In hopes of earning more revenue, is NASCAR losing out on something bigger? One look at the state of viewership in the Cup Series versus the O’Reilly Series, coupled with the context of the current massive media rights deal, and it might be the case. After all, one of the biggest players in the sport, the fans are not only moving away from the Cup but also feeling frustrated.

The O’Reilly Series rises while the Cup Series falls for NASCAR

In 2023, NASCAR signed a $7.7 billion media rights deal from 2025 until 2031 with FOX Sports, NBC Sports, Prime Video, and Warner Bros. Discovery’s TNT Sports. This deal involved a mix of traditional cable TV and streaming and was looked at by many as a recipe for success for the sport, a vehicle to drive the sport into a new era.

“This landmark deal underscores our collective growth opportunity to drive engagement across this diverse collection of platforms – whether on broadcast, cable, or direct-to-consumer,” Steve Phelps, the then-President of NASCAR, said.

However, the reality has been far from the expectations. In the very first year of the deal, 2025, NASCAR Cup Series saw a decline of 15% from the season before. But the first season of the O’Reilly Series, then known as the Xfinity Series, under The CW, saw a 10% increase from the season before. In fact, the O’Reilly Series numbers were so good that the average of 1.03 million viewers over 33 races was the best average since 2021. But in the Truck Series, FOX’s coverage saw another fall of 5% from the season before.

And for better or worse, the story continued into 2026.

The most recent Cup race at Bristol on FOX Sports saw its viewership go below 2 million, with a decline of about 100,000 viewers from last season. But the O’Reilly race on The CW turned out to be the most-watched Bristol spring race ever with a 22% growth from last season.

And the fact that the O’Reilly race and the O’Reilly Series under The CW is growing so fast while the Cup under FOX is on the decline, left a lot of fans with a sour taste.

Fans not happy with the current NASCAR Cup setup with FOX

As the reports of the viewership numbers from the Cup and the O’Reilly race surfaced from Bristol, a lot of fans singled out the broadcaster involved in the Cup Series, FOX Sports, while praising The CW for their work on Saturdays.

One fan wrote, “Amazing what happens when you put it on a network that everyone (with an antenna) has access to and not cable. Wish the Cup series could follow suit.” Currently, the Cup races are on a hybrid model of TV and streaming, as part of the $7.7 billion media rights deal.

Another fan said, “The racing in the O’Reilly series has consistently been the best race of the weekend over the last few years. I find myself making it more of a priority to watch it flag to flag than the Cup series. It helps that the CW production outshines Fox’s Sunday production 10 fold.”

It’s worth mentioning that FOX’s production quality has come under scrutiny a lot of times in the past. One of NASCAR’s star drivers Denny Hamlin has time after time called out FOX. In 2025, he was critical of the audio issues in the broadcast.

One fan circled out the formula of success behind The CW’s numbers. “Good Product + Easy Accessibility,” the fan wrote, as another fan mentioned the same point as they wrote, “Its almost like being accessible and on network gets you more viewers.” The CW network operates on a broadcasting medium with replays on streaming, while FOX had the Bristol race on cable.

FOX putting NASCAR on cable was something a fan called out as they wrote, “The fact that NASCAR went cable heavy instead of a combo of network and streaming for Cup is still insane, even if the cable money is ‘better.'”

A fan demanded that the NASCAR Cup Series be put on a network instead of cable as they pointed their finger at FOX. “We have GOT to get Cup on all network. This jumping around is killing the ratings and FOX is just dead weight at this point,” the fan wrote.

Having said that, it’ll be interesting to see how NASCAR deals with the growing fan resentment against FOX and the current broadcasting setup for the Cup Series, the falling viewership in Cup while it rises in the O’Reilly, while also maintaining their multi-billion dollar deal which will run until 2031.

Suffice to say, it’ll be interesting to see how it all plays out.