Programming history
The program aired six nights a week (except Saturday) from Labor Day weekend 1995 to November 16, 2003.
On weekends where ESPN or ABC covered a Cup Series race, the weekend host would fill in on Fridays, and Mondays (if the race was postponed until then).
All forms of racing were included, whether it was the big-league racing of NASCAR, IndyCars, or Formula One, or the local Saturday night short tracks. "Eat My Dust," a Tuesday-night package of highlights of sprint cars and other vehicles racing on non-pavement tracks, was a cult favorite, along with the segment Open-Wheel Wednesday.
On Sunday mornings. a version titled RPM 2Day aired as a pre-race show before major events. During the month of May in 2002-2003, the daily coverage of the Indianapolis 500 practice was billed RPM 2Night at Indy.
The Monday through Friday versions of the show originated from ESPN Regional Television studios in Charlotte, NC, while the weekend versions originated from ESPN's main headquarters in Bristol, CT.
RPM2Night hit a major snag in 2001, when ESPN lost NASCAR rights in a consolidated TV package. Shortly after the sale of the rights, ESPN was told that, while it would still receive credentials for its reporters and news crews, the content they obtained inside the track, as well as race highlights, could only be used on two outlets: SportsCenter and ESPNEWS. From that point forward, in lieu of highlights, RPM 2Night could only show still photographs from the weekly Winston Cup Series race. In order to air post race interviews, the ESPN crews shot all interviews from outside the track, as that did not violate NASCAR's ruling. It was common for the interviews to be conducted at motorhome parking lots, track helipads, and nearby airports. Ironically, these locations netted RPM2Night more interviews than they could normally get inside the track as drivers routinely scurried to the helipads and private jets to get home. Still, the loss of highlights was a difficult challenge to overcome.
Media reports of the time suggested that NASCAR imposed the new procedures to give a benefit to Fox Sports Net, which was launching a similar NASCAR-only show, Totally NASCAR , at the time. NASCAR officials denied this and claimed that they merely wanted to give ESPN an incentive to provide NASCAR more exposure on SportsCenter, which had a higher viewership.
RPM 2Night signed off for the last time on November 16, 2003 following its coverage of the 2003 Ford 400.
ESPN continued producing shows devoted to the NHRA and IndyCar Series that aired on race days only. They can be said to be spin-offs of RPM 2Night.
The NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) is a stock car racing series organized by NASCAR. It is promoted as NASCAR's "minor league" circuit, and is considered a proving ground for drivers who wish to step up to the organization's top level circuit, the NASCAR Cup Series. NXS events are frequently held as a support race on the day prior to a Cup Series event scheduled for that weekend.
The Brickyard 400 was an annual NASCAR Cup Series points race held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana. The inaugural race was held in 1994 and was the first race other than the Indianapolis 500 to be held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway since 1916. In its inaugural running, the Brickyard 400 became NASCAR's most-attended event, drawing an estimated crowd of more than 250,000 spectators. The race also paid one of NASCAR's highest purses. From 1994 to 2020, the race was held on the 2.5-mile oval, for a distance of 400 miles. The race was dropped in 2021 in favor of the Verizon 200 at the Brickyard which is run on a combined road course and run a distance of 200-mile (321.869 km).
Speed was a sports-oriented cable and satellite television network that was owned by the Fox Sports Media Group division of 21st Century Fox. The network was dedicated to motorsports programming, including auto racing, as well as automotive-focused programs.
Allen Bestwick is an American sportscaster. He is the lead play-by-play voice for University of Connecticut women’s basketball telecasts for SportsNet New York, the lead track announcer at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and the lead broadcaster for the Superstar Racing Experience racing series.
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 2002, 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. The network originally aired races, typically during the second half of the season, from 1999 to 2006.
Motor Racing Network (MRN) is a U.S. 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.
Robert F. Jenkins was an American television and radio sports announcer, primarily calling Indy car and NASCAR telecasts for ESPN/ABC and later Versus/NBCSN. Jenkins was the radio "Voice of the Indianapolis 500" on the IMS Radio Network from 1990 to 1998, then held the same role on ABC Sports television from 1999 to 2001.
The television and radio rights to broadcast NASCAR on television and radio are one of the most expensive rights of any American sport, with the current television contract with Fox Sports and NBC Sports being worth around US$8 billion.
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 was the tagname for any NASCAR series race that had been broadcast on Turner Network Television (TNT) by Turner Sports between 2001 and 2014. The network continued Turner's longstanding relationship with NASCAR that dated back to its initial association with TBS Superstation.
The 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series was the 62nd season of professional stock car racing in the United States, the 39th modern-era cup series, and the first Cup season of the 2010s, the 21st century's second decade. Beginning at Daytona International Speedway, the season included 36 races and two exhibition races. The season concluded with the 2010 Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway. During the 2009 offseason, NASCAR announced a few calendar changes, including the standardized start time. Rick Hendrick won the Owners' Championship, while Jimmie Johnson won the Drivers' Championship with a second-place finish at the final race of the season. Chevrolet won the Manufacturers' Championship with 261 points. Johnson extended his record of consecutive championships with the 5th title in a row. 2010 is the first season without drivers Jeremy Mayfield since 1992 and Sterling Marlin since 1975.
ESPN SpeedWorld is the name of a former television series broadcast on ESPN from 1979–2006. The program that was based primarily based around NASCAR, CART, IMSA, Formula One, NHRA, and IHRA. The theme music is based on the piano interlude from "18th Avenue " by Cat Stevens.
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.
As time passed, more Winston Cup races ended up on TV. ESPN broadcast its first race in 1981, from North Carolina Motor Speedway, 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.
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:
The Verizon 200 at the Brickyard is an annual NASCAR Cup Series points race held at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Indiana. The inaugural race was held in 2021, replacing the Brickyard 400 which was run on a 2.5-mile oval from 1994–2020. The race takes place on the combined road course and run a distance of 200-mile (321.869 km). The layout utilized is the newer, modified layout of the circuit previously used for the Formula One U.S. Grand Prix, and currently used for the IndyCar GMR Grand Prix.
When the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, all major professional and collegiate organizations responded by suspending operations indefinitely. This effect was passed down to the world of sports broadcasting, which includes live coverage of thousands of events on an annual basis through stations and network available over the air, through cable, satellite, and IPTV companies, and via streaming and over-the-top services.
