NASCAR Stream Ready
NASCAR Returns to TNT: Stream Sonoma Raceway Race with Sling's New Pass Options
The NASCAR Cup Series heads to Sonoma Raceway on June 28 for the Toyota/Save Mart 350, with green flag dropping at 3:30 p.m. ET. The race marks NASCAR's return to TNT Sports — the first of five Cup races the network will air this summer — and kicks off the "NASCAR In-Season Challenge," a bracket-style tournament with a $1 million prize for the winning driver, according to NASCAR.
Fans without a cable subscription can stream the race through Sling TV, which now offers short-term passes starting at $4.99 for 24-hour access. TNT is also rolling out a viewer-friendly change for 2026: no more full-screen commercials during green-flag racing, replaced by a side-by-side picture-in-picture format, according to TNT Sports.
TNT Returns to NASCAR After a 12-Year Absence
TNT last aired NASCAR races in 2014, ending a 32-year run with the sport. The network is back thanks to a landmark $7.7 billion, seven-year media rights deal NASCAR signed in November 2023, splitting coverage among FOX Sports, NBC Sports, Amazon Prime Video, and TNT Sports through 2031, according to NASCAR.
TNT's five-race window runs from today's Sonoma race through the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis on July 26. The broadcast booth features Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Steve Letarte as analysts, with Adam Alexander on play-by-play. Shannon Spake, Danielle Trotta, and Marty Snider report from pit road, according to TNT Sports.
Road-Course Specialists Eye Sonoma's $11 Million Purse
Today's race covers 110 laps across 218.9 miles of Sonoma's winding road course. The total purse stands at $11,233,037, according to Jayski. Ty Gibbs starts on the pole after posting a qualifying lap of 95.738 mph on Saturday.
Shane van Gisbergen is a top contender. He won Saturday's Xfinity Series race at Sonoma, leading 66 of 79 laps, and starts 6th today. AJ Allmendinger also enters as a road-course expert — but today marks his 500th career Cup start, a milestone he has yet to celebrate with a top-five finish at Sonoma in 14 previous attempts, according to NASCAR.
How to Stream the Race Without a Cable Bill
Sling TV carries TNT and now offers flexible short-term passes for fans who don't want a monthly commitment. A 1-Day Pass costs $4.99, with 3-Day and 7-Day options also available, according to Sling. This is a direct response to fans who only want to tune in for a single weekend of racing.
The move to streaming is part of a broader industry shift. Amazon Prime's five-race block in 2026 averaged 2.29 million viewers — up 6% from 2025 — and pulled the median viewer age down to 57.7, compared to 63.1 on traditional linear TV, according to LiveLike. NASCAR's brass sees this as a win. EVP Brian Herbst said the strategy follows "where content consumption patterns are going."
Fragmentation Frustrates Fans as Viewership Data Gets Disputed
Not everyone is happy with the new broadcast landscape. Fans must now rotate through FOX, Amazon, TNT, and NBC — plus their streaming apps — to follow a full Cup Series season. Critics on forums like Reddit say "NASCAR has become too complicated to follow," according to Awful Announcing.
Ratings are also caught in a dispute. FOX and FS1 averaged just 3.11 million viewers in early 2026 — a fourth straight year of decline — according to BlackBook Motorsport. NASCAR has since stopped publicizing Nielsen's "Big Data + Panel" numbers, claiming the method undercounts its older rural audience, and now only releases "Panel-Only" data for official reports, according to Sports Media Watch.
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