Honestly, I almost skipped this one until I read past the headline. Brad Keselowski stepping out of the No. 6 at the end of 2026 is a big deal inside the garage, and a genuine shock given he co-owns RFK Racing. But it is not, on its face, a "where do I watch it" question. Then I remembered what happens every time a veteran announces an exit: the lapsed fans come back. People who haven't watched a Cup race since Jimmie Johnson retired suddenly want to see the last few starts, and they go looking for the race on Sunday and cannot find it. Not because it isn't on. Because NASCAR's TV deal is now split four ways, and nobody told them.

So this is less a Keselowski article than a "NASCAR moved and didn't leave a forwarding address" article. I've tested every app involved. Here's how I'd actually set it up.

The four-way split, and why it matters for your wallet

Since 2025, the Cup Series season has been carved into chunks with different owners. FOX opens the year, from the Daytona 500 through the spring. Some of those races are on the FOX broadcast network, and a good chunk are on FS1, which is the first trap: you can have FOX over the air and still miss half the spring. Then Amazon Prime Video takes five races starting Memorial Day weekend with the Coca-Cola 600. Then TNT Sports gets a five-race summer stretch on TNT, streaming on HBO Max, including the in-season bracket they built around it. Then NBC takes over for the back half of the summer and the entire playoffs, spread across NBC and USA Network, with Peacock as the streaming home.

Practice and qualifying moved almost entirely to streaming, split between Prime Video and HBO Max depending on the point in the season. If you only ever watch the race itself, ignore that. If you care about qualifying, it changes the math a little.

My honest read of that arrangement: it's annoying, but it's also the most cord-cutter-friendly NASCAR has ever been, because three of the four partners sell a direct streaming product. You don't need an $85 bundle to see most of the season. You need to know which month it is.

What I'd actually do (the cheap plan)

If I were building this from scratch for 2026, I'd start with an antenna. A $25 flat antenna gets you FOX and NBC in most metro areas, and that covers the Daytona 500, a handful of spring races, the biggest summer NBC dates, and the championship race in November. Zero monthly cost, and frankly the picture beats most streams.

Then I'd fill the gaps month by month rather than paying for everything all year:

  • Spring (the FS1 races): Fox One, FOX's own streaming app, runs about $20 a month and carries FOX and FS1 live. Turn it on in February, cancel in May. The app is fine. Not great, fine.
  • Late May and June (Prime Video): a Prime membership is about $15 a month or $139 a year. Most households already have it, so this part is effectively free for a lot of people. Amazon's race production was the pleasant surprise of 2025 for me. Clean broadcast, good booth, and the live feed has been more stable than I expected.
  • Summer (TNT): HBO Max with ads is around $11 a month. Five races, then cancel. I keep Max around for other reasons anyway, but if you don't, it's a two-month rental.
  • Late summer and the playoffs (NBC and USA): Peacock Premium is about $11 a month with ads. In 2025 NBC Sports streamed its Cup races on Peacock, including the USA Network dates, but the USA-only races are the one spot where I'd double-check the official schedule at nascar.com before cutting anything. That's the piece of this plan I'd tell a friend to verify.

Rough season total if you already have Prime: about $60 for three spring months of Fox One, $22 for two months of Max, and $33 or so for three months of Peacock. Call it $115 for the year, plus the antenna. Compare that to a live TV bundle at $80 to $85 a month for nine months and you see why I bother with the juggling.

The lazy plan (and it's a legit choice)

If the month-by-month thing sounds exhausting, a live TV streaming bundle covers everything except the Amazon races on one bill. YouTube TV (around $83), Fubo Pro (around $85), Hulu + Live TV (around $83) and DirecTV Stream all carry FOX, FS1, NBC, USA Network and TNT. Pick on features. YouTube TV has the best DVR and the multiview grid, which is genuinely great on a weekend with a Truck race stacked on top. Fubo has the sports-first interface and 4K on some events. Hulu + Live TV is the right answer if you're already paying for Disney+ and Hulu anyway. None of them replaces Prime Video for those five late-spring races. No bundle does. That's the one slice Amazon kept for itself.

Sling deserves a mention as the budget bundle, with a catch. Sling Blue, around $46, carries FS1, USA Network and TNT, but FOX and NBC local stations only in select markets. If yours isn't one of them, pair it with the antenna and you're in decent shape for a little over half of what YouTube TV costs. Check your address on Sling's site before you assume.

And cable still works, obviously. If you have a Comcast or Spectrum package with FS1 and USA, you already have three-quarters of the season. You just need Prime for the early-summer gap.

Time-sensitive: the rest of Keselowski's 2026 in the No. 6

This section will age, so treat it as a snapshot. As I write this we're in the playoffs, which means every remaining Cup race this season sits on NBC's side of the deal. The Sunday races rotate between NBC and USA Network, and Peacock is the streaming option. Championship weekend is in November on NBC, at Homestead-Miami this year, and that's where Keselowski's run in the 6 wraps up whether he makes the final round or not. If you only care about watching those last starts, a month or two of Peacock or the antenna for the NBC dates is all you need. Don't sign up for a year of anything.

Where he lands for 2027, and who fills the No. 6, isn't announced yet. When it is, your watching plan doesn't change. The media deal runs through 2031, so this structure holds for a while.

One last opinion. NASCAR gets grief for scattering races across four partners, and from the couch the complaint is fair. But the old deal had FS1 and NBCSN as gatekeepers, and there was no honest way to watch a full season without a cable bill. Now there is. It just takes a calendar and a willingness to cancel things. I've cancelled and restarted both Fox One and Max, and neither one made it painful.

That's my plan. Steal it, adjust it for your market, and watch the 6 while it's still Brad's.

Marcus

— Marcus Bell