{"id":879415,"date":"2026-09-01T11:52:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T11:52:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/879415\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T11:52:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T11:52:15","slug":"sbj-media-nascar-being-strategic-to-find-its-groove","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/879415\/","title":{"rendered":"SBJ Media: NASCAR being strategic to find its groove"},"content":{"rendered":"

NASCAR<\/a> starts its playoffs this coming weekend. The traditional report card \u2014 TV viewership \u2014 has the Cup Series at around 2.6 million viewers, which is on par with last season and a number that many properties would love to get to (not to mention the 8% growth among adults 18-24). Plus, the O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts Series is up 5% and the Craftsman Truck Series<\/a> is up 9%. <\/p>\n

On social media, total post views on Cup race days are up 43.1% from last year, with 1.94 billion impressions (+31% vs. 2025) and 70 million engagements (+5.4% vs. 2025).<\/p>\n

While NASCAR is happy with its TV partners, who are paying a combined $7.7 billion in deals that run through 2031<\/a>, the sanctioning body has moved beyond relying on TV races to find new audiences. There has been heavy investment in FAST channel content, documentaries, digital and social media efforts, video gaming and maybe a small project coming with Tom Cruise.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re probably diversifying our portfolio more than we ever have before,\u201d said Tim Clark, NASCAR\u2019s EVP and chief brand officer. \u201cThe way we\u2019re going to grow and evolve this sport is by taking a less selfish view of what fandom means.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe that means that they follow us on social. Maybe it means they buy the NASCAR 25 game. Maybe it means that they buy merch. Maybe it means they follow us on social. Maybe it means they do all of those things. But I think we\u2019re a little bit more comfortable than we have been traditionally of meeting fans where they are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Game on<\/p>\n

As Clark puts it, video games are the \u201ctip of the spear in terms of a youth marketing strategy\u201d for the sport. NASCAR not only has an eponymous game from iRacing Studios<\/a> \u2014 which is the sport\u2019s best-selling game in a decade \u2014 but it also licenses its marks to games like Microsoft\u2019s Forza Motorsport and Epic Games\u2019 Rocket League and Fortnite. Esports remain a growth area as well, as the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series viewership has grown more than 18% from last year.<\/p>\n

NASCAR World on Roblox has reached 180 million visits in 2026, and more than 60% of NASCAR World users are under the age of 18. The Roblox effort is also exposing NASCAR to new global audiences, as 80% of visitors reside outside North America.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s easy to talk about an international strategy in terms of where are we going to put races, and obviously that\u2019s important to us,\u201d Clark said, \u201cbut the way that we\u2019re going to reach a younger audience and reach an international audience initially is going to be through things like gaming.\u201d<\/p>\n

I wanna go FAST<\/p>\n

Clark admits talk about FAST channels isn\u2019t sexy, but that\u2019s where many digital eyeballs are these days. The NASCAR Channel, which is the sport\u2019s 24\/7 FAST platform, launched at the start of 2025 and is on Tubi, Prime Video, Roku Channel and Xumo Play, among other platforms. Beyond archival content, NASCAR has also invested in original programming for the channel, and it has even added live events that have been on FloRacing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year, we were blown away by the first full year that we had on the FAST platform, and just when we thought that audience and those consumption rates couldn\u2019t continue to grow at the rate they were, they somehow still are \u2014 to the point where we\u2019re now making content specifically for that platform,\u201d Clark said.<\/p>\n

A screen near you<\/p>\n

NASCAR is also a sport less driven by highlights compared to stick-and-ball competitors, and that has led to more spending to tell deep stories around the racing property and its personalities. Clark said NASCAR is \u201cvery pleased\u201d with the move of the \u201cFull Speed\u201d docuseries from Netflix to Prime Video<\/a> this season, which came on the heels of a successful \u201cEarnhardt\u201d doc on Prime last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are still good stories to tell,\u201d he said. \u201cWe just have to be really selective on not wearing out fans in terms of telling the stories from our 78-year history as much as we are focusing on the current characters. But navigating the original space and certainly the sports documentary space right now \u2014 it\u2019s tricky. But I think we put the right pieces and parts in place to have some success there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The next big project for NASCAR? The \u201cDays of Thunder\u201d sequel set for 2028. Tom Cruise rolled out the formal announcement on social media over the weekend (reports had him crashing the drivers\u2019 meeting Saturday), and Clark said the reception has been \u201coverwhelmingly positive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEntertainment projects are a really powerful front door to the sport,\u201d Clark said. \u201cWe\u2019ll be great partners, we\u2019ll provide great access, we\u2019ll be hyperfocused on authenticity. We\u2019ll look to get our drivers and our partners and our teams involved in that project.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NASCAR starts its playoffs this coming weekend. The traditional report card \u2014 TV viewership \u2014 has the Cup…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":879416,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,634,82],"class_list":["post-879415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nascar","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=879415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/879415\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/879416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=879415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=879415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=879415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}