FOX’s Early Entry With NASCAR’s $7.7 Billion Deal Garners Resentment From Fans

Blurry last-lap pictures, missing driver names, and missed action scenes – seems like a jittery cameraman on a movie set, right? Well, FOX Sports made all these blunders during the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season. What is more, this continued into 2025. FOX missed crucial angles like Ty Gibbs going airborne in COTA or Brad Keselowski undergoing a cool-suit failure. So fans are not particularly happy – even with brighter ratings for Phoenix Raceway.

With NASCAR’s $7.7 billion media rights deal going live this season, fans cannot wait for the newcomers. So even while FOX rolls out its ratings for the first four races – bright stats compared to previous times or other sports – people aren’t convinced.

We all remember the loud waves of criticism that hit FOX last year. Despite the generally bad mood among fans due to missing race coverage, the media giant posted a good improvement. FOX wrapped up its operations for the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season with Sonoma.

It averaged 3.773 million viewers, up four percent from the previous season – this was excluding the rain-delayed Daytona 500. Similarly, the numbers are looking up again for 2025. The Daytona 500 got a 3.4 rating and 6.76 Million viewers – up 13%. Then Atlanta and COTA accrued 4.586 Million and 4.132 million viewers respectively.

The Shriner’s Children 400 at NASCAR’s Phoenix Raceway got the most hype, though. After Christopher Bell achieved his three-peat victory, FOX Sports 1 registered an 18% increase from FS1’s average of Cup telecasts in 2024.

Journalist Adam Stern updated the exact statistics on X: “@FS1 got a 1.43 rating and 2.82 million viewers for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Phoenix; there’s no direct comparison to last year as that event was on @FoxTV’s broadcast channel (4.028 million viewers).”

Christopher Bell put up a thrilling finish at Phoenix, fending off a hard-charging teammate in Denny Hamlin. The viewership peaked at 3.386 million viewers towards the end of the race, when Bell and Hamlin put up their historic two-lap battle. The race ranked as the most-watched Cup Series race since 2021. What is more, FOX even beat all cable television, with NASCAR’s race ranking as the top telecast.

However, what stands out in all of this is how early FS1 entered NASCAR this season. Journalist Cindy Yen pointed out on X: “For comparison the highest viewership on FS1 last year was 2.632mil for Spring Darlington (race #13)…The first race on FS1 last year was Martinsville (race #8) with 2.191mil, though that went up against college basketball.” Instead of relying on cable TV, NASCAR could have transitioned into its network partners sooner – like Amazon Prime and TNT.

Despite the big ratings, FOX’s reputation is still not so good in the community.

Fans are not so impressed

According to the 2023 media rights deal, NASCAR has distributed races among its various media partners in 2025. FOX Sports still holds claim over 12 races, NBC over 14, while Amazon and TNT will take over for five races each. This distribution is not in good favor with the fans, who want an end to FOX’s cable TV. Emphasizing this, one fan wrote: “It’s too bad very few Cup races will be seen on network television this year. Obviously only get half as many viewers on cable.” 

FS1 may have broken its cable TV records with 2.8 Million, but it does not hold a candle to network TV which saw 4.02 Million people. One fan harped on this point: “Uhhh that is a direct comparison showing over a million more people will watch the race if it’s not on cable tv 😂” So FOX’s new ratings are actually not so good – and opting to go for cable TV may be a mistake. That is only the latest addition to the media giant’s multiple blunders in NASCAR. It’s why this fan wrote: “Main reason why fox is TERRRRRRIBLE for the sport…They don’t do anything to benefit it at all.”

What is more, NASCAR’s reliance on cable TV does not match with modern times. Just look at the boost the NFL got by streaming its games online. The average weekly streaming numbers reached double digits when Amazon began broadcasting Thursday Night Football. Even then in NASCAR, while people were okay with cable, they were surprised that FS1 would host the season-opening races which draws the maximum hype. One fan wrote, “Putting the race on FS1 Is such a bad move.” 

Somebody else chimed with this sentiment, implying that times have changed. The younger or the older generation barely tune into cable anymore – which is why FS1’s viewership is actually lower than it appears. “As I stated so many times. I dislike the FS1 crap because we lose so many viewers.”

Evidently, FOX Sports’ bump in ratings is doing little to accrue interest from fans. With a fair portion of the Cup schedule left for the media partner, let us see how it appeals to fans.