For 2026, NASCAR officially abandoned its highly polarizing elimination-style playoffs, scrapping both the “win-and-you’re-in” rule and the round-by-round cuts that had shaped the championship since 2014. In its place, a modernized revival of the classic 10-race Chase format was introduced, putting season-long consistency back at the center of the title hunt. And just weeks after announcing that major shift, NASCAR has now moved its Full Speed docuseries from Netflix to join a 2-trillion-dollar-worth partner. The move completely reshapes how the sport wants its story told.

NASCAR’s Full Speed shifts to Prime Video

NASCAR is making a decisive pivot with its Full Speed docuseries, leaving Netflix after two seasons and shifting to Prime Video, which is part of Amazon’s $2 trillion tech empire. The move marks a strategic redirection: away from postseason retrospectives and toward event-driven storytelling built around NASCAR’s crown jewel, the Daytona 500.

Instead of chronicling the 2025 playoffs, Season 3 becomes a single-episode deep dive into the 2026 Daytona 500, which premiered with unprecedented quick turnaround on March 5. The previous two seasons, initially released in 2024 and 2025 on Netflix, will also migrate to Prime Video, which joined NASCAR’s domestic media-rights roster last year.

This year’s feature centers on winner Tyler Reddick and highlights several major figures: pole-sitter Kyle Busch, rising Red Bull-backed prospect Connor Zilisch, comeback-focused Brad Keselowski, and charismatic contender Noah Gragson. NASCAR sees Zilisch, in particular, as its best shot at a breakout mainstream star.

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Produced again by NASCAR Studios and Word + Pictures, the project retains directors Tim Mullen and Jackie Decker, with executives such as Tim Clark, John Dahl, and Connor Schell overseeing the creative direction. The shift to Prime aligns with NASCAR’s broader media evolution. Amazon now airs five Cup Series races annually, including the Coca-Cola 600 and the new Coronado Naval Base street race.

Season 1 generated 3.4 million Netflix views in early 2024; Season 2 tallied 1.1 million by year’s end. Now, NASCAR bets that Prime’s global reach and deeper tech-driven audience targeting can push Full Speed into a new growth lane.

A broadcast shake-up looming

A major media earthquake could be headed NASCAR’s way, and it has nothing to do with streaming wars or rights negotiations. With Netflix officially backing away from its staggering $80 billion bid to acquire Warner Bros., Paramount has emerged as the leading potential buyer, and that possibility has massive implications for NASCAR’s TV future.

Here’s why:

TNT, one of NASCAR’s current broadcast partners, is owned by Warner Bros. If Paramount acquires a controlling stake, TNT would fall under the same corporate umbrella as CBS, one of America’s most powerful broadcast networks. And that could trigger a seismic reshuffling of NASCAR’s media footprint.

Right now, TNT’s NASCAR races live on a cable channel, limiting reach. CBS, by contrast, is a free over-the-air broadcast network with far deeper national penetration. A shift of TNT’s NASCAR races over to CBS would instantly boost accessibility, viewership potential, and mainstream exposure. That expanded reach would naturally draw in more advertisers and increase ad revenue, making the move highly appealing for Paramount from a business standpoint.

There’s also the streaming side. Warner Bros. owns HBO, and NASCAR’s multi-car in-car camera streams currently live on HBO Max. If Paramount consolidates services (which many analysts expect), those features could migrate directly to Paramount+, giving the platform a valuable sports streaming asset and creating a unified digital home for NASCAR content.

For now, all of this remains speculation. The deal isn’t final, and anything involving multibillion-dollar media mergers can shift quickly. But the implications are clear: if Paramount steps in where Netflix stepped out, NASCAR could find itself moving from cable to one of the nation’s biggest broadcast stages.

And that might only be the beginning of the changes fans would need to prepare for.