NASCAR has come to terms with Ticketmaster to make the company the Official Ticketing Partner of NASCAR beginning with the 2025 season. Speedway Motorsports, which owns 10 facilities on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule has had a longstanding partnership with the Ticketmaster marketplace prior to the announcement on Thursday. Now, NASCAR-owned tracks will partner with the service to provide a streamlined process for fans to acquire tickets for NASCAR events in 2025 and beyond.
“We partnered with Ticketmaster as our new ticketing solution based on their advanced capabilities, deep industry insights, and proven best ticketing practices in sports. Their expertise will be key in consolidating all NASCAR-owned race events onto one efficient and accessible platform, improving our overall operations,” said Kari Gritton, NASCAR’s Senior Vice President of Consumer Strategy. “We’re thrilled to join forces with Ticketmaster to deliver a consistent and user-friendly purchasing experience that our fans expect.”
Previously, NASCAR was partnered with Tickets.com, and SeatGeek.
As part of the deal, NASCAR says fans will be able to discover upcoming racing events on TikTok and Snapchat using Ticketmaster’s distribution network. Additionally, NASCAR will launch a new and improved NASCAR Tracks App, which will be fully integrated with Ticketmaster Ignite. According to NASCAR, this will give race fans seamless ticket management on their smartphones.
Per a press release, Ticketmaster will employ its SafeTix, Smart Queue, and other industry-leading tools as well as new solutions, which the ticket marketplace will tailor specifically for NASCAR and Speedway Motorsports.
“NASCAR and Speedway Motorsports have the vision to build a frictionless fan experience, and we’re the right partner to help them achieve that goal,” said Marla Ostroff, Ticketmaster’s Managing Director of North America. “The technologies, services, and consultancy we provide are designed to empower our partners to refine their operations from A to Z – all with zero compromises to the fan experience.”
Speedway Motorsports has enjoyed its relationship with Ticketmaster and is excited that race fans will have a consistent ticket-buying experience at Speedway Motorsports and NASCAR-owned facilities starting next season.
“Our longstanding partnership with Ticketmaster has provided efficiency and consistency through the purchase process as well as the operational excellence to serve our fans on race day,” said Speedway Motorsports Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer Kevin Camper. “Ticketmaster is best in class for sports and entertainment, and our fans will continue to benefit from the ticketing industry’s best technology and service team.”
While the announcement is a big deal for NASCAR, Live Nation Entertainment Inc., and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Ticketmaster LLC had a civil antitrust lawsuit filed against them by the Justice Department, and 30 state and district attorneys general on May 24, and in August, 10 more states joined the fight.
“We allege that Live Nation relies on unlawful, anticompetitive conduct to exercise its monopolistic control over the live events industry in the United States at the cost of fans, artists, smaller promoters, and venue operators,” said United States Attorney General Merrick B. Garland in the lawsuit. “The result is that fans pay more in fees, artists have fewer opportunities to play concerts, smaller promoters get squeezed out, and venues have fewer real choices for ticketing services. It is time to break up Live Nation-Ticketmaster.”
It is worth noting that NASCAR and Speedway Motorsports don’t have existing deals that have been announced with Live Nation.
