NASCAR on television in the 2010s

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Main article: NASCAR on television and radio

On December 7, 2005, NASCAR signed a new eight-year broadcast deal effective with the 2007 season, and valued at $4.48 billion,[1] with Fox and Speed Channel, which would also share event rights with Disney-owned ABC, ESPN and ESPN2, as well as TNT. The rights would be divided as follows:

Year-by-year summary

2010

ABC
are in the fourth year of a seven-year television contract scheduled to expire after the 2014 season. Showtime is going to show a highlights show for the first time.

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 ESPN's broadcasts since 2010, several improvements were made, including reduction in technology. There were also changes in announcing and pit reporters, most notably the moving Dr. 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 to 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 Brickyard 400, arguably NASCAR's second biggest race to ESPN, angered fans and sponsors.

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

ESPNEWS. Due to contractual agreements with Turner, ESPN could not put broadcasts with ESPN3.com, another fact that angered fans. However, in 2011 an agreement was reached letting ESPN put all NASCAR programming on WatchESPN
.

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).

2011

From the

Fox NFL theme song in NASCAR telecasts. In addition, country superstar Dierks Bentley unveiled a new version of his hit song "Sideways", with new lyrics referencing NASCAR – which is played during the introduction of the pre-race show.[5] "Sideways" was phased out entirely with the 2013 Sprint Unlimited telecast, with the Fox NFL theme music being used full-time. In addition, a new CGI introduction sequence, produced by Blur Studio
, made its debut.

In

basketball
shows on ESPN.

2012

In

John Roberts filled in for Chris Myers as host for the Budweiser Shootout and the Daytona 500, as Myers was on bereavement leave following his son's death in a motorcycle accident. For the 2014 Sprint Unlimited, Michael Waltrip filled in for Darrell, who was undergoing gallbladder surgery; for Daytona 500 Practice and Pole Qualifying, the position was filled by Phil Parsons. Darrell Waltrip returned for the Budweiser Duels. In 2016, Jeff Gordon replaced McReynolds in the booth while McReynolds was reassigned as the rules and technical analyst, replacing Andy Petree
.

In October 2012, NASCAR extended its contract with Fox Sports through 2022, which allowed Fox the online streaming rights for its event telecasts; the Fox Sports contract also retains coverage of the first 13 races of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and exclusive coverage of the Daytona 500.[6] On August 1, 2013, Fox Sports extended its contract by two additional years through 2024, due to NASCAR's contract with NBC Sports running through that same time, and acquired the rights to the first 16 races of the NASCAR Cup Series season, as well as the first 14 Xfinity (formerly Nationwide) Series events.[7] As a result, Fox will broadcast the races it already covers, as well as all of the events held in June, which include the events at Pocono and Michigan with coverage ending with the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma. Fox had previously held rights to these three races under its initial 2001–06 contract.

Under the current deal:

2013

From its debut until 2013, Fox initially used a scrolling ticker to display the current running order of drivers and other information (such as intervals and other statistics, shown on an occasionally displayed secondary line), instead of the boxes that were used by previous NASCAR broadcasters. Fox would eventually deploy the banner design across all of its sports properties, while its conventions would be adopted by fellow NASCAR broadcasters, including NBC, TNT, and later ESPN.

Beginning with the Party at the Poconos 400 race on June 9, 2013, TNT's NASCAR coverage switched to a

Fox's and ESPN's respective default widescreen SD presentations. NASCAR on TNT was the last of the 3 broadcast partners to switch to a widescreen presentation. NBC
became the 4th to switch to letterbox format on SD feeds in 2015.

On July 23, 2013, NASCAR announced a nine-year contract with NBC Sports to broadcast the final 20 races of the

Universo), broadcast rights to the NASCAR Hall of Fame induction ceremony and post-season awards banquets. The deal runs from 2015 to 2024, although the Mexico Series race at Phoenix International Raceway
began in 2014.

The majority of NBC's NASCAR coverage under the new contract will air on NBCSN, however seven races will be broadcast by the NBC broadcast network; in 2015 and 2016, they were the Coke Zero Sugar 400, the Bojangles' Southern 500 at Darlington, the Chase races at Charlotte and Kansas, and the last three races (Texas, Phoenix and Homestead-Miami) consecutively.

