When you think about the activities surrounding a NASCAR racing weekend, there are some events that simply exist to make the ultimate attraction better.
While the races in the three national series are the highlights of the weekend, practice and qualifying are support pillars that prop up the final product. The seats in the stands are all but completely empty when practice and qualifying take place, especially when it is for the Truck and O’Reilly Auto Parts series. There may be a few people in the stands who are there because it is their first national event, or they are just that hardcore of a race fan.
Away from the track, there is a small group of fans who like to tune into the qualifying and practice sessions because they are that dedicated, but the number is minimal. And after the reports that surfaced on Wednesday (April 29), it is safe to say those numbers are about to shrink even more.
While it has been a big complaint for O’Reilly fans that races were unavailable on The CW app, they will now be available on ESPN Ultimate. The problem? Practice and qualifying sessions will now only be available on the ESPN platform, a partnership that begins this summer.
ESPN hasn’t had NASCAR content on its channels since 2014, so it is a pleasant thought there may be some movement toward the sport getting back onto the “Worldwide Leader.”
The question becomes: at what cost?
The modern world of a la carte programming and the massive quantity of streaming platforms, with their associated subscriptions, continues to drive the cost of watching sports much higher. All the while, the cost of living in general is becoming unbearable to quite a bit of the population.
For NFL fans, the costs have ballooned immensely during the last few years. The estimated cost to watch every NFL game in 2026 is over $1,000. While that is a luxury for many people, just watching your favorite team is becoming burdensome. Between streaming games, cable channels, NFL Network and Sunday Ticket, the price of fandom is no longer loyalty; it is now almost to the level of hedge fund investing.
This latest announcement from NASCAR is another punch to the gut that its loyal fanbase is going to have to endure if they want to support the future stars of the sport. The Cup Series is not only on over-the-air networks with FOX and NBC, but you have to watch races on USA, FS1 and TNT, which require cable subscriptions. And then there’s the shift to Amazon Prime, as well. The world of sports broadcasting has changed tremendously from the 1979 Daytona 500 until now.
It makes you wonder if it is for the better.
For those who have been around for the sport’s growth since that famous 500 almost 50 years ago, we have gone through the development of live broadcasts, in-car cameras, helmet cams, aerial photography and live telemetry. The sport was still becoming familiar to Americans when ESPN debuted in 1979, and then started broadcasting NASCAR to the masses in 1981.
As the 1980s transitioned into the 1990s, Bob Jenkins, Benny Parsons and Ned Jarrett educated all of us on the ins and outs of this sport that had already been around for 30 years. They guided the sport over the airwaves during the growth and then the explosion of its fanbase at the turn of the century.
That all came crashing down in 2001 when FOX, NBC and TNT wrested the broadcast rights away from ESPN and truly iced them out of the sport. While ESPN was riding that growth spurt, it was also becoming the biggest fleecer in television.
When cable first started, they provided over-the-air networks for free, and the networks were happy to have the exposure in all of the homes that were adopting the new technology.
But as the number of people watching TV grew, other channels were beginning to be paid by the cable companies. After a while, the TV networks wanted to get a slice of the pie, too. The government stepped in and forced the cable companies to pay a re-transmission fee to the over-the-air networks.
The fees are minimal in the grand scheme of things, but there is one 800-pound gorilla that cannot be ignored. The Bristol behemoth that originally was showing hours and hours of Australian Rules Football to fill airtime now holds these cable companies, and their subscribers, hostage with enormous rights fees. The monthly cost for ESPN to be in the lineup for your cable company is somewhere around $9.50 per person. Thinking about the millions of people who have cable, that number is rather mind-boggling and creates a large total profit for the network.
As technology has evolved and the world becomes a much smaller marketplace, streaming packages and bundles have become the new way to consume live sports. ESPN only had 1% growth in revenue last year, and that is why the “mothership” is introducing ESPN Ultimate this year. It will provide access to all of the ESPN lineup, along with the just announced CW coverage, Fox Sports and more. The standalone price for Ultimate is currently $29.99 a month for sports-related programming. If you want Disney+ and Hulu, it goes up to $44.99.
At some point, there’s going to be a shift in profits. Fans are going to say, “enough is enough.” It is going to come down to groceries versus streaming and in 2026? People are having trouble affording housing and food. Luxuries like sports viewing packages are going to simply price themselves out of most homes.
The question is going to come down to where NASCAR fans will fall. There is a decent chance that even with the wave of interest brought on by Cleetus “Garrett Mitchell “McFarland, Carson Hocevar, Connor Zilisch and other rising stars, decisions like this one are going to end up squashing that momentum.
