NASCAR’s got a problem, and it’s not just the racing. The sport’s staring down a financial cliff, with TV viewership tanking and the whole business model hanging by a thread. In 2025, Cup Series races are pulling in just 2.52 million viewers on average, a 13% drop from 2024’s 2.916 million. Even the big dogs are hurting. New Hampshire’s playoff race scraped by with 1.29 million eyeballs, a brutal 28% slide from last year.

Fewer viewers mean less leverage when NASCAR sits down to hash out those big media rights deals, the lifeblood of purses and team budgets. With sponsorships already a tightrope walk, the sport is feeling the pinch like never before. Brad Keselowski, driver and co-owner of RFK Racing, isn’t mincing words; he dropped a six-word bombshell that sums it up: “Wholly reliant o

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