NASCAR on ESPN

On October 4, 2008, SportsCenter reported that the

In NASCAR on ESPN's advertising campaign, their slogan was "Feel your heart race", a slogan which had already been trademarked by Kyle Petty's Victory Junction Gang. The latter's advertising also appeared on ESPN-carried races. This was changed to "Cause it's Racing" in 2010 and "Nothing Beats First Place" in 2011 and 2012.

During broadcasts since 2010, several improvements were made, including reduction in technology. There were also changes in announcing and pit reporters, most notably the moving Jerry Punch to pit road and IndyCar and occasional Nationwide Series lead announcer Marty Reid to lead broadcaster for the majority of NASCAR broadcasts beginning in 2010, including the Sprint Cup races. Sponsorship by non-NASCAR sponsors was also reduced. Allen Bestwick, formerly the lap-by-lap announcer for NBC's NASCAR coverage from 2001 to 2004, took over as lead broadcaster for Sprint Cup Series races in 2011.

Once the Chase for the Sprint Cup began and even in the races leading up to the Chase, ESPN often shifted its focus to the drivers in the Chase, in particular Jimmie Johnson. Often if a driver not in the Chase was leading and was passed for the lead by a Chase driver, he was not spoken of again for the rest of the broadcast. Case in point: in the November 2009 race in Texas, the vast majority of the broadcast was spent talking about Jimmie Johnson despite the fact he crashed on lap 3 and finished 38th. This was a fear of many once the Chase was introduced.

Finally, in 2010, ESPN with the consent of NASCAR, changed the networks that races were broadcast on. While the final eleven races of the season were broadcast on ABC from 2007–2009, all Sprint Cup races except for the three Saturday Night races in ESPN's portion of the schedule were switched to ESPN (the Bristol night race, previously on ESPN, was moved to ABC). This left only 3 races on over-the-air broadcasters for the last two-thirds of the NASCAR season. This, combined with the moving of the

Broadcast interruptions

Due to ESPN's various sports commitments, there were several interferences with NASCAR broadcasts. This was especially true once

In 2010, because of the movement of the Chase races to ESPN and the earlier standardized 1:00 PM ET start times instituted by NASCAR, ESPN moved NASCAR Countdown to ESPN2 for all Chase races starting at 1:00 PM ET to avoid shortening or moving its Sunday NFL Countdown program. Viewers had to switch to the race at 1:00 PM ET from ESPN2 to ESPN. The next year, NASCAR moved the Chase races to later times (2:00 ET, then 3:00 ET for the final three races; Martinsville maintained a 1:30 PM ET starting time because, at the time, that track lacked lights and the grandstands cast long shadows over the racing surface in the late afternoon).

Network preemptions and relocations

• On September 30, 2007, the end of the
  that season's Chase
  , was moved from ABC to ESPN2 when a rain delay went past 6 p.m. ET, the end of the allotted broadcast window. This was in contrast to Fox and NBC coverage, which typically stayed on those stations even if the races ran long past the expected time.
• On March 15, 2008, the
  rain delay
  at the time and it was not resumed.
• On May 2, 2008, the
  Memphis Motorsports Park, due to conflicts with college football and the Breeders' Cup.^[9]
• On November 9, 2008, the conclusion of the
  Central time zones aired America's Funniest Home Videos instead, while those in the Mountain and Pacific time zones stayed with race coverage, with ESPN2 serving as a simulcast.^[10]
• On August 22, 2009, at the Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway, both the invocation and the national anthem were preempted because the Little League World Series game ran long.
• On July 31, 2010, the first 23 laps of the Nationwide Series
  Legg Mason Classic that ran long. This came shortly after the channel was upgraded to more expensive channel tiers on DirecTV and Dish Network
  , among other providers.
• The following day, on August 1, the final round of the
  X Games
  at that time. However, the race itself was not affected.
• On October 2, 2010, NASCAR Countdown and the first several laps of the Kansas Lottery 300 were aired on ESPN Classic due to the Clemson-Miami football game running longer than anticipated.
• On October 31, 2010, due to technical difficulties, the last 45 minutes of the Sunday NFL Countdown and the first 57 laps of the 2010 AMP Energy Juice 500 were preempted on some providers.
• The 2011 Bubba Burger 250 scheduled for April 29 was moved from ESPN to Speed due to anticipated conflicts on both ESPN (with the second night of the
  Brooklyn Nets
  game ended.
• ESPNEWS was also used for the Nationwide Kentucky fall race due to its scheduling for a Saturday night during college football season.
• On September 20, 2014, NASCAR Countdown for the VisitMyrtleBeach.com 300 Nationwide race at Kentucky Speedway was preempted by a college football game between Texas State and Illinois that was delayed by lightning.
• On October 11, 2014, the
  Miami Heat from Rio de Janeiro going into overtime), and was also stated to be on WatchESPN.com, which it wasn't. Fans voiced their anger on NASCAR's official live chat, and RaceBuddy was not provided on the website due to the race being on a broadcast network (RaceBuddy was later provided for all races starting in 2015, possibly in response to the controversy surrounding this race). The only way fans could get the start was by radio broadcast on PRN, or from the live lap-by-lap feed on the NASCAR App for smartphones. The first 25 laps were missed, and coverage was joined at a planned competition caution. A recap of the first 25 laps was almost immediately shown. NASCAR was also unhappy with the move and issued an apology. NASCAR later posted the full race (a practice that they had begun at Pocono's August race in 2014) on their official YouTube channel but with the world feed; the difference was all ESPN logos on graphics were removed. The race was further preempted on KATV in Little Rock, Arkansas when they went into local news instead, as did a few other ABC affiliates across the country.^[11]

