Bristol Night Race Puts NASCAR’s Chase Under the Lights — With USA Network Carrying the Broadcast

NASCAR’s playoff run arrives at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday, Sept. 19, for the Bass Pro Shops Night Race, the fall short-track event that has become one of the calendar’s most-watched regular-season-style spectacles despite its playoff stakes.

Broadcast rights for the race sit with USA Network, part of the NBCUniversal portfolio owned by Comcast (NASDAQ: CMCSA). Shares of the Philadelphia-based media and telecommunications conglomerate closed at $23.02 previously and traded recently at $22.74, down about 1.22% on the day, valuing the company at roughly $92.5 billion. Beyond its cable networks, Comcast’s operations span residential connectivity, business services, studios, and theme parks, with live sports coverage remaining a key draw for its cable portfolio.

How to watch

• Green flag: Approximately 6:40 p.m. CT on Saturday, Sept. 19
• TV: USA Network (national broadcast)
• Radio: Performance Racing Network, with 102.5-FM The Game carrying the call in Nashville
• Streaming: HBO Max app for in-car cameras (subscription required); NASCAR.com and SiriusXM Channel 90 for audio (subscription required)
• Track: Bristol Motor Speedway, a 0.533-mile concrete oval in Bristol, Tennessee
• Race format: 500 laps covering 266.5 miles, split into stages of 125, 125, and 250 laps

Chase picture heading in

Kyle Larson comes to Bristol fresh off a caution-filled victory at Gateway last week — a race that featured 18 cautions and multiple red flags. Bristol, with its tight half-mile layout, has a reputation for similar attrition, which could shake up the Chase standings further.

Larson will start from the pole after Saturday’s qualifying session was canceled. The driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet sits second in the points standings, nine markers behind leader Denny Hamlin.

The spring Bristol race in April went to Ty Gibbs, giving the night-race field a recent reminder that anything can happen on the Tennessee concrete.

What to watch

• Whether pole-sitter Larson can convert his starting spot and trim Denny Hamlin’s nine-point Chase lead
• Cautions and attrition on the high-banked short track, historically a staging ground for playoff chaos
• Viewership figures for USA Network’s playoff coverage, a metric relevant to Comcast’s sports strategy
• The remainder of the Chase schedule as the playoff field tightens in coming weeks

Source: original release