NASCAR Now | |
---|---|
Starring | Allen Bestwick Mike Massaro Nicole Briscoe Shannon Spake |
Country of origin | United States |
Production | |
Running time | 30 minutes |
Original release | |
Network | ESPN2 |
Release | February 5, 2007 – June 11, 2014 |
NASCAR Now was a NASCAR news and analysis show that aired year round Tuesday through Saturday as a thirty-minute show at 2:00am ET on ESPN2. NASCAR Now, that debuted on February 5, 2007, was broadcast in HD from Bristol, Connecticut and also had a daily segment on SportsCenter. ESPN2 also aired editions of the show on the day of all NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races, starting with the Daytona 500. A race preview show aired at 10 A.M. ET on race day, with a post-race edition running on ESPN2 on the evening following the event.
Unlike its predecessor, RPM 2Night, NASCAR Now covered only NASCAR news and information and there were no highlight restrictions on the program; both video and still photos were available for its use. It was part of ESPN's new television package with NASCAR, which gave them the opportunity to produce and air a daily show about the sanctioning body. Previously, Speed Channel had the exclusive rights to produce daily NASCAR magazine shows.
Beginning in 2012, the start time of the show was moved from a 5:00pm ET to a 2:00am ET start time due to other conflicts on the network. The show remained on ESPN2. On June 23, 2014 ESPN announced that it had cancelled NASCAR Now. [1]
The lead host of the show was former Speed Channel anchor Nicole Briscoe. Mike Massaro was also another regular host, and Allen Bestwick hosted a special "roundtable" edition of the show on Mondays from 2008 to 2010. Bestwick also hosted regular editions of the show on other days. In 2008, Marty Smith was named lead reporter for the program after being a "NASCAR Insider" for the show in 2007. NASCAR Insiders for the program included award-winning journalists Tim Cowlishaw, Angelique Chengelis, Terry Blount and David Newton. The program also included current drivers Stacy Compton and Boris Said.
Here is a list of all of the past personalities on NASCAR Now.
Hosts
Analysts
Reporters
NASCAR Now featured numerous segments that appear both during the show and also during evening editions of SportsCenter. Some of the segments are listed below.
On April 29, 2008, the show hosted a special one-hour edition of NASCAR Now to commemorate Dale Earnhardt Day.
On August 19, 2009, President Barack Obama did a live interview on the program after honoring the defending Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson and the rest of the 2008 Chase for the Sprint Cup drivers at the White House. [2]
Allen Bestwick is an American sportscaster. Known for his work covering NASCAR for NBC and ESPN, he is the lead track announcer at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and lead broadcaster for the Superstar Racing Experience racing series. He is the lead play-by-play voice for University of Connecticut women's basketball telecasts for SNY.
Suzy Kolber is an American football sideline reporter, co-producer, and a former ESPN sports anchor and reporter. She was one of the original anchors of ESPN2 when it launched in 1993. Three years later, she left ESPN2 to join Fox Sports, but returned to ESPN in late 1999. In 2023, she and several other ESPN employees were terminated by the network in what was described as a cost-cutting measure.
William Weber is a former television sports commentator best known for his work on TNT and NBC NASCAR broadcasts. Weber was also the lead announcer for Champ Car World Series events and other auto racing series on NBC. He is working as an illusionist in St. Petersburg, Florida.
College GameDay is a pre-game show broadcast by ESPN as part of the network's coverage of college football, broadcast on Saturday mornings during the college football season. In its current form, the program is typically broadcast from the campus of the team hosting a featured game being played that day and features news and analysis of the day's upcoming games.
William Timothy Cowlishaw is an American sportswriter. He is a columnist for The Dallas Morning News and a regular panelist on the ESPN sports talk show Around the Horn.
NASCAR on ESPN is the now-defunct former package and branding of coverage of NASCAR races on ESPN, ESPN2, and ABC. ABC, and later the ESPN family of networks, carried NASCAR events from the sanctioning body's top three divisions at various points from the early 1960s until 2000, after the Truck Series rights were lost. However, ESPN resumed coverage of NASCAR with the Nationwide Series race at Daytona in February 2007 and the then-Nextel Cup Series at Indianapolis in July 2007. ESPN's final race was the Ford EcoBoost 400 at the Homestead–Miami Speedway on November 16, 2014, with Kevin Harvick winning that year's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship.
NASCAR on NBC is the branding used for broadcasts of NASCAR races that are produced by NBC Sports, and televised on several NBCUniversal-owned television networks, including the NBC broadcast network in the United States. NBC originally aired races, typically during the second half of the season, from 1999 to 2006.
NFL Matchup is a National Football League (NFL) preview show that airs every week during the regular season and playoffs. At various times, the official name was based on the current sponsor in the format [Sponsor Name] NFL Matchup. Since 2017 it is known simply as the ESPN NFL Matchup, and it is produced utilizing commentary and footage from NFL Films.
Motor Racing Network (MRN) is an American radio network that syndicates broadcasts of auto racing events, particularly NASCAR. MRN was founded in 1970 by NASCAR founder Bill France, Sr. and broadcaster Ken Squier, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of NASCAR. Its first broadcast was the 1970 Daytona 500.
Michael Massaro is an American sportscaster and journalist who covers auto racing as a pit reporter for MAVTV's ARCA Menards Series coverage. He was previously a studio host and pit reporter for NASCAR on ESPN and NASCAR on NBC. He was born and raised in Manchester, Connecticut.
The television and radio rights to broadcast NASCAR are among the most expensive broadcast rights of any American sport, with the current television contract with Fox Sports and NBC Sports being worth around US$8 billion.
NASCAR Countdown is a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series and Nationwide Series prerace show that debuted on February 17, 2007. It was a live on-site pre-race show for all Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series races televised on ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC. It came as a result of ESPN getting broadcast rights to NASCAR races, including the Chase for the Sprint Cup.
Totally NASCAR was a newscast about NASCAR racing that aired on Fox Sports Net. The program returned in 2010 after a 6-year absence, but in a different format from the show that was originally shown from 2001 to 2004.
NASCAR on TNT is the branding for NASCAR races broadcast on TNT by TNT Sports. TNT is currently slated to begin airing events beginning with the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season.
Martin Reid "Marty" Klingeman, known professionally as Marty Reid, is an American television sportscaster who worked for ESPN from 1982 to 2013, covering motorsports for the network. Reid served as the network's lead IndyCar Series and Indianapolis 500 announcer from 2006 until that year, and did lap-by-lap for ESPN's NASCAR Sprint Cup Series telecasts in 2010.
Until 2001, race tracks struck individual agreements with networks to broadcast races, but NASCAR wanted to capitalize on the growing popularity of the sport and announced in 1999 that television contracts would now be centralized; that is, instead of making agreements with individual tracks, networks would now negotiate directly with NASCAR for the rights to air a package of races.
On December 7, 2005, NASCAR signed a new eight-year broadcast deal effective with the 2007 season, and valued at $4.48 billion, 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: