The NASCAR Cup Series has reached new lows this season, with viewership stats plummeting on particular race days. For example, New Hampshire scraped 1.29 million, a 28% drop from 2024’s 1.88 million. Then the 1.87 million viewers of the Pocono event marked a 22% drop from the 2.4 million from last year. These numbers spurred waves of criticism in the garage and the community. Yet those waves did not reach NASCAR’s upper echelons.

NASCAR signed a lucrative media rights deal at the end of 2023, worth $7 billion. It collaborated with four partners – Fox Sports, NBC Sports, Amazon Prime, and TNT Sports – to broadcast the 2025 schedule. Despite ominous signs, the sport’s CEO is defending this eclectic media situation.

A stubbornly optimistic view

Before 2023, NASCAR had not signed a TV deal

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