FAST (free advertising-supported streaming television) channels have become an increasingly significant part of the sports landscape recently. These channels, typically available on a range of smart TVs and connected TV devices, are gaining a substantial audience overall, especially among cord-cutters and cord-nevers. That’s led to many sports leagues launching their own, and NASCAR is now taking an interesting step with their particular NASCAR Channel: partnering with FloSports’ FloRacing for seven live simulcasts of NASCAR regional races over the rest of this year.
This move covers seven races that were initially scheduled to be broadcast only on FloRacing’s streaming platform. They’ll remain there, but will now be simulcast to the NASCAR Channel (available on Tubi, Xumo Play, Samsung TV Plus, and Prime Video) as well.
The races currently set for this are the Cookout Summer Shootout at Charlotte Motor Speedway (June 30, INEX US Legend Cars), the Cookout Summer Shootout at Charlotte Motor Speedway (July 1, INEX US Legend Cars), the ARCA Menards Series West General Tire 200 at Sonoma Raceway (July 11), the Season Finale at Bowman Gray Stadium (August 23), the ValleyStar Credit Union 300 at Martinsville Speedway (September 27), the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park (October 12), and Snowball Derby Qualifying Day at Five Flags Speedway (December 5), although the races and dates are subject to change.
Dan Barker, NASCAR’s managing director (media strategy), spoke to Awful Announcing on this move Tuesday. He said it comes after previously successful tests of putting live content on the NASCAR Channel, with some events around particular Cup Series races going there. And Barker said they see putting live content on this channel as an important way to reach some new audiences.
“We knew early on that there was potential for growth there. We want to get to a place where people can expect some live content on the FAST platform. I think it’s strategically important for all sort of sports properties to try and uncover opportunities live in FAST, because it just does bring that audience and raises awareness of the channel. So we’ve been lucky where we’ve been able to partner with FloRacing and peel off a few things to sort of test that theory, and we’re going to continue to do that.”
On the FloSports side, Barker said this simulcast deal stems from a long-standing partnership with FloRacing for many of NASCAR’s regional races, particularly from a carve-out in a renewal deal signed earlier this year.
“That’s sort of what I was brought in to do, to figure out our long-tail media rights. And I’ve been working hand-in-glove with Flo since the inception of that deal, really. It’s been a fantastic partnership from day one. And we renewed this previous year, and in that renewal, we talked about pushing even further.
“We think we’ve done a good job of capturing, I guess, what you would call a sort of short-track grassroots fan. We’ve collectively done a good job of capturing that audience. And I think the opportunity is exposing that content to a broader NASCAR audience. And I think that’s what Flo saw in this particular partnership: if we can showcase some of the best short track and regional racing to a really broad audience on The NASCAR Channel, it raises awareness of regional and short-track racing.”
Barker said he thinks the new deal will work well for both sides.
“We get live content, we’re also growing the exposure to some of our short track series. For Flo, they’re showcasing a small portion of their offering to sort of raise awareness of the Flo partnership and the rights they have. And they’ve been amazing to work with; they’re really good partners. …They’ve always been willing to experiment and try things, and I think this is a really good experiment for 2025.”
This significant expansion of live events on the NASCAR Channel comes only six months after the organization launched this channel in the first place. However, Barker said that part of NASCAR’s slow move into the FAST space relative to other leagues was ensuring they presented a top product from launch.
“We were probably a little bit late entering the space compared to a lot of our sports colleagues entering FAST. I think we wanted to get it right, and it was important to get it right.”
What does getting that FAST approach right entail? Barker said it starts with serving fans, whether they’re current fans or those NASCAR isn’t already reaching.
“There’s a few elements to it. One is I really do view it as an act of fan service, bringing something that is free, the F in FAST. That gives them a way to engage with our brand, gives us an opportunity to dive into our archive, to break news, to tell stories, and to present these live opportunities. I think for us, we’re very fan-focused, and that was an opportunity to really provide access and a service to the fanbase.
“Inside of that fanbase, there’s a lot of people that are either never-corders or cord-cutters. Being able to provide them with content that they traditionally might not be able to have access to, I think, was important as well.”
Beyond that, Barker said there’s both a short-term (advertising) and a long-term business case for building The NASCAR Channel in the FAST space.
