NASCAR exec Brian Herbst explains decision to stick with late afternoon start times

With the NASCAR Cup Series race at Michigan International Speedway being pushed back from Sunday to Monday, the start times became a big topic among drivers, experts and fans. Brian Herbst, NASCAR Senior Vice President, Broadcasting & Innovation, spoke to Jon Lewis of Sports Media Watch this week and explained why NASCAR sticks with late afternoon start times.

“I’d say it’s a balancing act, like almost everything that we do here,” he said. “…If you look at it purely from a data perspective, you’re averaging 3 million viewers per event. That 10 percent from 3:00 pm to 1:00 pm is about 300,000 viewers, just broadly speaking.”

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Basically, the later the start time is, the higher the viewership. Lewis pointed out the annual Cup Series race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway gained around 500,000 viewers after moving the start time from 1 p.m. ET in 2021 to 230 p.m. in 2022.

“If the overarching goal is to drive fan interest in the sport and make sure there’s as many people that are paying attention to your sport as possible, trying to get those 300,000 extra viewers on a typical Sunday is important,” Herbst added.

Next year, NASCAR will expand its coverage with the addition of TNT and Prime Video airing/streaming races. Herbst said later start times are more likely in 2025 because networks “like to see numbers — and so would we, frankly, on the league side — where we’re drawing in the biggest audience possible.”

NASCAR drivers weigh in on earlier start times

While NASCAR likes the later start times, the drivers might not feel the same way. After the Michigan race was pushed back, Kyle Larson went to social media and said he wished the start times were at 1 p.m. ET like it was when he was a rookie. In July, NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Jr. said the 1 p.m. start time is something he always preferred.

“I’ve always been for 1:00 starts right after the lunch getting the race going,” Earnhardt said. “I feel like people are just coming off of if they’re going to church or just a family lunch or whatever it may be, right after the lunch, BAM! Get the race started.

“The NFL does it every week, 1:00 game, 4:00 game. There’s reasons why the networks run it at 3:00 and 3:30, and there’s good reasons why they do it that way. For me, I prefer the 1:00 starts.”