For NASCAR teams, last weekend was a break in the action as all three of the National-level series were off. It was not a break for me since I spent the weekend at Road America, covering a controversial IMSA race. So controversial that the series still hasn’t released unofficial point standings five days after the race.
This week will see stock car racing return as four different series will be in action in two different places.
NASCAR TV Schedule — Iowa
- ARCA Menards Series/ARCA Menards Series JR & Co. 150: 7 p.m. ET Friday on FS1
- NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Practice: 11:30 a.m. ET Saturday on ESPN Unlimited
- NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Qualifying: 12:35 p.m. ET Saturday on ESPN Unlimited
- NASCAR Cup Series Practice: 2:05 p.m. ET Saturday on TruTV/HBO Max
- NASCAR Cup Series Qualifying: 3:10 p.m. ET Saturday on TruTV/HBO Max
- NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Hy-Vee Perks 250: 5 p.m. ET on The CW/ESPN Unlimited
- ARCA Menards Series West Portland 112: 8:45 p.m. ET Saturday on FLORacing
- NASCAR Cup Series Iowa Corn 350: 3:30 p.m. ET Sunday on USA Network
The NASCAR Cup Series will make its fourth visit to Iowa Speedway for 350 miles of action on the tricky seven-eighths of a mile D-shaped oval. Should be an interesting affair. Teams are scheduled to pull into the garage Friday afternoon, but there will be no on-track activity that day.
Practice is scheduled for 2:05 p.m. ET Saturday afternoon with live coverage beginning at 2 p.m. ET on TruTV and HBO Max. Qualifying will follow shortly afterwards. Note that this is the first race with 50 minutes of practice that was originally going to have the groups.
Coverage of the Iowa Corn 350 will begin with USA Sports Pre-Race at 3 p.m. ET Sunday on USA Network. Race coverage will begin at 3:30 p.m. ET with the green flag around 3:45 p.m. ET. There will be a USA Sports Post-Race show after the race.
Note that NASCAR is no longer considered to be a property of NBC Sports. As a result, the Countdown to Green branding for pre-race coverage is gone.
While yes, there will still be four races on NBC later this year, NASCAR is considered to be one of the primary sports properties of Versant, the spinoff company comprised mostly (for now) of NBCUniversal’s former linear cable networks. The NBC races will be USA Sports on NBC broadcasts, similar to when ABC Sports was killed off in favor of ESPN on ABC.
The NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series is also back from its break with changes of their own. Remember when The CW announced a streaming deal with ESPN earlier this year?
Well, it’s finally kicking in (officially, it started Tuesday with NXT), but not quite how I thought it would.
Teams are scheduled to practice Saturday morning at 11:30 a.m. ET. The session will be still be available on The CW app and website. However, it will also be available on ESPN Unlimited. Qualifying is scheduled for 12:35 p.m. ET. That may also be available on CW affiliates (as of this writing, it will air on The CW in Albany, New York).
This actually looks different than I thought it would. At the time the agreement was announced in April, I thought that it would be the end of streaming through The CW’s app and website. Not so. You don’t have to pay $30 a month to watch practice and qualifying.
Coverage of the Hy-Vee Perks 250 will begin with NASCAR Countdown Live at 4:30 p.m. ET Saturday on The CW and ESPN Unlimited. Race coverage will start at 5 p.m. ET with the green flag around 5:10 p.m. ET. The new deal will allow for live streaming of O’Reilly Auto Parts Series races for the first time since September of 2024, but unless you have a pay TV service that gives you a free subscription to ESPN Unlimited, you’ll have to pay in order to stream the races live.
The tertiary event in Iowa this weekend will be a combination event for the ARCA Menards Series and ARCA Menards Series East. Both series will have a one-day show Friday.
Teams are scheduled to practice for 45 minutes Friday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. ET. Qualifying will follow shortly afterwards at 4:30 p.m. ET. While the schedule doesn’t indicate this, a 20-minute window to qualify 30+ cars indicates that it will be done in groups. Neither session will be televised.
Coverage of the JR & Co. 150 will air live on FS1 at 7 p.m. ET Friday. The green should fly around 7:10 p.m. ET.
Meanwhile, ARCA Menards Series West teams will be on the undercard of the NTT IndyCar Series this weekend at Portland International Raceway. This will be a one-day show.
Teams are scheduled for 40 minutes of practice starting at 4:40 p.m. ET. Qualifying will be a 20-minute group session at 6:25 p.m. ET. Neither session will be televised.
Coverage of the Portland 112 will stream live on FLORacing starting at 8:45 p.m. ET Saturday. The green flag will fly around 9 p.m. ET.
What’s the Weather Looking Like?
Friday is shaping up to be a fairly humid day in Central Iowa. The forecast is for very warm and humid weather with a high around 87°. There is a decent chance of showers and thunderstorms.
Saturday will be the best day of the weekend. The forecast is for sunny skies with a high around 82°. There is currently no chance of rain.
Sunday’s forecast appears to be fairly similar to Friday. It’s going to be humid again with a chance of showers and thunderstorms with a high in the upper 80s.
In Portland for the Portland 112, the forecast for Saturday is pretty good. There will be sunny skies and low humidity with a high of 87°. Given the 6 p.m. PT start time, it will likely be a little cooler than that by the time the green flag flies.
TV Ratings Check — Indianapolis
TNT Sports’ broadcast of the Brickyard 400 presented by PPG earned a 1.34 rating with 2.384 million viewers. The Nielsen rating is actually up 8% from last year, but viewership is down 3%. As a result, this was the worst-ever viewership for the Brickyard 400.
It also means that Indianapolis was not the highest-rated TNT Cup race. That honor goes to North Wilkesboro.
How did TNT do with the Cup Series this year? That depends on how you look at it.
These days, Nielsen ratings for sports have been moving toward Big Data + Panel numbers. However, NASCAR is an outlier here in that the Big Data numbers actually show lower viewership for everything outside of the Prime Video races.
SportsMediaWatch is reporting that the two methodologies actually result in two different answers for TNT’s 2026 performance. Big Data + Panel number indicate a drop of nearly 5% in viewership from last year. Meanwhile, the panel-only numbers that NASCAR reports show a 4% increase.
The O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Pennzoil 250 had an audience of 1.25 million viewers on The CW. This is up 12.8% from last year and is the most watched Indianapolis race for the series since 2022.
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series TSport 200 at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park on July 24 earned a .23 rating with 416,000 viewers. This is up 21% in ratings and 20.5% in viewership from last year’s race, which had a .19 rating with 345,000 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.