NASCAR Xfinity Series
The NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) is a stock car racing series organized by NASCAR. It is promoted as NASCAR's second-tier circuit to the organization's top level Cup Series. NXS events are frequently held as a support race on the day prior to a Cup Series event scheduled for that weekend.
Category
United States
The series was previously called the Budweiser Late Model Sportsman Series in 1982 and 1983, the NASCAR Busch Grand National Series from 1984 through 2002, the NASCAR Busch Series from 2003 through 2007, and the NASCAR Nationwide Series from 2008 through 2014. Since 2015, it is sponsored by Comcast via its consumer cable and wireless brand Xfinity.[1][2]
Races held outside the U.S.[edit]
On March 6, 2005, the series held its first race outside the United States, the Telcel-Motorola 200. The race was held in Mexico City, Mexico at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, a track that has held Formula One and Champ Car races in the past. It was won by Martin Truex Jr. On August 4, 2007, the series held its second race outside the United States, at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal, Quebec, another road course. It was won by Kevin Harvick, while Quebec native Patrick Carpentier finished second. In July 2008, NASCAR announced that the Nationwide Series would not return to Mexico City in 2009, and in 2012 they announced that it would not be returning to Montreal in 2013.
Television broadcasting[edit]
United States[edit]
In the 1980s, races were sparsely shown, mainly by ESPN if they were covering the cup race at the same track. Starting in 1990, more races began to be shown. By the mid-1990s, all races were shown. Most standalone races were aired on TNN, which helped grow coverage of the series, while races that were companion races with Winston Cup dates mostly aired on the network airing the Cup race. TNN aired some of these races, which also aired on CBS, NBC, ESPN, ABC and TBS.
From 2001 until 2006, Fox Sports covered the entire first half of the Busch Grand National season, while NBC and TNT both aired races during the second half, with Turner Sports producing all the coverage for both networks. However, in even numbered years, coverage was changed, with the opening race at Daytona airing on NBC in 2004, on TNT in 2002 and 2006 (due to NBC's coverage of the Winter Olympics) and the track's July race airing on FX. Large portions of Fox's coverage aired on sister network FX, with a few marquee events on the network itself.
From 2007 until 2014, ESPN was the home of the renamed Nationwide Series. Generally four races per season aired on ABC, with the remainder on ESPN, ESPN2, and ESPNews. Early in ESPN's run, ESPN Classic was used for NNS overflow, however with less carriage of that network, this practice ended. Fox Sports made a return to the series, airing the 2011 Bubba Burger 250 at Richmond on Speed Channel, as ESPN gave up its exclusive rights to the race because of programming conflicts.
In 2015, the NXS returned to Fox Sports during the first half of the season. Like the previous time Fox held rights to the series, most of the coverage aired on cable, though this time on FS1. Four races aired on Fox itself until 2019, when all races moved to FS1. The second half of the NXS season is televised by NBC Sports. Four to five races air on NBC itself, while the others air on NBCSN (until 2020) or, during the Olympics, CNBC or USA Network (prior to 2020). Since 2021, USA Network had carried all races not aired on NBC or Fox Sports.
On July 28, 2023, it was announced the Xfinity Series will move exclusively to The CW in 2025 as part of a seven-year deal. It was then announced on April 11, 2024, that it would move to the network a year early to broadcast the final eight races of the 2024 season.[12][13]
Latin America[edit]
The NXS is available in most Latin American countries on cable and satellite TV. Since 2006, (formerly called SPEED until 2013) carries live coverage of all events. The races are also shown on Fox Sports Latin America, some of them live and some tape-delayed depending on the network's schedule. Televisa Deportes also broadcast a 30-minute recap every Sunday morning on national television in Mexico. In Brazil, BandSports carries all three series.
Australia[edit]
Network Ten's additional high-definition service, ONE, began broadcasting races from the NXS live or near live during the 2008 season. ONE continued to air highlights packages of each race until the end of 2014. Broadcasts of the series are now exclusively shown on the Fox Sports pay TV channels.
Europe[edit]
In 2012, Motors TV broadcasts all Xfinity races live, delayed and highlights, until 2018 when the channel ceased operations.
In Portugal, SPORT TV broadcasts every Xfinity races live.
In the United Kingdom, the Xfinity races—in full and highlights—are available on Premier Sports 2.
Asia[edit]
All races are live on Sports Illustrated Television channels[14] using FOX's or NBC's coverage with highlights on Fox Sports Asia.