The O’Reilly Series has been trying to forge its own identity of late, while leadership is floating balloons like electric SUVs being the vehicle of choice for the future. It is a bonus that fans will now be able to stream the races, which wasn’t an option on the current CW app, but hanging a price tag on it is just not a good choice.
NASCAR likes to promote that names are formed in the O’Reilly Series. Sadly, if they keep driving up the price on the loyal fans, the only thing that is going to be formed is a black hole where the fans used to sit. Hopefully, the folks in Daytona will actually start exerting some leverage on the people broadcasting the sport to look after the fans before the people in the seats end up with empty pockets and quit showing up.
What is it that Mike Neff doesn’t do? Mike announces several shows each year for the Good Guys Rod and Custom Association. He also pops up everywhere from PRN Pit Reporters and the Press Box with Alan Smothers to SIRIUS XM Radio. He has announced at tracks all over the Southeast, starting at Millbridge Speedway. He's also announced at East Lincoln Speedway, Concord Speedway, Tri-County Speedway, Caraway Speedway, and Charlotte Motor Speedway.
It was obvious from the start this is where things would go. People (understandably) wanted a way to pay less, and choose the programming they liked. But, it was always going to wind up with competing streaming services, and equal or even increased costs to get the same programming, or even less programming. These are businesses, and businesses tend to like money.
For me, I recently hit my breaking point. Not because I can’t afford it (I am lucky to have a modest but decent career, and have saved for the future over the years), but because the value proposition is no longer there. I’d rather enjoy that level of disposable income elsewhere. So, I’ll miss the few remaining Cup races on FS1, all the truck races, and all qualifying sessions. But I’ll have a lot of fun elsewhere with that time and cash.
Side note: Cleetus McFarland is not a rising star. Cleetus McFarland does not exist. Cleetus McFarland is a sideshow, nothing more. Possibly this is good for the sport, but let’s not get it twisted. Also, there’s a typo in the article…”Carson” Zilisch. Heads up in case someone wants to edit it.
It would be hilarious if “The Simpsons” decided to sponsor a car for Cleetus and put Sideshow Bob as the main character on it.
If I was a billionaire, this is the kind of stuff I’d do with all that extra money!
Love it. Even better, the Simpsons has a character named Cleetus, and he’s just about a match to the character Garrett Mitchell has created. That would be hilarious!!!
Maybe throw Sideshow Bob as the primary on Squirrel’s car, and an associate sponsor on Cleetus’s car.
i’m a senior who still works and commutes 48 miles round trip every day. needless to say the daily review of gas prices gives me heart burn knowing that my commute can be anywhere from 40 min to 3 hrs in lovely atlanta traffic. once it gets past $4/gal here in ga, i will take a hard look at those little luxuries in my life. with the product that is offered, adding on to my streaming/tv service will not happen. the product really isn’t worth the added expense, and typically i end up changing channel or snooze from being bored. the talladega weekend was different as you never really know who will be the last teams standing at the plate tracks from the mayhem. it will be odd not watching 600 miler at charlotte in may. last year i watched on my phone from my amazon account. nope not this year.
interestingly enough i use to attend ‘dega in person. i looked to see what the tickets now cost where i use to sit. $200!!! i shook my head when i saw that. and i bet you still don’t get napkins with your hotdog.
You made me curious, as I used to attend most Martinsville races. Looks like they’ve mostly kept tickets affordable by modern standards, around $100 for good seats. Good on them. Probably in line with what I recall, when one accounts for inflation. I do miss their hot dogs.
FYI, on the Amazon deal…if you have any streaming devices, most should have access to Prime Video apps, and you can sign in with your existing Prime account. Some cable boxes support this as well, though their ability to FF/RW/Pause may be limited. Last year at least, the Xfinity Prime app would only allow live viewing, but the Roku app allowed starting the race on a delay, as well as full control to time shift as I chose. I’ve kept Prime as it’s worth it to me for the shipping perks, etc.
thanks for the info.
Also, look at Youtube. I see at least the full OReilly race at Talladega is posted there. It might be a couple days post race before it’s up, but it’s better than nothing.
Thank you!
I watch on At&T cable still. Already had Amazon so no extra cost and for some reason my wife has a Peacock sub. I’m not adding anymore. Watched every F1 race last couple of seasons. I’m not getting Apple so they are dead to me.
I tend to now record each race and FF though a lot of the Cup race. Eventually I bet I will not even bother to watch. The races are just getting that dull. I would rather spend my time logged on to iRacing driving myself.