Fox won't broadcast NASCAR practices before 3 p.m. ET on Fridays
Wall-to-wall NASCAR practice coverage on cable television is slowly disappearing.
Fox Sports 1 won’t televise NASCAR activities at Atlanta Motor Speedway Friday before 3 p.m. That means Friday’s Cup Series practice, the first practice with the lower horsepower/higher downforce rules combination being introduced in NASCAR in 2019, won’t be available on television. It’s only available on NASCAR.com.
That move will be the norm for Fox in 2019. Per a NASCAR.com story, Fox won’t pick up NASCAR coverage on Fox Sports 1 until 3 p.m. on Fridays throughout its portion of the NASCAR schedule. The pre-3 p.m. sessions will be streamed on the NASCAR website.
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Fox isn’t the first network to push NASCAR practices to an online streaming service in lieu of cable television. NBC has put NASCAR practices and qualifying sessions on its streaming app over the last couple seasons. NBC, however, has one cable sports channel. Fox has two.
For some people, the move of some NASCAR sessions off cable is a big deal. NASCAR fans have been spoiled over the last 20 years with so many practice and qualifying sessions widely available on television.
But it’s actually not that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things. The move to streaming certain sessions is a logical step toward building a NASCAR-based streaming service. And with so many consumers using gadgets that connect streaming services to their televisions, people can still watch practice on TV. There are just a couple of extra steps involved.
Streaming could also build up NASCAR’s viewer numbers for Friday day sessions. Eventually, anyway. Having them online allows fans who aren’t at home to tune in at work on their computers. Not that we’re suggesting you slack off at work, or anything.
Either way, get used to not having all NASCAR practices on TV.
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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.
Follow @NickBromberg on Twitter
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