NASCAR’s second-tier series will need a new title sponsor in 2026.
Xfinity has been the sponsor of the series since 2014, but will vacate that sponsorship at the end of the 2025 season, according to multiple reports. Xfinity had signed a 10-year deal to be the title sponsor beginning in 2015, and NASCAR announced Tuesday that Xfinity had signed a one-year extension for the 2025 season.
The Comcast brand is staying in NASCAR as a premier sponsor of the top-tier Cup Series. NASCAR has not had a title sponsor for the Cup Series since Monster Energy left after the 2019 season. Over the past five seasons, NASCAR has had multiple top-level sponsors for the Cup Series; its three are currently Busch, Coca-Cola and Xfinity.
The Xfinity Series was spun off into the Grand National Series from NASCAR’s longtime sportsman division in 1984. Busch was the sponsor for the series through 2007, and Nationwide Insurance took over as the title sponsor through 2014.
Xfinity’s departure as the title sponsor comes as the Xfinity Series has its own TV deal starting in 2025. Xfinity Series broadcasts had been split among Fox and NBC along with the Cup Series schedule but are now all going to be on the CW in 2025 and beyond. The CW obtained the rights to the series as it expands its sports portfolio with ACC and Pac-12 sporting events.
NASCAR also announced on Tuesday that Xfinity would sponsor a fastest lap program across the Cup Series, Xfinity Series and Truck Series. The driver with the fastest lap in a given race will get an extra point in a move similar to what F1 employs. An F1 driver can get a bonus point for the fastest lap if he finishes in the top 10.
There were no such finishing position conditions specified in NASCAR’s announcement. If there are no qualifiers for the fastest lap award, NASCAR could be setting itself up for further race manipulation — especially in the playoffs — if a driver multiple laps down pits for fresh tires and the fastest lap to deny a rival from getting the point.
The penultimate race of the 2024 Cup Series season was plagued with race manipulation in the waning laps as Chevrolet drivers formed a barricade of sorts to ensure that fellow Chevy driver William Byron would have the opportunity to race for the Cup Series title the following week while Toyota’s Bubba Wallace slowed with what he said was a flat tire as Christopher Bell got past him.
Bell bounced off the wall on the final lap in a move that NASCAR deemed illegal to allow Byron to advance to the final four.
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