NASCAR on television and radio

The following is the history of the coverage of NASCAR racing on television and radio. Although coverage of NASCAR dates back to at least 1960, the first flag-to-flag coverage of the sport on television was in 1979.

Television

Early years

One of the earliest telecasts of a NASCAR race was the 1960 Daytona 500, parts of which was presented as part of CBS Sports Spectacular, with announcer Bud Palmer.^[1]

In the ensuing years, but before 1979, there were three main sources of NASCAR telecasts:^{[citation needed]}

• ABC's Wide World of Sports, the famous sports anthology program, provided coverage of select NASCAR Winston Cup races in the 1970s. In 1971, it presented a 200-lap race at Greenville-Pickens Speedway in its entirety, the first such broadcast of a NASCAR race. Throughout the 1970s, ABC presented portions of the Daytona 500, Southern 500, and other important races.
• In the late 1970s, CBS Sports Spectacular aired some races; like Wide World of Sports, they were taped and edited.
• Car & Track, a weekly auto racing show hosted by Bud Lindemann, recapped all of NASCAR's top-series races in the 1960s and '70s in a weekly 30-minute syndicated show. (Today, the show has been repackaged, renamed Back in the Day, and airs on the Speed Channel with host Dale Earnhardt, Jr.)

Flag-to-flag coverage

See also: NASCAR on CBS, NASCAR on TNN, and NASCAR on TBS

CBS Sports President Neal Pilson and motor-sports editor Ken Squier believed that America would watch an entire stock car race live on television. On February 18, 1979, CBS presented the first flag-to-flag coverage of the Daytona 500.^[2] Richard Petty won NASCAR's crown-jewel race for the sixth time, but the big story was the post-race fight on the track's infield between Cale Yarborough and Donnie Allison, who crashed together on the final lap while leading.^[2] The race drew incredible ratings, in part due to the compelling action both on and off the track, and in part because a major snowstorm on the East Coast kept millions of viewers indoors.^{[citation needed]}

As time passed, more Winston Cup races ended up on TV. ESPN broadcast its first race in 1981, from North Carolina Motor Speedway^[3] (its first live race was later in the year at Atlanta International Raceway), and TNN followed in 1991. All Cup races were nationally televised by 1985; networks struck individual deals with track owners, and multiple channels carried racing action. Many races were shown taped and edited on Wide World of Sports and syndication services like Mizlou and SETN, but almost all races were live by 1989. By 2000, the last year of this arrangement, six networks televised at least one Cup series race: CBS, ABC, ESPN, TNN, TBS, and NBC. Also, a growing number of races in the Busch Grand National Series and Craftsman Truck Series were made available for broadcast, and some track owners even threw in support races in lesser series.

NASCAR wanted to capitalize on its increased popularity even more, so they decided that future deals would be centralized; that is, the networks would negotiate directly with NASCAR for a regular schedule of telecasts.

Fox Sports, FX, NBC and TNT

See also: NASCAR on NBC and NASCAR on TNT

That deal was struck on December 15, 1999. Fox Sports, FX, NBC and TBS agreed to pay $2.4 billion for a new six-year package, covering the Winston/Nextel Cup Series and Busch Series schedules.

• Fox and FX would televise race 1 through 16 of the 2001, 2003, and 2005 seasons and race 2 through 17 of the 2002, 2004, and 2006 seasons. Fox would air the Daytona 500 in the odd-numbered years and the Pepsi 400 in even-numbered years. All Busch Series races during that part of the season would also be on Fox/FX.
• NBC and TBS would televise the final 17 races of the even-numbered years as well as the Daytona 500 and the last 18 races, including the Pepsi 400, of the odd-numbered years, as well as all Busch Series races held in that time of the year. In March 2001, Turner Sports moved the upcoming races scheduled to be shown on TBS to its sister network, TNT.^[4]
• The year-by-year alternating of the Daytona 500 was packaged with the additional events of Speedweeks. The Budweiser Shootout, Daytona 500 pole qualifying, Gatorade 125s/Duel, as well as the 300-mile Busch Series event. The network covering the Daytona 500 in a given season, also carried the those other events.

ESPN retained the rights to the Craftsman Truck Series through 2002 under a separate contract. Beginning in 2003, Speed Channel became the exclusive broadcast home of that series.

