This month’s season finale Cup Series race at Phoenix Raceway was among the uptick in sellouts this season.getty images
NASCAR had several business wins to point to in its 75th season, as a steady leadership team further revitalized the sport, but it still faces questions after a season with lower ratings and unfinished cornerstone agreements.
The NASCAR Cup Series finished its 36-race 2023 campaign with an average of 2.86 million viewers per event, down 5% from 3.03 million viewers last year, as Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney won the championship.
NASCAR won’t release specific attendance figures, but said it sold out 50% more races in 2023 than 2022, including selling out its November championship race at Phoenix Raceway by mid-summer. The Daytona 500 was sold out for an eighth straight year and is on track to be sold out again in 2024.
In recent years, NASCAR has been increasingly aggressive in areas like schedule innovation and marketing while trying to have a back-to-basics ethos in things like executive leadership, on-track product and fan experience. This past season, that resulted in the first street race for one of NASCAR’s national series, a bold move in downtown Chicago on Fourth of July weekend that produced the most-watched NASCAR race on an NBC Sports channel in six years.
Despite some positive momentum, multiple challenges await during the offseason. Here are some of the key items on the sport’s to-do list:
Seek sponsorship wins
NASCAR continues to see some attrition with consumer sponsorship. Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest pork producer, is the latest, saying it was ending a longtime run in NASCAR after 2023 because its driver Aric Almirola was retiring from full-time competition.
“I loved what I heard from [NASCAR President] Steve Phelps and [COO] Steve O’Donnell [at the state of the sport press conference] … because they spent so much time taking ownership of the fact that we have to get back to taking care of fans,” said Jim Richards, president and CEO of The Market Share Group, which represents sponsors in NASCAR like Reser’s Fine Foods. “If we can get back to talking about the fans, I think consumer brands will come back … [but] we should be concerned that Smithfield is not coming back, that M&M’s didn’t come back [in 2022]. That’s telling in some ways and I think everyone needs to put some effort around addressing it.”
NASCAR’s premier partners are Coca-Cola, Geico, Xfinity and Busch Beer. While the exact end of their terms is unclear, industry executives are keeping an eye on the future of the deals. For example, Xfinity also title sponsors NASCAR’s secondary series, now called the Xfinity Series, but it could seek to move on after 2024 and focus on other areas of the sport to market against.
More star power, storytelling
In that same press conference, Phelps and O’Donnell touched on the need to drive not only greater star power but also better storytelling of NASCAR. For example, Hendrick Motorsports driver Kyle Larson’s preferred line on the track involves flinging his car inches from the wall for hours on end. O’Donnell wondered if NASCAR and its partners have done a good enough job telling that story to impress fans about what they’re seeing.
“If Kyle Larson gets out here on Sunday and is able to hit a spot that’s an inch wide on a racetrack, lap after lap, that’s hard,” O’Donnell said. “Showcasing that, why he’s so talented, why he’s different from other drivers, is going to be really important for us going forward.”
More schedule moves
This year’s Chicago street race was the latest move by NASCAR to shake up its schedule in recent years. NASCAR tried to add a race in Montreal for the 2024 schedule for what would have been only its second Cup Series race in Canada, but negotiations fell through. Instead, the sport will go to Iowa next year for the first time for its premier series. NASCAR is reviewing other international options for 2025, though Montreal could remain in play.
Next media rights deal
NASCAR’s 10-year media rights deal with Fox Sports and NBC Sports has an annual average value of $820 million and ends after the 2024 season. All eyes will be on NASCAR’s next media rights agreements, which industry executives hope will top $1 billion in average annual value.
Fox Sports CEO Lachlan Murdoch has indicated a renewal with his company is being finalized, and NBC Sports is also expected to retain a package. NASCAR is seeking a streaming partner for several races it has carved out for a new digital package. Amazon’s Prime Video and Turner Sports are said to be in the running for that package, and it’s possible they could both end up with a slice.
“Our media rights, the amount of interest in attaining our media rights for ’25 and beyond exceeded our expectations,” said Phelps at the state of the sport press conference. “Are we getting towards the end of this process? We are. Did I think we would have a result earlier? I did. But we haven’t. It’s an incredibly competitive marketplace.”
Team charter agreement
While teams must wait until NASCAR finishes its media rights agreements before charter negotiations proceed, there’s already been a sense in recent weeks that some teams are feeling encouraged about the prospects of a deal.
NASCAR met with teams the week before the championship finale in early November and attempted to assuage concerns over its offer, giving clarity on certain key points such as how new funds will be allocated, even while NASCAR won’t finalize terms until it finishes its media rights negotiations. Still to be determined is whether team charters will become permanent.
It’s possible the sides could end up with a middle-ground solution, such as renewing the charter system for a longer period of time than the next TV rights deal but without the charters being added in perpetuity to NASCAR’s governing system.
