
Brace yourselves, race fans, because NASCAR’s second-tier series is about to go through yet another name change. Yes, after a decade of slapping its logo on the series, Comcast’s Xfinity brand is packing up and heading for the hills—well, sort of. They’re sticking around as a “Premier Partner” of NASCAR, which is just corporate-speak for “we still want our name on stuff, just not that stuff.”
So what does this mean? Well, after the 2025 season, NASCAR will have to start looking for a new title sponsor for its AAA-level racing league. Maybe we can just go back to calling it the Busch Series, like the good ol’ days, when beer companies weren’t afraid to slap their names on things that go very fast and occasionally end up on fire.
Xfinity originally took over as the title sponsor in 2015, right when NBC returned to airing NASCAR races—because nothing says synergy like a cable company sponsoring a sport that’s best enjoyed without buffering. The deal was worth around $200 million over ten years, meaning that, yes, someone actually thought, “You know what would make people sign up for internet service? Naming a stock car series after it.”
But now, with The CW (yes, the network that brought you “Riverdale” and a dozen supernatural teen dramas) set to air every Xfinity Series race from 2025 onward, Comcast has decided it’s time to step aside. Instead, they’ll be focusing on things like making Xfinity Mobile the “official wireless partner of NASCAR” (because what every race fan wants is better phone reception in the middle of nowhere) and launching something called the Xfinity Fastest Lap. Apparently, they took a look at Formula 1’s now-defunct fastest lap bonus and thought, Yes, let’s try that. Americans love borrowing F1 ideas and then pretending they invented them.
Comcast’s reasoning for all this? One exec put it best: “It’s time for someone else to take that mantle and continue to grow the series to heights that we can’t even consider at this point.” Which, translated from corporate speak, means: “We’ve spent enough money, someone else can have a turn now.”
So, what now? NASCAR has to hit the corporate pavement and find a new company willing to pay millions of dollars to have its name attached to races full of soon-to-be Cup drivers and Cup drivers who aren’t ready to admit their best years are behind them. The possibilities are endless—how about the Buc-ee’s Series? The Waffle House Series? Or maybe, just maybe, we stop pretending and bring back the Busch Series, because if we’re going to name a racing league after a product, it may as well be a cold beer at the end of a long day.
In the meantime, Xfinity will still be slapping its logo on things, sponsoring 23XI Racing in the Cup Series and launching a new ad campaign with Tyler Reddick. Whether or not any of this will help you remember that Xfinity provides internet service is anyone’s guess.
But hey, at least we get one more season to say, “The Xfinity Series, brought to you by Xfinity,” before it’s back to the great corporate naming roulette. Buckle up.
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