NBC Sports took over the portion of the contract previously held by ESPN and Turner Sports. While financial details were not disclosed, NBC reportedly paid 50% more than the $2.7 billion paid by ESPN and Turner combined under the previous contract.[10][11]

Former Turner Sports executive Jeff Behnke serves as vice president of NASCAR programming for NBC Sports.

In August 2013, Speed was replaced by Fox Sports 1, and Fuel TV by Fox Sports 2. Camping World Truck Series races remained on Fox Sports 1, while practice/qualifying sessions and regional series races alternated between Fox Sports 1 and 2 depending on scheduling. For North American markets outside of the United States, coverage of some NASCAR events carried by Speed at the time remained on an international version of Speed (now Fox Sports Racing) that operates in the regions.[12]

On December 3, 2013, Jeff Burton was confirmed as the first member of the NASCAR on NBC broadcast team.[13]

On December 4, 2013,

Camping World Truck Series coverage, signed a multi-year contract to serve as the lead announcer for NBC's race broadcasts.[14]

2014

This season was the final year of broadcasting for both the

TNT. For 2015, their portions of the season were divided between Fox Sports and NBC
.

On January 9, 2014, it was confirmed that Steve Letarte would leave his role as Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s crew chief at Hendrick Motorsports and join NBC Sports as a color analyst.[15] Behnke explained that the on-air makeup of NBC Sports' broadcasts would have "a relevancy that hasn't been seen in a long, long time", citing the recent involvements of both Burton and Letarte in NASCAR prior to their move to broadcasting.[16]

NBC began to lead into its new contract in February 2014 with the premiere of a nightly news and analysis program,

2014 season of the NASCAR Toyota Series, on mun2.[17][18]

For the 2014 season, alongside a new corporate style, Fox replaced the scrolling ticker with a leaderboard-style sidebar occupying the right-side portion of the screen, with one section displaying the top three drivers, and a scrolling section displaying the remainder of the field of drivers. While Fox Sports president Eric Shanks justified the changes, noting that it would allow more of the field to be displayed at once and more frequently than the relatively longer ticker, the leaderboard was criticized by viewers during events leading up to the Daytona 500 (such as the Sprint Unlimited, Daytona 500 qualifying, and the

Lucas Oil 200) for obstructing too much of the screen.[19]

In response to the criticism, Shanks stated that the layout of the leaderboard would be revised in time for the Daytona 500.[19] The vertical leaderboard was reconfigured into a horizontal version with three columns of 3 drivers each, which could be resized into 2 longer columns of three drivers each to display intervals or other statistics (a version that was later used as the main graphic).

The Camping World RV Sales 301, on July 13, 2014, at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, marked the end of NASCAR's 32-year run on Turner Sports, dating back to 1983. The network devoted a large segment of its pre-race show to showing clips of signature NASCAR moments to air on Turner Sports, and welcomed NASCAR president Mike Helton to the broadcast booth to talk about the relationship, as Helton had been the president of Atlanta Motor Speedway when Turner Sports showed its first race at AMS, which aired on TBS in 1983. The pre-race was closed out by Ken Squier,[20] a New England native, lap-by-lap announcer for Turner Sports from its start in 1983 through 1998.

Hello everyone, I'm Ken Squier. And as the engines have fired at New Hampshire, I remind you that this is the final NASCAR broadcast for Turner Sports. I was the play-by-play announcer for TBS for 18 years, beginning in the very first year of NASCAR coverage, 1983. It's been a real honor to be a part of today's broadcast, and I wish my colleagues the very best today on TNT, as this amazing, 31-year run, comes to a close. I hope you enjoy today's race.

During NASCAR's 31-year run on Turner Sports, the races aired on TBS (1983–2000) and TNT (2001–2014).

On November 16, 2014, the

Homestead-Miami Speedway marked the end of NASCAR's 30-year, two-stint run on ESPN, dating back to 1981 and also, ending an eight-year stint with the network since 2007. Allen Bestwick, who served as lap-by-lap announcer for ESPN's Sprint Cup Series races since 2011, worked his final NASCAR broadcast on network television, marking the end of his role with the network in 29 years covering the sport and remained with ESPN and ABC covering IndyCar
races from 2015 to 2018.

"We look forward to continuing to cover the sport on SportsCenter next and at Daytona and more going down the road. Now for Bob Jenkins and Larry Nuber, for Benny Parsons and Ned Jarrett, for Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree. Allen Bestwick, so long from Homestead."

