NASCAR and Netflix officially announce playoff docu-series to premiere in early 2024

Following reports that NASCAR and Netflix were close to reaching a deal, the two entities have made it official. NASCAR will film a docu-series during the playoffs this season and the show will air in early 2024.

The reports were first released by Adam Stern of Sports Business Journal late last week. Now we have official word from both NASCAR and Netflix that a docu-series is coming to the platform next year.

In case you wanted to see all of that drama behind-the-scenes with Chase Elliott or Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin or whoever else it might be – you are in luck.

You ready, @netflix?

A #NASCARPlayoffs documentary series will premiere in early 2024.

— NASCAR (@NASCAR) August 21, 2023

The docu-series is going to detail the 10-race playoff fight between the 16 drivers vying for the NASCAR championship. This project will be a collaboration between Netflix, Words + Pictures, as well as NASCAR Studios. The series will be five episodes, with each installment lasting 45 minutes.

According to NASCAR’s announcement, the filming is already underway. That means we will get a look at the races leading up to the playoffs. How about a peek at what exactly went wrong with the Chase Elliott fuel situation at Watkins Glen?

This new series follows 2022’s Race for the Championship which followed drivers on and off the track throughout the 2022 season. Of course, it is in the same vein as other Netflix sports docuseries, including the NFL, F1, PGA Tour, and more. Dale Earnhardt Jr. will be an executive producer.

NASCAR scrapped full-season Netflix docuseries idea early on

While some fans will want a longer series that details the entire season, it just wasn’t a viable option. 37 weeks is a lot of time and that is hard to cover in a short and sweet series. You could almost do four seasons of a show over the course of an entire year.

In early reporting, it was revealed that NASCAR and Netflix skipped on the idea to do a full-season series. Honestly, the playoffs are the part that is most exciting. Think about last season if we had a series following along.

We had the Bubba Wallace/Kyle Larson incident at Las Vegas. Ross Chastain’s wall ride at Martinsville. Christopher Bell had not one but two walk-off wins in the Round of 12 and Round of 8. The first four races were won by no-playoff drivers!

So, what do we hope to see out of this new series, NASCAR fans?