AVONDALE, Ariz. — The arrival of NASCAR Championship Weekend at Phoenix Raceway brings about the annual State of the Sport address from NASCAR President Steve Phelps and NASCAR Chief Operating Officer Steve O’Donnell.

Here is a rundown of what was said and asked as NASCAR prepares to close out its 2025 season and move ahead to 2026 and beyond.

3-Headed Monster: What Is NASCAR’s Ideal Championship Format For 2026?

Championship Format

• There was no discussion or mention of what championship format NASCAR would use for 2026 and beyond.
  • O’Donnell said, “It would not be fair to come in here before we crown champions and say, ‘hey, we’re thinking of this.’”
    • He made the clear that the champions crowned this weekend will have done so under the current rules that were established at the start of the season, and that, “we’re all going to be extremely happy to (crown them).”
• Said the biggest ask was to have a revolving final race, which NASCAR accomplished by bringing the 2026 finale to Homestead-Miami Speedway.
• Even with the 2026 championship format unannounced, the concerns surrounding the current one-race championship were addressed by O’Donnell.
  • “One of the concerns is future drivers coming up through the system, having multiple wins, and not necessarily winning a championship. I think that’s a challenge for a sport where I think the light really goes on is having that driver be deemed a potential superstar.”
  • Going forward, NASCAR wants to make sure “that a driver who has delivered all season long has the ability to be named a champion, and not have something maybe come down to one race.”
    • Whichever format NASCAR ends up using, it will continue to reward and prioritize winning.

Sponsorship

• On Friday morning (Oct. 31), Freeway Insurance joined Coca-Cola, Xfinity and Busch Light as the fourth premier partner of the NASCAR Cup Series.
  • Phelps doesn’t foresee NASCAR ever moving back to a single primary sponsor for Cup, as that “inhibited the number of folks that wanted to promote the Cup Series.”
• Phelps believes the racetracks are doing “well” in regard to sponsorship and believes that the sport has a lot of momentum because of a sponsorship spike. Said that teams, “probably (have) the best number of sponsors on cars that they’ve had in probably 15 years as we head to the 2026 season.”
  • “NASCAR’s growth in the ’90s and 2000s was largely built on sponsorship. So for us to have this sponsorship come back to the level we’ve had is very gratifying and heartwarming.”

2025 Media Deal & Ratings

• With fewer Cup races on network TV, the overall viewership for the 2025 Cup season is down 14% from 2024.
  • NASCAR isn’t concerned by those numbers.
    • Phelps: “When the season started, because of the distribution changes to be less broadcast heavy and more cable heavy and streaming, we knew we were going to have a reset.”
  • A 14% drop is precisely what NASCAR predicted at the start of the year.
    • With the ratings “reset” complete, NASCAR expects to grow for 2026 and beyond.
• The Xfinity media deal with the CW “exceeded expectations” on viewership. The audience for the Cup races on Amazon Prime Video were six years younger on average.
• Phelps praised the networks involved with producing the 2025 season across NASCAR’s top three series, stating that “everyone raised their game on broadcasting.”

Marketing

• The Driver Ambassador Program, new for 2025, has seen the drivers spend a total of 6,000 hours of promoting the sport; a 40% increase from 2024.
  • The drivers are the ones build the brand; “they are the face of NASCAR.”
  • Phelps: “We are only going to be as good as what we can provide to the drivers and the access that we provide the drivers to get in front of. Whether that’s early morning shows, late night shows, Sesame Street — I know Bubba (Wallace) did that earlier this year — all these things are opportunities to meet a fan or a potential fan where they are. That’s what we need to do.”
• The 2025 season saw NASCAR record the highest digital and social media numbers in its history.
  • Phelps praised the content NASCAR has been able to put out this year, from NASCAR 25, the Netflix show NASCAR: Full Speed, Amazon Prime’s Earnhardt documentary and the movie American Thunder: NASCAR to Le Mans as examples.
    • “These are all opportunities to showcase our drivers, showcase our sport, take the helmets off of our drivers and have people understand what an amazing sport this is.”

2026 Schedule

• NASCAR continues to explore new markets and new opportunities while simultaneously keeping in touch with its roots.
• O’Donnell lauded Speedway Motorsports, Inc. for “taking the initiative” to make a points race at North Wilkesboro Speedway possible.
  • He also praised SMI’s decision to move the All-Star Race to Dover Motor Speedway next season, as Dover has experienced an increase in ticket sales compared to this point last year.
• O’Donnell also lauded Ben Kennedy for putting together next year’s event at Naval Base Coronado in San Diego.
  • The race brings NASCAR back to the Southern California region, and it honors the military — an important part of NASCAR pre-race festivities — as the United States approaches the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
  • O’Donnell: “(San Diego) is the biggest event we’ve ever had with presales, bar none.” 
• The Daytona 500 was pushed back one week for 2026, as NASCAR looks to avoid conflicts with the Super Bowl.
  • Phelps: “Creating some distance and not overlap is something we make sure we’ll do.”

Next Gen Car & OEMs

• NASCAR is thrilled to gain that fourth manufacturer in RAM.
  • The hope is to eventually have Dodge & RAM in the sport.
  • Phelps also revealed that NASCAR has fielded inquiries from other manufacturers, with some further along than others.
• The 2025 season continued experimenting with tire wear with great success, courtesy of Goodyear.
  • O’Donnell: “The results have been absolutely fantastic this year in terms of what Goodyear has delivered. I think the entire industry really owes them a great deal of gratitude for what they’ve done.”
• For 2026, the horsepower of the Next Gen car will increase from 675 to 750 on road courses and ovals shorter than 1.5 miles.
  • O’Donnell praised the fanbase for being vocal in changes it wished to see, one of which was increased horsepower.
    • Thanked the teams and engine builders for adjusting.
    • One-thousand horsepower and higher won’t happen, as the engines would be too expensive to build for teams and OEMs.
  • NASCAR has an off-season test scheduled at North Wilkesboro to experiment with aero, tire wear and the increase in horsepower.

Dropping the Hammer: Lawsuit Looms Over NASCAR Championship Weekend

Ongoing Lawsuit

• Phelps and O’Donnell would not answer questions regarding NASCAR’s ongoing lawsuit against 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports.
• With the unsealing of documents earlier in the week that pertained to NASCAR’s finances, Phelps read a 941-word prepared statement to address current events.

Closing Remarks of Phelps’ Statement

“NASCAR is fully aligned with our race team partners who have submitted declarations hoping to end this litigation. We are trying our hardest. I am trying my hardest both as a fan as well as the commissioner of this sport that I’ve loved since I was five years old.

“While two of the teams of 15 teams may not share that view and seem set on an unfortunate court battle, I hope that we can all agree that our racing is as good as it has ever been and we care about how we serve our fans, especially as we look forward to capping off our season by celebrating new champions across all of our national series. We have the most diverse and challenging schedule in motorsports. I expect great racing, and both Steve (O’Donnell) and I look forward to presenting trophies to very deserving champions this weekend.”

NASCAR Content Director at Frontstretch

Stephen Stumpf is the NASCAR Content Director for Frontstretch and is a three-year veteran of the site. His weekly column is “Stat Sheet,” and he formerly wrote “4 Burning Questions” for three years. He also writes commentaries, contributes to podcasts, edits articles and is frequently at the track for on-site coverage.

Find Stephen on Twitter @stephen_stumpf