— Allen Bestwick's call for the final NASCAR race on ESPN.

2015

The season marked the first season of a new television contract. During the season, races were televised in the United States on

Chase for the Sprint Cup. While still dividing the coverage of the Daytona races between the two networks, the nature of the split was changed. Fox retained its exclusive rights to the Daytona 500 while NBC gained exclusive rights to the Coke Zero 400. Under the previous Fox/NBC contract, Fox televised the Daytona 500 in odd numbered years (2001, 2003, 2005) while NBC did so in even numbered years (2002, 2004, 2006
). Under the old arrangement, the network that did not air the Daytona 500 would air the now-Coke Zero 400.

On February 3, 2015, NBC Sports announced an agreement to air 39 regional series races from the

Whelen Southern Modified Tour on NBCSN.[21]

The first U.S.-series race under the contract was The Hart to Heart Breast Cancer Foundation 150—the first race of the 2015 NASCAR K&N Pro Series East season—at New Smyrna Speedway, and was aired on February 19 on NBCSN.[22][23]

From 2015 to 2017, the intro for the revived run of NASCAR on NBC was "

The Voice. NBC introduced a new opening for their coverage of NASCAR starting in 2018. The new opening is a cover version of the Tom Petty song "Runnin' Down a Dream", done by ZZ Ward
.

On April 15, 2015, it was announced that Ralph Sheheen and Ray Evernham would be part of the booth of the NBCSN telecasts of the Whelen Modified Tour and Whelen Southern Modified Tour.[24]

On June 1, 2015, Brian Vickers announced via Twitter that he would be joining the NBC telecasts of the New Hampshire and Michigan races.

On September 1, 2015, it was announced that Ken Squier[25] and Ned Jarrett would commentate a portion of the 2015 Bojangles' Southern 500 along with current NASCAR on NBC commentator Dale Jarrett. Squier was also in the broadcast booth for Sprint Cup Series final practice.[26] This has become a standard tradition at the Southern 500, due to NASCAR designating the race as a throwback weekend where teams bring retro paint schemes to the track.

On September 11, 2015, it was announced that

Richmond alongside Dale Jarrett and Diffey.[27] Jamie McMurray was a guest analyst for the NXS race at Chicagoland.[28]

2016

2016 marks the second year of NASCAR's broadcast deal with

Fox Sports
, on their Fox Sports 2 channel.

As previously mentioned, during

English Premier League, IndyCar, and Formula One for NBCSN conflicts) carried Sprint Cup and Xfinity qualifying along with one Xfinity race, and USA Network (used for Premier League conflicts) carried two Xfinity and one Sprint Cup race.[33]
In 2020, the Cup Series will take two weeks off to minimize any conflict with the Olympics; the Michigan race will be run on the day of the Games' closing ceremony.

2017

On June 10, 2017, the Xfinity Series race at Pocono Raceway was presented by current drivers in the Cup Series, the first time that a national sporting event was covered by currently active athletes. The presenters provided coverage from all three perspectives during the race (Hollywood Hotel studio, lap-by-lap commentary and pit road coverage). The driver commentators were Kevin Harvick (lap-by-lap), Joey Logano, Clint Bowyer (color analysts), Erik Jones, Ryan Blaney, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (pit road), Danica Patrick and Denny Hamlin (Hollywood Hotel).[34]

On July 24, 2017, it was announced that Dale Earnhardt Jr. would join the NASCAR on NBC broadcasting team for the 2018 season, incidentally reuniting with his former crew chief Letarte.[35]

In November 2017, it was announced that

Homestead.[36]

2018

In the 2018 season, Fox reintroduced a vertical leaderboard, although this time it was initially occupied an opaque sidebar spanning the entire left side of the screen. The design was once-again criticized by viewers during events leading up to the Daytona 500, as the opaque sidebar reduced the amount of screen space devoted to race footage to a roughly

4:3 window, the ticker fell within overscan on some televisions, while some camera shots were not correctly framed to suit the new layout. By the Daytona 500, the graphic had been revised to remove the opaque sidebar, and make the leaderboard slightly translucent.[37][38]

On April 28, 2018, the

Darrell Wallace Jr.
replacing Stenhouse as a pit road reporter.