• The
  Canyon fire in Malibu
  . Instead, the broadcast was shown on their 7.2 digital subchannel, which did not have universal availability.
• Several stations chose to preempt
  Litton's Weekend Adventure. KABC-TV did so before every Saturday night race in 2007 and 2008, and also did it before the 2007 Ford 400, a Sunday-afternoon event due to E/I requirements. This also occurred with WPLG in Miami, Florida and KSAT-TV in San Antonio, Texas at least once in 2007, and on November 1, 2009, the day of the 2009 AMP Energy 500, when KXLY-TV in Spokane, Washington
  preempted NASCAR Countdown to carry ABC Kids programming.
• Other stations preempted NASCAR Countdown for their own paid programming, as has been done by some ABC affiliates for NBA Countdown.
• At the other end of the scale,
  Central time and did not return. Topeka is located about 60 miles from Emporia, Clint Bowyer's hometown. KSAT-TV also aired a brief news update, which came during a red flag
  , but returned in time for the checkered flag.
• The 2008 Sharpie Mini 300 was not seen on several ABC stations for various reasons, ranging from weather bulletins (
  high-rise building in Manhattan.^[12]
• The pre-race for the 2008 Bank of America 500 was not seen on at least seven stations: KABC-TV, KSAT-TV, WPVI-TV in Philadelphia, WXYZ-TV in Detroit (of which Brad Keselowski's hometown of Rochester Hills is a suburb), WEWS-TV in Cleveland, WFTS-TV in the Tampa Bay area, and KXLY-TV.^[13] All of them aired newscasts, except for WXYZ-TV, which aired a charity fundraiser.
• The final eight laps of the 2008 Pep Boys Auto 500 were not shown on KOAT-TV, the ABC affiliate in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The station cut away at 4 p.m. Mountain time for a live pre-scheduled congressional debate for the state's 1st District seat. The ending was shifted to ESPN2, but only those receiving KOAT-TV on local cable (mostly Comcast) were able to see it; those who received the station via satellite continued to get the national feed of ESPN2.^[14]
• Multiple stations every August preempted the
  NFL preseason football; in most cases the race then aired live on a station's digital subchannel or sister station, had a local substitution on a local cable channel or ESPN/ESPN2, or was not carried at all. Rarely, they were tape-delayed for overnight viewing. One market, West Michigan, is unique in having two ABC affiliates, and when WZZM preempted the 2012 race due to a Detroit Lions preseason game, WOTV
  broadcast the race live as to not tie up affiliate distribution complications to the market.
• In 2010, the Irwin Tools Night Race was preempted on WXYZ-TV for coverage of the Woodward Dream Cruise.
• In 2011, the Irwin Tools Night Race was preempted on most Mid-Atlantic and Northeast ABC affiliates for local news coverage of Hurricane Irene.
• During a rain delay in the
  Washington, DC cut out of the ESPN on ABC
  broadcast of the race to air the primetime local news and did not return to the race broadcast when the race resumed. After running the newscast, WJLA-TV went to a local commercial break and then rejoined the race broadcast at 11:46 p.m., several minutes after the race resumed.

• On August 24, 2007, the final five laps of the
  uplink path was somehow eliminated, preventing the master control at the network headquarters (ironically in Bristol, Connecticut; the track is in Bristol, Tennessee) from re-transmitting the event to cable and satellite providers. Instead, viewers saw a blank screen, then the ESPN2 logo "screensaver", then some commercials. By the time the problem was rectified, the race was over, with Kasey Kahne as the winner. Jerry Punch, the lap-by-lap announcer, apologized for the error immediately and the final two laps were shown on a replay unedited. In addition, the first rebroadcast showed the same laps as they were intended to be broadcast with an on-screen ticker and GEICO sponsorship bug just after 4:30 a.m. ET the next morning. An ESPN spokesman blamed a "human error" of an unspecified nature.^[15]
• With nine laps remaining in the
  D11.^[17]