“Being more capitalistic, there is a revenue opportunity here that we’re starting to explore as well, and it’s good to unlock that revenue stream,” he said. “I think strategically it’s future-proofing a little bit too. We know that FAST is an emerging space, it’s growing. We’re seeing continued migration of fans from a traditional linear or cable audience to Prime and so on. So we wanted to make sure that we have some chips on the table.
“We may have opportunities to put content there, and we may be able to tell our own story a little bit more, or more elements of it. So it’s fan service, reaching fans that we might be a little bit disconnected with through their consumption habits, and sort of future-proofing against where things may go over the next five to 10 years.”
Another notable aspect of the FAST space is the opportunity for leagues and organizations to have a 24/7 sports channel entirely dedicated to their specific content. And Barker said a helpful element for NASCAR is the number of series under their organizational umbrella, especially at the regional level.
“We are lucky in the scope of what our organization includes. It’s not just NASCAR Cup and Xfinity. You start getting down into the regional side with the modified car, ARCA, weekly racing and then even things like IMSA, things like American Flat Track, we have a pretty rich portfolio of racing partners. So we’re able to lean in quite a bit on that to keep the content fresh and ticking over. …It dovetails, and we’re lucky to have a long tail of archives as well, 76 years. It is helpful to have a place where we can showcase our own brands, showcase our own narrative.”
The boost to the NASCAR Channel comes at a time when NASCAR is expanding its in-house content overall, both with physical studios and with a dedicated NASCAR Studios team and brand. Barker said they’ve already used some of that in-house content on the FAST channel, including two documentaries they produced in partnership with Fox Sports Films earlier this year, and they hope to feature more there down the road.
“We have two groundbreaking new studios. We certainly hope over time that we can integrate some original content using those studios into the channel, that’s certainly part of our strategy. And then the stuff that’s coming out of NASCAR Studios, it’s case-by-case. We were able to put The Madhouse on the channel, and the So Damn Close documentary we also put on the channel.”
He said part of that picture comes from negotiating re-air rights with partners. In some cases, that means projects can premiere and continue to air on repeat elsewhere, but NASCAR can now also use some of that content itself on this FAST channel.
“We’re doing a better job, speaking candidly, of protecting our re-air rights,” Barker said. “Starting from now, now that we have what we think is a good place to put a lot of that content, I think on a go-forward basis you’ll see us partnering with traditional distribution partners but also retaining some of our re-air rights where possible.”
The shift of some live rights to The NASCAR Channel comes at a time when NASCAR’s media rights overall are being renegotiated. This year, the Xfinity Series has moved to broadcast with The CW, while Prime Video and TNT Sports have entered as new partners for mid-season races, featuring the In-Season Challenge. Barker said those broadcast shifts are part of a larger innovation picture.
“I’m really proud of the work that we’ve done, one on our live rights, to bring three new media partners in The CW, Amazon, TNT. I think having those fresh eyeballs, with full love and respect to Fox and NBC, who are our long-time partners and we’re very grateful to them, having that perspective and that fresh set of eyeballs, I think it’s been really good for the sport. Having different storytellers, having a guy like Carl Edwards come back into the sport, I think it’s been sort of an eye-opener for a lot of people, having those fresh perspectives.
“But even outside of those live broadcasts, we’re really pushing hard on the content side. My boss, John Dahl [NASCAR’s senior vice president of content, he joined the organization last year], obviously has a rich history with 30 to 30, and worked on The Last Dance. And now with Earnhardt coming out, I think that’s the best piece of NASCAR media I’ve certainly seen in a really long time, I’m certainly proud of that project.”
And Barker said that all adds to an exciting time for NASCAR, including on the media and content side.
“Between bringing John in, investing heavily in our YouTube channel, investing heavily in the FAST channel, our social team has grown by leaps and bounds this year, our website’s been relaunched, the In-Season Challenge is a big thing for us; there are so many projects we’ve jump-started. And each one of us is innovating in our verticals as well. I think we’re really pushing hard on the content side, and we’re starting to see those rewards in things like the Prime partnership, the FAST channel, social, all these different areas. It really feels like we’re in a growth year.”