Stock car racing is a form of automobile racing run on oval tracks and road courses. It originally used production-model cars, hence the name "stock car", but is now run using cars specifically built for racing. It originated in the southern United States and later spread to Japan; its largest governing body is NASCAR. Its NASCAR Cup Series is the premier top-level series of professional stock car racing. Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and Chile also have forms of stock car racing in the Americas. Other countries, such as Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, have forms of stock car racing worldwide as well. Top-level races typically range between 200 and 600 miles in length.
The NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) is a stock car racing series organized by NASCAR. It is promoted as NASCAR's second-tier circuit to the organization's top level Cup Series. NXS events are frequently held as a support race on the day prior to a Cup Series event scheduled for that weekend.
Speed was an American 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.
NASCAR Inside Nextel Cup was a show that aired Monday nights on Speed Channel during the NASCAR season. Inside Nextel Cup was hosted by Dave Despain. The show was taped every Monday morning at Speed's studios in Charlotte, North Carolina about 11 am, unless a race is postponed to Monday, in which case the show takes place live. The show usually ran for 60 minutes, except for a brief period during the first few weeks of the 2005 season, when it ran for 90 minutes. Speed Channel chose to discontinue this show at the end of the 2007 NASCAR season, replacing it in 2008 with the similar program This Week in NASCAR.
Pit Bull was a debate show that aired live every Saturday on Speed during the 2004 NASCAR season. The show took place outside of every venue of the NASCAR Cup Series. Host Steve Byrnes moderated debates involving a four-person panel of sportswriters whose columns are mostly about racing. The three primary panelists were Mike Mulhern of the Winston-Salem Journal, David Poole of The Charlotte Observer, and Marty Smith of NASCAR.com. The fourth panelist usually rotated between writers like Ben Blake, Lee Spencer of The Sporting News, and Speed Channel website writer Robin Miller. The panelists eventually became known as the "Pit Hogs."
The Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, also spelled Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve, is a 4.361 km (2.710 mi) motor racing circuit on Notre Dame Island in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is the venue for the FIA Formula One Canadian Grand Prix. It has previously hosted the World Sportscar Championship, the Champ Car World Series, the NASCAR Pinty’s Series, the NASCAR Nationwide Series, and the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series.
Leigh Diffey is an Australian-American auto racing and track and field commentator. He is best known for being the lead play-by-play announcer for much of NBC Sports' motorsports coverage, currently calling NASCAR Cup Series and IMSA sports car races for the network. Before this, he was the lead voice of NBC's Formula One and IndyCar Series coverage. Diffey has also worked play-by-play for NBC's coverage of the Summer and Winter Olympic Games, most notably becoming the network's lead track and field sportscaster prior to the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
Rick Benjamin is a motorsports journalist. He was Speed Channel's voice of the USAR Hooters Pro Cup Series, and was the voice of Champ Car racing for HDNet from 2004 until the end of the final season of Champ Car in 2007.
Ralph Sheheen is an American sports announcer. He is one of the lead broadcasters of NASCAR Xfinity Series on NBCSN, and was the lead commentator of Feld Entertainment's AMA Supercross Championship from 2006 until 2020. He also is the co-owner of the Speed Sport franchise through his stake in Turn 3 Media, LLC, which publishes the aforementioned magazine, the Web site, and both radio and television shows.
The American Speed Association (ASA) is a sanctioning body of motorsports in the United States formed in 1968. The Association was based in Pendleton, Indiana, and later in Daytona Beach, Florida. The ASA sanctioned asphalt and dirt tracks in their ASA Member Track program along with racing series in the United States and Canada. The ASA currently sanctions the STARS National Tour, the Midwest Tour, the Southern Super Series and all CRA sanctioned series.
NASCAR on Fox, also known as Fox NASCAR, is the branding used for broadcasts of NASCAR races produced by Fox Sports and have aired on the Fox television network in the United States since 2001. Speed, a motorsports-focused cable channel owned by Fox, began broadcasting NASCAR-related events in February 2002, with its successor Fox Sports 1 taking over Fox Sports' cable event coverage rights when that network replaced Speed in August 2013. Throughout its run, Fox's coverage of NASCAR has won thirteen Emmy Awards.
Ander Vilariño Facal is a Spanish auto racing driver that is currently competing in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series, driving the No. 22 Chevrolet Camaro for DF1 Racing. Vilariño is one of the most successful drivers in NASCAR Whelen Euro Series history. He has won 3 titles and has 22 race wins in his career the most of any driver in the series.
John Roberts is a former on-air broadcaster for NASCAR coverage on Speed Channel, which later became Fox Sports 1. He appeared on NASCAR Race Hub and NASCAR Live! and until 2014, he appeared on NASCAR RaceDay and NASCAR Victory Lane, while also having served as a substitute studio host for NASCAR on Fox in 2012. He co-hosted Tradin’ Paint on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio up until that show's cancellation.
Christopher Constantine Economaki was a pioneering American motorsports journalist, publisher, reporter, and commentator known as "The Dean of American Motorsports Journalism." Working for, and later owning, National Speed Sport News, Economaki helped encourage the growth of American motorsports from a niche endeavor to a mainstream pursuit.
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.
John Mickel is a British professional stock car racing driver and commentator. He has raced in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series in the United States and the Pickup Truck Racing Series in the United Kingdom. He was also a commentator for Sky Sports' coverage of NASCAR racing in 2008 and 2009.
ESPN SpeedWorld is a former television series broadcast on ESPN from 1979 to 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.
NASCAR on Speed was the brand name of Speed's coverage of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice sessions, qualifying sessions and a limited number of races, as well as Camping World Truck Series races that began in 2002. It was produced by Fox Sports. Pre-race coverage was usually by NASCAR RaceDay while post-race coverage was on NASCAR Victory Lane. Other programs, such as Speed Center and Wind Tunnel with Dave Despain also provided limited coverage of NASCAR related events. Starting in August 2013, Speed's coverage of NASCAR including RaceDay, Victory Lane and NASCAR Live! moved to Fox Sports 1.
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.