• Due to
  ESPNEWS or SportsCenter either, another decision that rankled some long-time fans.^[18]
• Coverage of the Nationwide Series' Jimmy John's Freaky Fast 300 at Chicagoland Speedway on September 13, 2014 ended the moment Kevin Harvick took the checkered flag due to the race exceeding its broadcast window and ESPN2 having a college football game between Alabama and Southern Mississippi, scheduled right after the race.
• Some drivers had testy relationships with ESPN reporters.
  • Allstate 400 in 2007 when he used an obscenity
    in his post-race interview. During it, he implied unfair treatment by the network in the past.
  • Also in 2007, Dale Earnhardt Jr. looked very uneasy in his interview with Mike Massaro at the Chevy Rock and Roll 400; Massaro ran a lengthy talk after Earnhardt Jr. dropped out with engine failure.^[19]
  • In 2009, Juan Pablo Montoya walked out on an interview with Vince Welch after the Pennsylvania 500 due to a line of questioning he was not happy with.^[20]
  • In 2010, during driver intros, Jamie Little kept giving Kevin Harvick questions while Harvick was visibly annoyed and replied with short answers and even following him onto the truck continuing the conversation.
  • In 2011,
    Penske Racing
    .
• Most of the races broadcast on ESPN on ABC had minimal or no post-race coverage. Several times, ESPN only interviewed the winner and second-place finisher. The most likely explanation is that the next program was, typically, ABC World News Sunday or a local newscast; the network wanted to start the newscast as soon as possible.
• At the
  O'Reilly Challenge race at Texas, the final laps were broadcast from an in-car camera of points championship leader Carl Edwards. ESPN did not air the finish of the race where Kevin Harvick
  won and instead stayed with an in-car shot of Edwards through the finish.
• At the 2007 UAW-Ford 500 at Talladega, ESPN on ABC did not air the final lead change as they were covering a battle a little deeper in the field. Jeff Gordon made the race winning move without mention of the lead change on ESPN on ABC until well after it had happened. Gordon won the race.
• At the 2010 Sunoco Red Cross Pennsylvania 500, Kurt Busch and Elliott Sadler crashed violently on lap 165. ESPN could get multiple angles of Busch's crash, but due to this being a blind spot on the track, ESPN only had one angle showing Sadler's crash (even then, partially out of frame), leaving many fans angry about not knowing how Sadler crashed and hit the inside wall.
• Shortly after the 2011
  DRIVE4COPD 300, ESPN lost audio just as race winner Tony Stewart was about to answer a question. Due to those technical problems, ESPN began its special edition of SportsCenter
  from an infield studio at Daytona early. The interviews with Stewart and Dale Earnhardt Jr. were still recorded and played back 18 minutes later with the audio restored. However, the usual final tape montage and proper sign-off was not shown, at least not in the original live versions.
• At the 2011 Tums Fast Relief 500 at Martinsville, ESPN did not show the final lead change, because Brad Keselowski spun around while Tony Stewart made the race winning move around Jimmie Johnson. RaceBuddy viewers, though, were able to see it from Stewart and Johnson's onboards.
• At the 2013 NASCAR Nationwide Series event at Kentucky Speedway, Marty Reid made a human error and said that Ryan Blaney had won the race when the white flag was waving, even though Blaney continued on and won the race. The following Tuesday, Reid retired from the network; his future plans have not been discussed. Allen Bestwick called the rest of the 2013 and most of the 2014 NASCAR Nationwide Series events and also called ABC's IndyCar events starting in 2014.
• At the 2014 GEICO 500 at Talladega, the ESPN broadcast completely missed Tony Stewart spinning out in the tri-oval with two laps to go. The commentators didn't notice nor mentioned it after the race ended.

Ultimate NASCAR

In addition to race coverage, ESPN aired a series of programs called Ultimate NASCAR. The series began in April 2007, when the network began to air a series of 100 one-minute vignettes highlighting NASCAR's most important moments as selected by a panel of experts. The vignettes aired every day until July 29. These moments are also recounted in a companion book published by the network.^[21]

In July 2007, ESPN aired a series of related documentaries. Three of them were countdown shows, ranking the greatest drivers, races, and rivalries in the sport's history. The other shows were "The Explosion" (a general overview), "The Dirt" (the origins of NASCAR), "The Cars" (the evolution of the NASCAR race car), "The Families" (an in-depth look at the Allison, Earnhardt and Petty families), and "Speed and Danger" (in which NASCAR drivers discuss the risks they take).

Lineup variations

In order to reduce the workload of announcers during the first half of the season, ESPN constantly changed the lineup of those who covered the activities on the race track. In the 2007 season, ESPN used three different

The exact team to be used at each race is listed in an ESPN press release on this page.

See below for a more detailed list of announcers and their roles.

Announcers

Studio and pre-race shows

• – John Kernan was the primary weekday host. On weekends that ESPN and ABC were covering Cup races, a weekend host would fill in on the Friday editions, as well as if there was a race postponed until Monday, through November 2000.

Race Coverage

NOTE: Ned Jarrett only appeared on races broadcast by the ESPN family of networks during his time there. He had a separate contract with CBS Sports and was thus precluded from working races televised on ABC.

See also

• NASCAR Countdown
• NASCAR Now
• NASCAR Drivers: Non-Stop
• ESPN2 Garage
• Jayski's Silly Season Site
• NASCAR in Primetime

References

External links

• NASCAR.com (NASCAR's Official website)
• Jayski
• FanZone Sports (NASCAR News)
• The Daly Planet (Website breaks down TV and Media coverage)
• NASCAR on ESPN Media Guide
• NASCAR Issues Still Confusing ESPN