NASCAR on television in the 1990s

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As time passed, more Winston Cup races ended up on TV.

1990

• After years of trying to win it,
  Seattle SuperSonics basketball game, and the race was delayed until 3:00 p.m. Pacific Time
  because of the pre-emption.

• Chevy Dealers of New England 250.^[34]

• After SETN folded, one Pocono race a year was produced by Jim Wiglesworth on pay-per-view for Viewer's Choice (now In Demand) from 1988 to 1990. They were not a huge success, as fans were reluctant to pay for what they could see last week for free. The Viewer's Choice shows were noteworthy in that they premiered viewer phone-in questions during the races.

1991

• TNN started showing races live in
  Dover, Pocono, Loudon, and Phoenix, were among the events signed. In general, ESPN abandoned slower, longer, races which used large broadcast windows. 500-mile races at Rockingham, Dover and Pocono were known to last upwards of five hours, requiring a broadcast window as long as six hours (to include pre-race and post-race coverage). The races at Rockingham and Dover were shortened to 400 miles in 1995 and 1997, respectively, but remained part of the TNN lineup. TNN's relatively open schedule for Sunday afternoons allowed large NASCAR broadcast windows. TNN also picked up rights to The Winston
  when it was moved to prime time.

1992

• For
  Daytona ARCA 200
  . The Busch Clash would be held after the ARCA race at 3:00 p.m.

1993

Notes

1- ABC was originally scheduled to televise this race on 3/14, but the Storm of the Century had it postponed a week. ABC bailed out, so a frozen TNN crew stepped in to show the race; in trade they gave up the Busch Series race they were going to show on that weekend to ESPN.

2- Bonnett drove in this race, making his first start since his sidling crash at Darlington in March of 1990. He crashed in spectacular fashion and joined Squier and Jarrett for the finish of the race.

1994

• The 1994 Brickyard 400 broadcast was billed as "A Special Presentation of ABC Sports," and technically did not fall under the moniker of Wide World of Sports. Starting with the 1995 Indianapolis 500, ABC Sports started billing their races at Indy under the WWOS banner (that is, of course, not including 1965-1970). The 1995 BY400 shifted to tape delay on ESPN, so the first BY400 to be a WWOS presentation would be the 1996 race. That means that the "first...since" NASCAR race to be a WWOS presentation might have been the 1995 or 1996 spring race at Atlanta (Purolator 500). It is also worth noting that the first permanent "score bug" used on ABC for perhaps ANY sport broadcast was during the 1994 Purolator 500 (spring race) at Atlanta. It was a transparent digit counting down the number of laps left in the race. It was used 2 months later during the Indianapolis 500 (with a different font), then again at the 1994 BY400.
  • In 1994, the Brickyard 400 was shown on same-day tape delay on WRTV instead of live. In 1995 (due to the rain delay), it was shown on same-day tape delay on WRTV, while the rest of the country had to wait until Sunday afternoon. From 1996-2000, it was on same-day tape delay on WRTV. When BY400 switched to NBC for 2001, WTHR-13 (by 2005) ditched the blackout, and reverted to a live broadcast. Once it moved to ESPN in 2007, it has not been blacked out locally.

• The
  Tucson Raceway Park
  in Tucson, Arizona. TNN originally broadcast the races before ESPN took over.

1995

• title sponsorship
  of in 1999, becoming the Speedvision World Challenge).

Notes

1- For the Pepsi 400 and Southern 500, ESPN ran what was a bit of prelude to DirecTV's Hotpass. ESPN showed the race, while ESPN2 showed onboard cameras and radio with some of the teams. It did not work out to ESPN's liking and was dropped after that.

2- After being delayed all day due to rain, the race was about to start, but ABC decided to bail out; ESPN showed the race the next day.

1996

• Dale Earnhardt took a horrifying tumble down the front straightaway in "
  The Big One," after Ernie Irvan got into the side of Sterling Marlin which caused him to hit Earnhardt. After he hit the wall hard, Earnhardt was hit by multiple cars upside down and on the car's side. He ended up breaking his collarbone, and this helped begin a winless streak that spanned the rest of the 1996 season and all of the 1997 season. The race was cut short due to the wreck, and a rainstorm earlier in the race added the factor of darkness, with Jeff Gordon
  winning. These events helped push the DieHard 500 from the heat, humidity, and almost commonly occurring afternoon thunderstorms of late July to a much cooler, and in the case of the weather, more stable early October date. This was the last Cup race to not be televised live because of the rain delay; the broadcast of the race aired one week later, as an abridged broadcast on CBS.

1- Due to the race being delayed by rain, CBS went to golf and showed the race on 8/4.

1997

1998

• In 1998, a CBS-televised race at Pikes Peak International Raceway in Fountain, Colorado, scheduled for 186 laps ran 12 extra laps (totaling 198) because of multiple attempts at a successful Green-White-Checkered Finish.

• In 1998, TNN acquired the one-time rights (from CBS) of the Pepsi 400. Due to wildfires, the race was postponed from July 4 to October.

1999

20 years after its Daytona 500 broadcast, CBS used at least 200 people and more than 80 cameras for their coverage:^[74]

• 33 in-car cameras - three cameras in 11 different cars.
• 10 "pole" cameras above the pits.
• 35 cameras around the track.
• A camera in a blimp.
• A camera with each of the three pit reporters.
• A camera in the booth.

CBS also planned to use more computerized graphics and a super slow-motion camera with a long lens.

• Prior to the original 1999 contract between NASCAR and NBC, the network aired races such as the
  Homestead-Miami Speedway in both 1999^[83] and 2000.^[84]

• List of Daytona 500 broadcasters
• List of Wide World of Sports (American TV series) announcers
• List of events broadcast on Wide World of Sports (American TV series)
• NASCAR on television in the 1960s
  • NASCAR on television in the 1970s
  • NASCAR on television in the 1980s
  • NASCAR on television in the 2000s
  • NASCAR on television in the 2010s

References