It can be said with certainty that the Cup Series can take a page or two from its lower series’ broadcasting network. For an organization that secured a landmark seven-year, $7.7 billion media rights deal with FOX Sports, NBC, Amazon Prime, TNT, and others, splitting the races among them, many expected the Cup Series ratings to boom. However, the script has changed, and now the underdog series holds the upper hand, and fans have made their feelings known to NASCAR.

The O’Reilly Auto Parts Series didn’t just show up in Atlanta; it showed out.

The Bennett Transportation & Logistics 250 at EchoPark Speedway pulled in 1,366,000 views on the CW, FOX’s $27.76 billion rival, making it the most-watched Atlanta event for the series in a decade. And when the race tightened up late, fans leaned in. As Sheldon Creed battled his way to a breakthrough win, viewership spiked to 1,798,000 during the closing laps.

Compared to last year’s Atlanta race, the audience grew by 5%, another sign that the series isn’t just holding steady; it is climbing. Atlanta’s new drafting style chaos clearly has a grip on fans, and they are tuning in for it.

Moreover, the partnership with CW is turning out to be a bigger hit. The season opener at Daytona International Speedway already set the tone, drawing 1,812,200 viewers with a peak of 2,321,000 during the frantic finish of the United Rentals 300. That marked a massive leap over last year’s final numbers and hinted that something different was building around the series.

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Although the numbers aren’t as high as the Cup events, the CW partnership has outdone what NASCAR’s top level’s seven-year media deal has set out to do. While the Autotrader 400 on Sunday held strong with 4.49 million average viewers, it signaled a slight dip from the 4.59 million logged last year.

And this was enough for the debate around broadcasting to swirl online, and now the Cup Series network has found itself in the middle of a media storm.

Fans slam Cup Series FOX partnership amid Xfinity success

As the OAPS continues its ratings climb, part of the conversation online is not just about the racing; it’s about how it’s being presented. While the CW’s broadcasts are drawing praise, the series’ coverage on FOX is increasingly becoming the comparison point, and not in a flattering way.

One fan summed up the contrast bluntly: “Watching on Saturday is fun. The booth seems like old friends having a good time. Sunday is embarrassing in comparison. Harvick and Bowyer can’t stop talking over each other. The commercials are ridiculous. And they miss wrecks in real time. I am so glad CW has OAPS. I might just catch highlights of cup later.”

That frustration wasn’t isolated. Several viewers echoed the sentiment that the tone, pacing, and chemistry on Saturdays feel closer and more natural than Sunday’s crowded and chaotic Cup Series coverage.

Another viewer drew a direct comparison between broadcast teams, writing, “We need cup broadcasts to be as fun as CW. Jamie and Parker are among the best analyst duos we’ve had since prime DW and Larry Mac. Only Letarte and Jr come close to that.”

In fact, just last week, Jamie Little was blasted by the fans during the Daytona 500 race. For many longtime fans, the benchmark remains the golden era FOX booth featuring Darrell Waltrip and Larry McReynolds, and the fact that the CW pairing is even being mentioned in that breath underscores how positively the O’Reilly coverage is landing.

Some reactions were even more sweeping.

“CW is the best thing to ever happen to the O’Reilly series,” one wrote.

Another pushed back at FOX‘s public defense of its products, stating, “It’s so annoying how all of the FOX NASCAR figureheads insist that fans are overly bitter about FOX and it’s actually an incredible product when fans actually are flocking to the feeder series largely in part due to broadcast being so much better in every facet.”

That perception, whether fully measurable or not, is shaping the online narrative.

However, there is also a structural argument emerging. “Aside from CW having good production quality and a great booth, I think staying on the same network year-round helps,” another fan noted, pointing to consistency as part of the appeal.

In an era where rights deals fragment schedules across multiple broadcasters, familiarity appears to matter. Whether that online sentiment fully translates into a long-term audience shift remains to be seen.

But one thing is clear: as ratings rise for the lower tier of NASCAR, fans aren’t just celebrating the racing. They are  critiquingthe presentation and making it known that, in their view, the broadcast booth can be just as important as the battle on the track.