This weekend will be quite busy for racing. NASCAR will be in action, along with IndyCar, Formula 1, the ARCA Menards Series, ARCA Menards Series West, IMSA and the FIA World Endurance Championship.
NASCAR Michigan TV Schedule
- ARCA Menards Series Henry Ford Health 200: 5 p.m. ET Friday on FS1
- NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Practice: 9:30 a.m. ET Saturday on FOX One
- NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Qualifying: 10:35 a.m. ET Saturday on FOX One
- NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series DQS Solutions & Staffing 250: 1:30 p.m. ET Saturday on FS1
- NASCAR Cup Series Practice: 5 p.m. ET Saturday on Sports on Prime YouTube and Prime Video
- NASCAR Cup Series Qualifying: 6:10 p.m. ET Saturday on Prime Video
- ARCA Menards Series West NAPA Auto Care 150 Greg Biffle Memorial: 10:45 p.m. ET on FLORacing
- NASCAR Cup Series FireKeepers Casino 400: 3 p.m. ET Sunday on Prime Video
This weekend, NASCAR will make its one and only visit to Michigan International Speedway. While we won’t see anyone average 206 mph around the D-shaped oval, it’ll still be pretty fast.
Cup Series teams are scheduled to roll into the garage Saturday morning and have most of the day to work. Practice is scheduled for 5 p.m. ET Saturday with live coverage on the Sports on Prime YouTube channel and Prime Video. Qualifying will be at 6:10 p.m. ET and be exclusive to Prime Video.
Coverage of the FireKeepers Casino 400 will begin with NASCAR Live Pre-Race at 2 p.m. ET Sunday on Prime Video. Race coverage will start at 3 p.m. ET with the green flag around 3:15 p.m. ET.
Primary support for Cup this weekend will be the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. Those teams will work all day Friday in the garage, but will not have on-track activity.
Practice is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. ET Saturday morning. Coverage will be exclusive to FOX One, FOX’s new streaming service. Qualifying will air on there at 10:35 a.m. ET. Unfortunately, the service (in my opinion) is nowhere near as good as nearly all of the other services out there. The vast majority of FOX One’s on-demand content can be found on better streaming services such as Hulu.
That said, if you already subscribe to a pay TV service, you may be able to get free access through them (example: I can get it through Spectrum). They have free trials, but they only last three days as opposed to Prime Video’s 30-day trials.
Coverage of the DQS Solutions & Staffing 250 will air live on FS1 starting at 1:30 p.m. ET Saturday afternoon. The green flag will fly around 1:50 p.m. ET.
In addition, Michigan is a traditional stop for the ARCA Menards Series (it used to be the primary support division for the June weekend). This year continues that tradition.
ARCA teams are scheduled to practice for an hour starting at 2 p.m. ET Friday. Qualifying will be a 20-minute open session starting shortly afterwards. Neither session will be televised.
Coverage of the Henry Ford Health 200 will begin at 5 p.m. ET Friday on FS2. The green flag should fly around 5:10 p.m. ET.
Out west, ARCA Menards Series West teams will be at Tri-City Speedway near Kennewick, Wash. for the NAPA Auto Care 150 Greg Biffle Memorial. Note that Biffle actually competed in this race last year on the quirky half-mile track.
Teams are allowed two optional one-hour practice sessions Friday starting at 10 p.m. ET and 11:15 p.m. ET. These are technically not official and more along the lines of test sessions.
The official practice is scheduled for 5:45 p.m. ET Saturday and will last an hour. Single-car qualifying will be at 7:45 p.m. ET. Neither session will be televised.
Coverage of the NAPA AutoCare 150 Greg Biffle Memorial will begin at 10:45 p.m. ET Saturday night on FLORacing. The green flag will fly around 11 p.m. ET.
What Will the Weather Be Like?
That’s been the big question over the past couple of weeks. This weekend still has some question marks.
Friday’s forecast is for partly cloudy skies and some humidity with a high around 86°. However, there is a chance of thunderstorms. Given the size of Michigan International Speedway, if a storm hits, it’s going to mess with the schedule knowing that the track does not have lights.
Saturday might be the wettest of the three days. The forecast is for mostly cloudy skies with some humidity and a chance of thunderstorms with a high around 81°. Everything mentioned above still stands. If the track gets soaked, it’s a two-hour stoppage to dry everything.
Sunday is the best of the three days with partly sunny skies and a high around 85°. Still going to be humid, but next to no chance of rain. If you’re going, stay hydrated.
TV Ratings Check — Nashville
Crikey. Rain delays do not help ratings. Unlike the Coca-Cola 600, the Cracker Barrel 400 started 80 minutes late and ended up well after midnight on a non-holiday weekend.
Sunday’s race earned a .79 rating with 1.655 million viewers. This is down 22% in ratings and 20% in viewership from last year, despite the good racing.
The NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series broadcast of the Sports Illustrated Resorts 250 earned a .63 rating with 1.125 million viewers Saturday night on The CW. This is up 12% over last year and continues a series of strong performances for the series. Of note, this was the only one of the three Nashville races to go off on time.
The ratings and viewership actually beat ABC for the night (they were airing repeats of The Rookie) and wasn’t far behind the Indiana Fever-Portland Fire WNBA game on CBS. As you can imagine, beating one of the Big Four is a rarity in the history of The CW.
Unfortunately, viewership and/or rating information for the rain-delayed NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Allegiance 200 is not available.
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.
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