NASCAR is in a prime position to close out its 2024 season on a high note as a boost in TV ratings during the playoffs has helped build momentum on and off the track heading into Sunday’s Cup Series Championship race in Phoenix.

After NASCAR’s penultimate race in Martinsville last weekend, Cup Series races this year have averaged 2.89 million viewers on Fox Sports and NBC Sports platforms. That’s up 2% compared to the same period in 2023, despite the sport’s biggest TV draw—the Daytona 500—taking a 27% ratings hit due to a one-day rain delay. Playoff races are averaging 2.26 million viewers, up 6% from last season.

After Sunday’s checkered flag, expect a busy NASCAR offseason as the sport gets ready for major changes in 2025, including:

• The formal launch of $7.7 billion media-rights deals with incumbent broadcasters Fox and NBC, as well as new partners Amazon Prime Video, TNT Sports, and The CW
• The debut of a bracket-style in-season tournament that will award the winning driver $1 million
• The first Cup Series race outside the U.S. in NASCAR’s modern history as the circuit hits Mexico City

International expansion is one of the sport’s biggest initiatives right now, NASCAR COO Steve O’Donnell told Front Office Sports in an interview this week. And Mexico may only be the first step.

“​​If we’re able to pull it off, we’d certainly like to be in both Canada and Mexico,” O’Donnell said. “I think North America deserves NASCAR racing on both sides of the border.”

Not Just Racetracks Anymore

Next season will be NASCAR’s third year racing in the streets of Chicago, and there’s no guarantee the Windy City’s expiring contract to host an event will be renewed. “Tough to say,” O’Donnell said when asked about remaining in Chicago. “I think what will be a permanent fixture is the idea of new venues.”

In 2025, NASCAR is moving its preseason exhibition, The Clash, out of the Los Angeles Coliseum after three years in favor of a track in Winston-Salem, N.C. “At some point, you look at things: Are they sustainable, year in, year out for the long term?” O’Donnell said of the decision.

He expects The Clash to keep moving around in the future but admits finding another football stadium to race in will be tough. “The initial idea was we were going to race at Soldier Field,” O’Donnell said of NASCAR eventually ending up at the L.A. Coliseum in 2022. The Bears’ stadium hosted NASCAR races in the 1950s.

“What we didn’t realize is they’ve turned that from what it used to be in the track to just a football field,” O’Donnell said. “So, there’s a limited number of facilities that have that kind of Olympic-sized track around it. You look in Europe, they certainly exist, but not many in the U.S.”

The MJ Dilemma 

On Sunday, a champion could be crowned whose team is suing NASCAR.

Tyler Reddick is among the four drivers eligible to win the title. His team, 23XI Racing, owned by Michael Jordan, is in a legal fight with NASCAR over the sport’s charter agreements. But despite the potential distraction, O’Donnell is looking at the positives.

“There’s no secret in terms of our position that we’re not publicly talking about lawsuits—we’re concentrating on what’s going on with the event,” he said. “And if you pivot to even what Michael Jordan said [Monday], he’s going to win a championship.”

Overall, Jordan’s “huge presence” is still a net positive for NASCAR, O’Donnell said. “He’s a fan, and we love that. I think we’re all fans of the sport, as well, and we share that in common. We share the enthusiasm going into the championship.”

Major League Baseball’s Cardinals are returning to Diamond Sports Group in a revised rights deal. However, the formal stance of the league in the attempted reorganization of the bankrupt regional sports network operator is still uncertain. 

The club and DSG announced a new, multiyear agreement that supersedes a prior pact that had been scheduled to run to 2032, and notably, includes direct-to-consumer streaming rights for the first time in that market for Cardinals games. 

Like what DSG is attempting to do with most of its other MLB rights deals, the reworked Cardinals pact includes a rights fee reduction, estimated in this case at more than 20%. But even as other teams such as the Brewers, Guardians, and Twins have chosen MLB’s in-house model for production and local games, the status quo was preferable for the Cardinals. Also helping fuel the reworked deal with DSG is the Cardinals’ position as an equity holder in the local FanDuel Sports Network Midwest.

“We valued the continuity of our fans staying on the same network as the Blues, and we are excited that we will now be able to expand access to our games,” said team president Bill DeWitt III. 

The Cardinals join the Braves and Marlins in DSG’s known baseball plans for next season. The local broadcast fate of the Angels, Rays, Reds, Royals, and Tigers is still uncertain as the situation continues. 

Deadline Looms

MLB, meanwhile, has yet to file a long-expected objection to DSG’s reorganization plan, and a deadline to do so was shifted for the second time this week. After a prior deadline of Tuesday was changed to Thursday, a subsequent filing again moved that timing, this time to Friday afternoon. 

While DSG struck revised rights deals with the NBA and NHL, shoring up its fall and winter sports programming, its relationship with MLB has been far more adversarial. For nearly two years, there has been steady rancor between the company and the league, and most recently, MLB pleaded with the court to get clarity on DSG’s full broadcast plans for 2025.

Formula One saw a slight revenue drop in Q3 based on an earnings report from its parent company, Liberty Media.

Primary F1 revenue dropped to $861 million from $887 million last year due to fewer media-rights and sponsorship fees, though this was more circumstantial as there were seven races this past quarter versus eight in the same quarter last year. There are 24 total races this year, the most ever for an F1 season, compared to 22 last season.

The Formula One Group, which includes Primary F1 as well as corporate and other revenue, was up to $911 million from $887 million last year. In October, the company secured a global sponsorship deal with luxury brand conglomerate LVMH starting in 2025, a 10-year deal that could be worth as much as $1 billion, according to Fortune. The partnership means that Rolex, the official timepiece of F1 since 2013, is expected to be replaced by TAG Heuer.

Liberty reported a net earnings loss of $3 billion coming from discontinuing operations of Liberty Sirius XM holdings following its split with SiriusXM on Sept. 9. Liberty also spun off MLB’s Braves in July 2023, which turned the franchise into a publicly traded entity. Their earnings were reported on Wednesday.

Plenty Still on the Line

With three races left in the 2024 calendar, the drivers’ championship is Red Bull driver Max Verstappen’s to lose as he holds a comfortable 62-point lead over McLaren’s Lando Norris. 

However, the constructors’ championship is still a three-horse race as McLaren has a 36-point advantage over Ferrari, which leads Red Bull by just 13 points.

It’s unclear how much each team would win based on where they will finish in the standings, but Motorsport.com estimated Red Bull’s 2023 winnings to be $140 million, compared to $131 million for the second-place Mercedes and $122 million for the third-place Ferrari.

F1’s next race weekend is in Las Vegas starting Nov. 21, the second iteration of the race scheduled to grace the Strip once a year until 2032. Last year’s controversial race included a bevy of complaints from residents and local businesses, while a loose drain cover on the track was run over by Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz during Practice 1, forcing him to change his car’s energy storage system and triggering a 10-place grid penalty.