The studio was retired following the 2018 season due to the Charlotte studios getting redone in order to host more shows. In 2019, Fox often cut to the Charlotte studio during the race and talked to Jamie McMurray, who was new to the NASCAR on Fox team.

NBC's pit reporters for 2018 consisted of Dave Burns, Marty Snider, Kelli Stavast, Parker Kligerman (who replaced Mike Massaro following the 2016 season), and Ralph Sheheen, Burns and Snider were with NBC's original NASCAR pit crew, while Massaro joins from ESPN's NASCAR team and Stavast from the network's sports car coverage.[39][40] The pre-race show was hosted by former Fox reporter Krista Voda along with former ESPN analyst Dale Jarrett, former TNT analyst Kyle Petty, and Top Gear host Rutledge Wood.[16][17][41]

2019

In 2019, during Daytona 500 qualifying, Fox introduced a new augmented reality "GhostCar", allowing for a live visualization of a previous driver's qualifying lap (such as the leader or driver on the bubble) to be overlaid into live footage of another driver's qualifying attempt. NBC had introduced the system in 2018, but only during replays. The GhostCar feature was re-introduced later in the season, when NASCAR ended its multi-car qualifying format in favor of the previous single-car format.[42]

On May 25, 2019, the

Darrell Wallace Jr. (pit road) was also retained, Brad Keselowski, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Chad Knaus
hosted from the Charlotte studios.

In July 2019, it was announced that Danielle Trotta will join NBC Sports’ NASCAR coverage as host of the “Victory Lap” post-race show for select Cup Series races this year.

