Why did NASCAR’s Phoenix Truck Series race change television channels, and where can fans watch Friday’s event? The NASCAR broadcast schedule became unexpectedly entangled with Major League Baseball’s postseason, leaving viewers facing a possible network switch ahead of the October 16 race at Phoenix Raceway. The NASCAR Truck Series race at Phoenix Raceway returns to FS1 Friday after the Milwaukee Brewers swept the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS.
The Brewers’ four-game sweep removed any need for a Game 5 on FS1, putting the Zero Carbon Bioethanol 150 back on the network with 17 points separating the top two Chase drivers. The Truck Series race was previously relegated to the FS2 network.
Green flag is set for 7:30 p.m. ET, according to FOX Sports reporter Bob Pockrass. The race also streams on FOX One, while Friday practice at 3:30 p.m. ET and qualifying at 4:35 p.m. ET remain on FS2 and FOX One.
NASCAR and Fox had moved the race to FS2 and FOX Business around Oct. 10 to clear FS1 for a possible NLCS Game 5, according to Jayski’s NASCAR news feed. Milwaukee closed the series Thursday with a 6-4 comeback win at Dodger Stadium, according to ESPN’s Game 4 recap. The Brewers advance to their first World Series since 1982.
Truck Series Phoenix Race Preview and Chase Standings
The Zero Carbon Bioethanol 150 Powered by POET is Race 22 of 25 and the fourth of seven events in the Chase presented by Mobil 1, according to Jayski’s Phoenix race page. Drivers run 150 laps around the one-mile oval, with stages ending at laps 45 and 90. The purse sits near $789,700.
Corey Heim won the 2025 championship race at Phoenix, and Ty Majeski (2024), Christian Eckes (2023), Zane Smith (2022) and Chandler Smith (2021) won there in the years before. Chandler Smith posts a 3.6 average finish at the track, including a win and multiple top-three runs, according to NASCAR.com.
Kaden Honeycutt also has a solid history at Phoenix, while he and Layne Riggs are both winless at the remaining Chase tracks, according to RotoWire’s Truck Series preview.
Honeycutt of TRICON Garage leads the standings at 2,251 points after Charlotte, with Riggs of Front Row Motorsports 17 behind at 2,234, according to Kickin’ the Tires’ Charlotte report. Chandler Smith, also of Front Row, sits third at 2,174, followed by Eckes at 2,163 and Daniel Hemric at 2,142.
Riggs won at Charlotte for his seventh victory of 2026, trimming a 37-point deficit to 17, according to Frontstretch’s Charlotte race report. Honeycutt led for much of the race before a late mistake.
Three races follow Phoenix — Talladega, Martinsville and Homestead.
FS1 vs. FS2 Audience Reach and Fox Truck Series Deal
FS1 reaches roughly 55 million households, while FS2 reaches about 39 million as of June 30, according to Fox Corporation’s 2026 annual report. The 16 million-home gap separates the two networks’ reach.
Primetime FS1 audiences for major events routinely reach the hundreds of thousands, while FS2 draws far fewer viewers, often tens of thousands, according to USTVDB.
FOX Sports holds exclusive rights to the entire Truck Series schedule through NASCAR’s seven-year media agreements, which run 2025 through 2031 and span FOX, NBC, Prime Video and TNT Sports, according to NASCAR.com.
The combined deals are valued near $7.7 billion, roughly $1.1 billion annually, according to The Athletic. Most Truck races air on FS1, with a few on the FOX broadcast network.
Truck Series viewership is up about 19% this season across Fox platforms, averaging roughly 667,000 viewers, according to Sports Business Journal. Favorable weather helped the gains.
The Daytona season opener on FS1 drew 1.387 million viewers, up 37% from 2025 and the most-watched Truck race since 2016, with a peak of 1.604 million, according to FOX Sports.
This article was originally published on HEAVY
The post Why Did NASCAR Phoenix Truck Race Change TV Channels? Where Will it Air Friday? appeared first on HEAVY.