Watch NASCAR Racing All Season Long with DISH: Midseason Update

19 down, 17 to go! We’re just over the halfway point of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season, but only have seven races to go until the Round of 16 of the NASCAR playoffs start. Silly Season has fully revved up (is it ever not, these days?) and there’s lots to recap about what’s happened so far, and lots more still to look forward to in the race for the NASCAR Cup Series Championship. As the action shifts to NBC and USA Network, here’s a midseason update and how to watch NASCAR with dish!

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We’ve seen 11 different race winners through 19 contests, with William Byron, Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, and Christopher Bell tied for the win lead with three each. Seven other drivers are tied at one-win apiece; with 2-time Cup Champion Joey Logano picking up his first win of the season, and locking up his spot in the playoffs with a gutsy win at the Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway, which featured an incredible 31 extra laps through five overtime cautions. Logano was running exceptionally low on fuel, and each overtime caution saw at least a few cars to pit to ensure they had enough fuel to finish. But Logano and crew chief Paul Wolfe believed in the ability of their Roush Yates engine to only sip as much fuel as was necessary. Logano’s Mustang eventually ran out of fuel during his celebratory post-race burnout.

Elsewhere in the standings, as noted in the season preview Denny Hamlin’s most certainly nearing the end of his career and wants to fill the biggest gaping hole in his trophy cabinet – the Championship. Currently in third, Hamlin is only 43 points out of first place – held by Kyle Larson, and only 23 points out of second, a spot held by NASCAR’s reigning most popular driver Chase Elliott.

As the teams enter the dog days of summer, all attention turns to the race for the Chase, as the drivers only have seven races left to make sure they’re locked into the playoffs. Martin Truex Jr., currently in fifth place in the points standings, recently announced that he’ll be retiring from full-time competition in NASCAR at the end of the season, and he currently finds himself inside the cut line for playoff qualification. A win locks you into the chase – can Truex find a win to secure his spot, will he make it without a win, or will the well-liked Joe Gibbs Racing driver be left out in the cold? Also looking for a spot in the playoffs is series vet Kyle Busch who finds himself 104 points out of the Chase. These two popular, experienced drivers – along with many more – will be fighting hard for every point and a spot in the Chase, looking for one more Championship before their careers come to an end – some sooner than others.

Even though there are only seven races left in the regular season – and 17 left in total – there are some highly popular tracks known for great racing still to come on the schedule.

Here’s a full look at the second half of the 2024 NASCAR schedule.

First we turn our attention to the Chicago street race on Sunday, July 7 – where 3,400lb, 750hp stock cars roar through the streets of downtown Chicago. Last year series rookie Shane Gisbergen (a three-time champion in the Australian Supercars series) took home the victory in his very first race – the first Cup series driver to win in their debut since Indy car driver Johnny Rutherford did so in 1963. Can the Kiwi, affectionately known as SVG, repeat? Will Truex, with five career road course victories, secure his spot in the playoffs? Will cagey veteran Kyle Busch take the top spot?

On Sunday, July 24, the NASCAR Cup Series returns to the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway for the Brickyard 400 – their first time running 400 miles on the 2.5 mile oval instead of the 14 turn combined road course that uses an infield road course and a portion of the oval to make up the lap. It’s certain to be a must-see event with 43 cars trying for their chance to kiss the bricks on the low banks of the most famous race track in North America.

We’ll get two races under the lights in heat of August, with Richmond Raceway hosting its 400-miler at 6:00pm ET on Sunday, August 11; the day-night transition should create some excellent racing by creating a changing track that prioritizes a teams’ ability to adjust the car on the fly. Then, on Saturday, August 24, the series will head to Daytona International Speedway for what is sure to be a spark-filled event that could have massive implications for both positioning within and qualifying for the Chase. Daytona, and superspeedways like it, are notorious for their pack racing, which sees significant numbers of cars racing in side-by-side packs at nearly 200mph.  

The final race before the playoffs begin will again be under the lights, as the Cup series visits Darlington, South Carolina on Sunday, Sept. 1 during Labor Day weekend. Tempers will flare on-and-off the track known as the ‘Lady in Black,’ as all the dust settles and we find out who’s in and who’s out of the playoffs once the Southern 500 concludes. Also known as ‘The Track Too Tough to Tame’ by many NASCAR fans and drivers, Darlington is famous for its asymmetrical egg shape, which has a different radius and banking for each end of the speedway. It produces exciting racing, lots of passes, and plenty of opportunities for drivers to earn their Darlington Stripe – streaks of missing paint on the car body left after routine brushes with the wall.

The playoffs begin with the Round of 16 on Sunday, September 8 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, and the series will visit a diverse cross-section of tracks in the first round, with the fast Atlanta intermediate track, a stop-off in upstate New York wine country for a run around the Watkins Glen road course, and then finishing at the high-banked Bristol oval. There’s a little something for everyone, testing teams’ abilities to adapt to every track type and stay up front, fighting to stave off elimination. 

The series will conclude on Sunday, November 10 at Phoenix Raceway, as the final four drivers put it all on the line to come home with a Championship. Will Denny Hamlin win the biggest trophy he’s yet to earn? Will a newcomer like William Byron or Ross Chastain make the leap to NASCAR champion? Will we see a repeat win from the likes of Kyle Larson, Joey Logano, or Ryan Blaney? There’s a reason they run the races – you never know who goes home with a trophy, and who just plain goes home. You’ll have to tune-in to DISH all season long and find out!
– Jason Jewett