The centralized TV deal caused consternation among many longtime NASCAR fans. The biggest criticisms include an increase in commercial breaks, emphasis on the more popular drivers and teams to the exclusion of others, and the de-emphasis of actual racing coverage in exchange for more fluff and hype.^{[citation needed]}

Fox/Speed Channel, ABC/ESPN, and TNT

See also: NASCAR on Fox, NASCAR on ESPN, and NASCAR on TNT

Late in 2005, NBC announced that they no longer wanted to carry NASCAR races on their schedule. ABC/ESPN took the opportunity to regain the series. On December 12, 2005, NASCAR announced its next TV contract: eight years, $4.8 billion with Fox/Speed Channel, ABC/ESPN, and TNT.^[5] This time, the deal bundles the Camping World Truck Series in with the Sprint Cup and Nationwide series:

• Fox shows the first 13 Cup races along with the Budweiser Shootout every year, including the Daytona 500. Formerly the package ran through the first weekend in June and the race at Dover International Speedway, but due to schedule changes the last race in the package is currently the STP 400 at Kansas Speedway.
• TNT, which split from former partner NBC, then picks up the coverage, with the next six telecasts, which currently covers the following tracks: Pocono, Michigan, Sonoma, Loudon, Daytona (Coke Zero 400), and Kentucky. The Coke Zero 400 is presented with limited commercial interruptions.^[6]
• ESPN then televises most of the rest of the schedule. Three Saturday-night races are on ABC under the Disney brand "ESPN on ABC". The Brickyard 400 begins the package. Formerly ESPN broadcast the first 6 and ABC under the ESPN on ABC banner broadcast the last 11, including the entire Chase for the Sprint Cup, but due to NASCAR moving up the start times to earlier in the day, conflicts with ABC's political programming have precipitated all but 3 races now on ESPN.
• Speed Channel carries the Gatorade Duel at Daytona, just before the Daytona 500, and the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Challenge at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May.
• ESPN2 and ABC carry all Nationwide Series races during this time. The plan for 2010 is to have four Nationwide races on ABC, with the rest on ESPN or ESPN2. ESPN's return to NASCAR television took place at the Orbitz 300 on February 17, 2007.
• Speed Channel moved two of its Camping World Truck Series races to Fox from 2007–09; usually, they were scheduled to be the California race and the spring race at Martinsville. Since 2010, all CWTS races are on Speed.
• The Coors Light Pole qualifying sessions for Cup racing are shown on Speed Channel and ESPN2 with the exception of Daytona 500 qualifying, which is shown on Fox.
• On the pay-per-view front, DirecTV premiered NASCAR Hot Pass at the 2007 Daytona 500. The package consists of four channels, each dedicated to a particular driver with team communications among the driver, crew chief, and spotter. From 2007–08, Hot Pass also had separate lap-by-lap announcers and color commentators for each channel.^[7]

NBC and FX no longer carried NASCAR. NBC's departure is probably no surprise,^{[citation needed]} given that it is paying $2.8 billion for six years of Sunday night telecasts of the National Football League. Most production members will stay with TNT. Both the new NFL and old NASCAR deals overlapped in 2006, which forced some postrace coverage at NBC races to air on CNBC. FX no longer aired sporting events from 2006 to 2010; the last such event regularly aired by FX, the UEFA Champions League final, has moved to the main Fox network, though it will air college football in 2011. (It also showed the ninth inning of a rain-delayed Fox game between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox when it conflicted with the start of the 2008 Subway Fresh Fit 500, as well as other games which have overrun into the starts of NASCAR races.)

The new contracts increase the amount of coverage from each weekend's races. When the 2007 season began, all practices for Nextel Cup Series races were televised, whereas only the final practice ("happy hour") was carried before. In addition, all Busch Series final practices and qualifying sessions were also shown; before, a few qualifying sessions were not seen and only a handful of practices were seen. Most, if not all, truck series time trials are also broadcast.

However, as the season progressed, the TV partners began to skip some non-race events. For example, Speed Channel did not show final practice for the Goody's Cool Orange 500 on March 31, instead covering the Barrett-Jackson vintage car auction. Also, neither Speed Channel nor ESPN2 planned coverage of either practice or qualifying for the Busch Series O'Reilly 300 at Texas Motor Speedway on April 12 (a Thursday), opting to begin the weekend's coverage the next day (Friday, April 13) with Sprint Cup practice and qualifying.

