It was announced this morning (April 11) that The CW, a television network founded in 2006, will be broadcasting the final eight races of the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series season instead of the originally planned NBC broadcast.
This comes following the announcement that the entire series will be broadcast by The CW in 2025. This was obviously some big news, and fans raised plenty of questions. Firstly, some are wondering what The CW even is.
The network itself was born out of a merger between The Warner Brothers Television Network and The United Paramount Network in 2006. The two entities had found some success with a few series, but ultimately lost billions. They decided to combine efforts, and the CW was born.
The mid-2010’s was a period of reinvention for The CW, as the network was becoming the hottest new kid on the block on the back of shows like The Flash. In short, the company was starting to make some real money. The CW entered the streaming era guns blazing, and to spare the nitty gritty, came out way ahead. Fast forward to 2022, and The CW was sold to Nexstar Media Group, the same company that more than likely owns one of your local news stations.
This purchase led to Nexstar wanting to expand the network past what it had been doing and into a focus on sports. The network began by attaining the rights to LIV Golf, followed by Atlantic Coast Conference football and basketball games, Inside the NFL, then the Xfinity Series before adding WWE’s NXT.
What does that mean for NASCAR and its fans, then? For now, not much outside of different channels to watch on. NBC Sports will still produce the Xfinity races, with Rick Allen, Steve Letarte and Jeff Burton as commentators. Practice and qualifying will be moving to USA and/or the NBC Sports App according to Fox Sports’ Bob Pockrass. However, it means much more than that from a long-term perspective.
The debate about NASCAR broadcasts has been hotly contested, even here on Frontstretch. Deciding between the two, quite frankly, is night and day and near impossible. It doesn’t make a difference since it has always had to be one or the other. Now, though, that same new kid on the block is bringing something else to the table.
If the brass at The CW have kept their listening ears on throughout the entire process (or even have a Twitter/X account for that matter), they should know very well what NASCAR fans want to see less or more of in their broadcasts, and now have…
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