200: 7:30 p.m. ET Saturday on The CW
- NASCAR Cup Series Straight Talk Wireless 500k: 3:30 p.m. ET Sunday on FS1
This weekend is a busy one as Phoenix Raceway will host a quadruple-header of racing. The NASCAR Cup Series will be the headlining division.
Cup teams will load into the garage Friday morning and work all day. Practice is scheduled for Saturday at noon ET on Prime Video. Qualifying will follow shortly afterwards.
Coverage of the Straight Talk Wireless 500k will begin with NASCAR RaceDay at 3 p.m. ET on FS1, the first Cup points race on there this year. Race coverage will begin at 3:30 p.m. with the green flag around 3:45 p.m. ET.
The co-headliner this weekend is the NTT IndyCar Series, fresh off of its season opener in St. Petersburg. Those teams will start their weekend bright and early with a practice session at 10 a.m. ET Friday with live coverage on FS2.
Qualifying is scheduled for 2 p.m. ET Friday on FS2. That will be quickly followed up by the final practice session, designed solely to expand the racing groove.
Coverage of the Good Ranchers 250 will begin at 3 p.m. ET Saturday on FOX. The green flag is scheduled to fall at 3:20 p.m. ET.
The NTT IndyCar Series will share top billing Saturday with the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series. Those teams are scheduled to practice at 7 p.m. ET Friday on The CW App and website. Qualifying will begin shortly afterwards. Some CW affiliates may choose to air the sessions as well, but please check your local listings.
Coverage of the GOVX 200 will begin with NASCAR Countdown Live at 6:30 p.m. ET Saturday on The CW. Race coverage starts at 7:30 p.m. ET and the green flag will fly around 7:40 p.m. ET.
Finally, the addition of the NTT IndyCar Series to the program has changed the schedule for ARCA. Instead of racing Friday, those teams now race Thursday.
ARCA Menards Series and ARCA Menards Series West teams are scheduled to practice for 45 minutes at 3:30 p.m. ET today. Qualifying will follow afterwards. Neither session will be televised.
Coverage of the General Tire 150 will air live on FS1 starting at 6 p.m. ET today. The green flag will fly around 6:10 p.m. ET
Take a Look Back at the Week’s Biggest NASCAR Stories
- Former NASCAR Driver Chase Pistone Dead at 42
- Nitro Motorsports Files Lawsuit Against Leland Honeyman
- Ken Schrader’s Candid Recollection of Dale Earnhardt’s Fatal Wreck
- What To Make of the Latest Chris Gabehart vs. JGR Developments
- Myatt Snider Joins Hendrick Sub Drivers Who Saved (& Torpedoed) Their Careers
What’s the Weather Looking Like?
The forecast is looking great for this weekend. Today’s forecast is for sunny skies and a high around 80°.
Friday is going to be a little cooler. Sunny skies with a high of 74°. It’ll be perfect during the afternoon, but a bit chilly in the morning. If you’re going out really early, bring a sweater since the IndyCar practice session will likely have really cool weather.
Saturday’s forecast calls for partly cloudy skies and a high of 81°. Sunday will be the cloudiest day of the weekend, but also the warmest with a high around 84°. There is effectively no chance of rain for the whole weekend and winds will be light.
TV Ratings Update — Austin/St. Petersburg
Sunday’s broadcast of the NASCAR Cup Series DuraMAX Texas Grand Prix earned a 2.06 rating with 3.933 million viewers on FOX. This is down 4% in ratings and 5% in viewership from last year’s race (2.15 rating with 4.132 million viewers). SportsBusinessJournal’s Adam Stern noted a very legitimate cause for the decline.
Saturday’s broadcast of the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Focused Health 250k had 1.072 million viewers on The CW. This is down by 4.3% over last year. However, the same rules apply with coverage of the Iran bombings boosting cable news viewership significantly. A decent chunk of that viewership would likely have otherwise watched the race.
Saturday’s broadcast of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series OnlyBulls Green Flag 150 had 1.039 million viewers on FOX. There is no comparison here since this was an inaugural race. This is more than three times the audience for the third race of 2025, which was at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and had 324,000 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.