From 2007 to 2010, average race viewership has fallen from 7.85 million at its height to 5.99 million in 2010, according to the Sports Business Journal.^[8]

Broadcasters

The broadcast teams for each package are as follows:

• Fox retained most of the same announcers that have worked for the network since 2001: Mike Joy, Larry McReynolds, and Darrell Waltrip in the booth, pit reporters Steve Byrnes, Dick Berggren, and Matt Yocum; and prerace hosts Chris Myers and Jeff Hammond. Krista Voda moved up from Speed, and replaced Jeanne Zelasko as the fourth pit reporter, working all races. (That change was necessary because Major League Baseball on Fox, on which Zelasko also works, now lasts the entire season with the 2007 MLB contract.)
• The ESPN/ABC team: Marty Reid, Dale Jarrett, and Andy Petree in the booth; Allen Bestwick, Dave Burns, Jamie Little, and Mike Massaro in the pits. Coordinating producer Neil Goldberg returned to ESPN in 2007 after six years at Fox.
• TNT kept Bill Weber as lap-by-lap announcer and Wally Dallenbach as analyst. After some speculation, Kyle Petty was revealed as the second analyst for the network's coverage on February 7, 2007.^[9] He will continue as an active NASCAR driver. Benny Parsons, who was an NBC/TNT analyst, died on January 16, 2007 and it is unclear if he would have returned to the booth in any event, as he had reportedly talked about retirement after 2006. The pit reporters are Yocum, Marty Snider, Ralph Sheheen, and Lindsay Czarniak. McReynolds, a booth analyst for Fox, is the pre-race analyst.^[10] Weber also continues as host of the Countdown to Green pre-race show. Marc Fein joins McReynolds on a new "pre-pre-race" show called NASCAR on TNT Live.

Bill Weber left the TNT NASCAR race broadcasts in the early part of the 2009 season and was replaced by Ralph Sheheen for the rest of that season. Sheen was replaced by Adam Alexander for 2010.

Radio

Current broadcasts

Currently, three separate networks cover NASCAR races on radio:

• MRN: Founded by Ken Squier and Bill France, Jr. in 1971, it covers all Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series events at tracks owned by ISC, as well as Dover and Pocono. It also cover all events of the Truck Series.
• PRN: Covers all Sprint Cup and Nationwide events at tracks owned by Speedway Motorsports.
• IMS Radio Network: Covers the Brickyard 400, with many of the same announcers and production staff that covers the Indy 500, with assistance from some PRN staff.

From 2002—2006, all races were heard on XM channel 90 across the continental United States. In 2007, national satellite radio rights moved to Sirius channel 90. Among the programs on Sirius NASCAR Radio are a weekly program co-hosted by TV pit reporter Matt Yocum and Tony Stewart, and a morning drive time show with David Poole of the Charlotte Observer and Marty Smith of ESPN.com.

Following the merger of XM and Sirius, Sirius NASCAR Radio is heard on the XM through the "Best of Sirius" package on channel 90.

All three networks also have affiliation deals with hundreds of local radio stations. Many stations sign with more than one of these networks to ensure coverage of the entire season.

Beyond the United States

While NASCAR does not produce a "world feed" broadcast, it does have 23 international broadcast partners. Among them are TSN, Premier Sports, Sportsnet, The Score, Bell TV, Speed Latin America, Speed Brazil, Fox Sports Latin America, Fox Middle East, Fox Sports Australia, Channel 5, ESPN America, Viasat, StarHub, Dubai Sports Channel, SNTV, and American Forces Network.^[11] Neo Sports in India start broadcasting NASCAR Races in March 2010 at Martinsville.

References

1. ^ Ryan McGee (2007). ESPN Ultimate NASCAR. ESPN Books. pp. 42–43. ISBN 1933060255. 
2. ^ ^{a b} "1979: Petty winds up in 'fist' place". January 23, 2003. http://www.nascar.com/2003/kyn/history/daytona/01/23/daytona_1979/. Retrieved 2011-02-14. 
3. ^ http://www.speedcouch.com/behindthemic/MikeJoy.html
4. ^ http://www.nascar.com/2001/NEWS/official/03/27/tbs_tnt/index.html
5. ^ http://www.jayski.com/pages/media.htm
6. ^ http://www.thatsracin.com/242/story/3243.html
7. ^ http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/global/contentPage.jsp?assetId=P3980112&CMP=ILC-Q406-RHR-HotPass
8. ^ "10 years after crash, NASCAR still coping with Earnhardt's death". Sports Business Journal. CNN. February 10, 2011. http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/02/10/earnhardt.10.year/. Retrieved 2011-02-14. "In the four years since NASCAR signed a multibillion-dollar media deal, average race viewership has fallen from 7.85 million at its height to 5.99 million last year, according to the Sports Business Journal." 
9. ^ http://www.nascar.com/2007/news/headlines/cup/02/07/kpetty.tnt.broadcast/index.html
10. ^ http://www.speedcouch.com/smf/index.php?topic=2745.0
11. ^ http://www.nascar.com/2003/races/ontv/headlines/02/13/international/

External links

• Fox Sports
• Speed Channel
• RPM.ESPN.com
• Motor Racing Network
• Performance Racing Network
• Indianapolis Motor Speedway
• Sports Media Watch: NASCAR Ratings
• Backseat Drivers Fan Council rates the media -- how did we do?