See also

References

  1. ^ "NASCAR signs new TV deal". Boston Herald. 7 December 2005. Archived from the original on 13 May 2006.
  2. ^ "Jayski's® Camping World Truck Series Silly Season Site". Jayski.com. Archived from the original on 12 July 2013. Retrieved 10 June 2013.
  3. ^ "Nine of 10 Chase races on ESPN". ESPN.com. ESPN. 13 January 2010. Archived from the original on 19 January 2010. Retrieved 14 January 2010.
  4. ^ "ABC Affiliates Decry Migration of Sports to ESPN". Archived from the original on 11 February 2010. Retrieved 30 July 2019.
  5. Country Music Television
    . 4 February 2011. Retrieved 11 January 2013.
  6. ^ "NASCAR rides hot rights market to increase with Fox". Sports Business Journal. Retrieved 17 October 2012.
  7. ^ "NASCAR, Fox EXTEND, EXPAND RIGHTS AGREEMENT". NASCAR. 1 August 2013. Retrieved 1 August 2013.
  8. ^ Fox Deportes to broadcast NASCAR Cup races in Spanish Archived 2019-03-24 at the Wayback Machine - Sporting News, 20 August 2012
  9. ^ Bupp, Phillip (8 July 2015). "Despite the roadblocks, NBC's NASCAR comeback was flawless". Awful Announcing.
  10. ^ "NBC wins NASCAR TV rights, signs 10-year deal to replace ESPN, Turner". The Sporting News. 23 July 2013. Archived from the original on 26 July 2013. Retrieved 24 July 2013.
  11. ^ "NASCAR and NBC Sports Group Reach Landmark Media Rights Agreement". NBC Sports Group Press Box. 23 July 2013. Retrieved 25 July 2013.
  12. ^ "Fox Sports Racing to launch new era in motor sports Friday". Fox Sports. 20 February 2015. Retrieved 20 February 2015.
  13. ^ David Caraviello (3 December 2013). "Burton to join NBC broadcast team in 2015". NASCAR. Retrieved 3 December 2013.
  14. ^ "NBC tabs Rick Allen as lead race announcer". NASCAR. 4 December 2013. Retrieved 4 December 2013.
  15. ^ Fryer, Jenna (9 January 2014). "Steve Letarte to join NBC Sports in 2015". Yahoo! Sports. Daytona Beach, Florida: AP Sports. Associated Press. Retrieved 9 January 2014.
  16. ^ a b "Gentlemen, start your camera crews: NBC revs up Charlotte TV outpost". Charlotte Business Journal. American City Business Journals. Retrieved 28 January 2015.
  17. ^ a b "NASCAR on NBC includes Charlotte flavor". Charlotte Business Journal. American City Business Journals. 28 January 2015.
  18. ^ "Mexico Series Returns To Phoenix For Opener mun2 Hispanic Cable Network Will Broadcast Toyota 120 Live". NASCAR.com. 7 February 2014. Retrieved 26 February 2014.
  19. ^ a b "Fox Sports plans to alter new race graphics". NASCAR.com. Retrieved 22 February 2014.
  20. YouTube
  21. ^ Chris Estrada (3 February 2015). "2015 NASCAR touring series TV schedule on NBCSN". NBC Sports. Retrieved 3 February 2015.
  22. ^ "NASCAR TV schedule: Week of Feb. 16-Feb. 22". NASCAR.com. 15 February 2015. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  23. ^ Estrada, Chris (19 February 2015). "WATCH: K&N East season opener at New Smyrna, 10:30 p.m. ET". NASCAR Talk (NBC Sports). Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  24. ^ Bonkowski, Jerry (15 April 2015). "Ray Evernham, Ralph Sheheen to broadcast all 14 Whelen Modified, Southern Modified Tour races in 2015". NASCAR Talk (NBC Sports). Retrieved 20 April 2015.
  25. ^ Hecken, Phil (25 August 2016). "Broadcast Throwbacks". Uni Watch.
  26. ^ "TRANSCRIPT: NASCAR ON NBC MEDIA CONFERENCE CALL PREVIEWING "THROWBACK" COVERAGE FROM DARLINGTON". NBC Sports Pressbox. 1 September 2015. Retrieved 19 November 2016.
  27. ^ "NBCSN Presents "The Last Race to Make the Chase" This Weekend in Primetime From Richmond International Raceway". NBC Sports. 9 September 2015. Retrieved 16 September 2015.
  28. ^ "NBCSN Kicks Off the 2015 NASCAR Playoffs From Chicagoland Speedway This Weekend". NBC Sports. 16 September 2015. Retrieved 16 September 2015.
  29. ^ "NASCAR, Fox extend, expand rights agreement". NASCAR.com. NASCAR Media Group, LLC. 1 August 2013. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  30. ^ Cain, Holly (23 July 2013). "NASCAR, NBC Sports reach landmark deal". NASCAR.com. Daytona Beach, Florida: NASCAR Media Group, LLC. Retrieved 23 December 2015.
  31. ^ Spencer, Lee (26 January 2016). "Olympics will force some NASCAR coverage off NBC/NBC Sports". Motorsport.com. Motorsport Network, LLC. Archived from the original on 30 January 2016. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
  32. ^ "Start Your Engines! TSN Confirms 2016 NASCAR Broadcast Schedule, Headlined by the Iconic DAYTONA 500 this Sunday, February 21 at Noon" (Press release). Toronto: Bell Media. 19 February 2016. Retrieved 10 June 2016.
  33. ^ "During Olympics, USA Network will air NASCAR races". Awful Announcing. Retrieved 26 January 2016.
  34. ^ Perez, A.J.; Hembree, Mike (19 May 2017). "NASCAR drivers will handle broadcast duties during Xfinity race at Pocono". USA Today. Retrieved 7 June 2017.
  35. ^ Dale Earnhardt Jr to join NBC broadcast booth in 2018 - Business Insider / AP, 24 July 2017
  36. ^ "Extra Points: Costas, Danica, ESPN, NFL Commish". Sports Media Watch. 18 November 2017.
  37. ^ "Despite fan criticism, Fox's new NASCAR ticker could work with a few tweaks". Awful Announcing. 12 February 2018. Retrieved 14 May 2019.
  38. ^ "Fox brings new graphics to NASCAR coverage, replaces scoring ticker". NewscastStudio. NewscastStudio. Retrieved 16 February 2018.
  39. ^ Jim Utter (11 January 2014). "Sources: NBC inches closer to finalizing on-air broadcasting lineup for 2015". The News & Observer. Retrieved 12 January 2014.
  40. ^ Estrada (22 January 2014). "Marty Snider, Kelli Stavast added to NBC's NASCAR on-air team". NBC Sports. Retrieved 22 January 2014.
  41. ^ "NBC Sports adds Krista Voda to 2015 lineup". NASCAR. 29 October 2014. Retrieved 29 October 2014.
  42. ^ Dachman, Jason. "SMT's GhostCar Technology Enables NASCAR To Transition to Single-Car Qualifying". Sports Video Group. Retrieved 14 May 2019.

External links

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