The NASCAR Cup Series playoffs are here, and The Chase begins at Darlington Raceway with the first of 10 races to decide the Cup Series champion. The Cook Out Southern 500 goes green Sunday, Sept. 6, at 5 p.m. ET on USA Network. When it comes to standings, Denny Hamlin gets to start with 2,100 points, which gives him a 25-point cushion over Ryan Blaney at 2,075. Tyler Reddick is right behind him at 2,065. And that’s pretty much the Chase this year – 10 races, no eliminations, wins are worth 55 points, and you just keep adding to the total until somebody walks away with the championship. Buckle up! You can stream all the racing action with Sling TV’s multitude of subscription options.

How to watch the 2026 NASCAR Cook Out Southern 500

• When: Sunday, Sept. 6, 2026, at 5 p.m. ET
• TV: Race on USA Network, practice and qualifying on truTV
• Stream: Watch with a subscription to Sling TV.
• From anywhere: Watch with a subscription to a VPN.

Everything you need to know about the 2026 Cook Out Southern 500:

What is the broadcast schedule for the 2026 NASCAR Cook Out Southern 500?

Why we like Sling TV for watching the NASCAR Cook Out Southern 500

Live TV is annoying in exactly this kind of situation. You want to watch one NASCAR weekend and somehow that means figuring out where practice is, where qualifying is, where the actual race is, and whether any one service has all of it. It’s a lot for what is basically two days of racing.

Sling is useful here because you don’t have to go straight into a giant monthly package if you don’t want to. There are several ways to subscribe, including a one-day pass starting at $5, three-day and seven-day options, smaller channel packages, and then the full standard lineup for $61 per month. Basically, you can match what you’re paying to how much NASCAR you actually plan on watching.

For the Cook Out Southern 500, Sling Blue is the one that makes sense. It’s $46 per month and has USA Network and truTV, which gets you practice, qualifying, and the race. No bouncing between services. It also has local ABC, NBC, and Fox stations in select markets, though for this weekend that’s kind of beside the point. USA and truTV are what you need.

Save with Sling

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Sling TV

Sling TV is The Streamable’s choice for cord-cutters on a budget. Sling is a live TV streaming service with multiple channel packages. The $45.99/month Sling Orange plan offers about 30 channels, including Disney Channel and ESPN. The $45.99/month Sling Blue plan offers about 40 channels, including ABC, Fox, and NBC in major markets.

You can combine Orange+Blue for a total of $60.99 / month. Sling also offers many channel add-on packages starting at $6/month.

Save with Sling

$19.99+ / month

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Can you watch the NASCAR Cook Out Southern 500 for free?

Free trials are great for something like this because you might only care about NASCAR for the weekend. That’s it. Watch practice, watch qualifying, watch the Cook Out Southern 500, then move on with your life. The trick is figuring out what each service actually means when it says “free trial,” because apparently that part can’t just be simple.

DIRECTV STREAM, Hulu + Live TV, and YouTube TV all have some version of one. They’re not identical, though, and the length of the trial can change depending on what offer your account gets.

The easiest one to understand is DIRECTV STREAM. You regularly get five days free. Plenty of time for the entire Darlington weekend without having to do any timing gymnastics. Hulu usually gives new subscribers three free days, which also works; just don’t sign up on, like, Tuesday if the only thing you care about is Sunday’s race.

YouTube TV is where things get murky. It advertises trials of up to 21 days, but that doesn’t mean that’s what you’re definitely getting which can be frustrating if you’re only signing up for one race. So this is one of those annoying little things where you really do have to look at the final checkout screen before clicking through. That’s where the actual trial length shows up.

Watch a recap of last week’s NASCAR Cup Series race

How to watch the 2026 NASCAR Cook Out Southern 500 from anywhere

If you’ll be away from home and can’t watch the 2026 NASCAR Cook Out Southern 500 as you normally would, you can still catch all of the action no matter where you are in the world, with a VPN. A VPN can be used on your phone, tablet, or computer and make you appear to be back home — even when you’re not — making sure you feel at home no matter where you are. A VPN is a safe and secure way to stay protected online while streaming your favorite sports, movies, and shows on the go. Keep in mind that you will still need to be subscribed to Sling TV in order to stream the race with a VPN.

NordVPN is one of the best providers around, at one of the best prices. I use it every single day to surf the web. Currently, you can get two full years of protection for just $3.49 per month — plus you’ll get three extra months FREE. A high-speed VPN with best-in-class security that can be used on up to 10 devices at once — what more could you ask for? Simply sign up, install the software on your device of choice, and start streaming just as you would back home. It couldn’t be easier!

While NordVPN is our recommendation for the best VPN to use while you are traveling (and my preferred option), there are a number of other high-quality options available depending on what you are looking for.

• Best Features: ExpressVPN | Pro features for $7.50 per month
• Best Budget Option: Surfshark | Starting at $2.50 per month
• Best Free Option: Proton VPN | Free plan available

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