Darrell Lee Waltrip is an American motorsports analyst, author, former national television broadcaster, and former racing driver. He is also a three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion and a three-time NASCAR Cup Series runner-up.
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.
WindTunnel with Dave Despain was a live viewer call-in show exclusively for auto racing fans that debuted on Speed Channel on February 22, 2003 and ended on August 11, 2013. During the course of the show, host Dave Despain fielded telephone calls and read e-mail from viewers, some of them directed at the guest Despain is interviewing, which was done just after the first segment, titled "Hot Topics", which Despain reads the big stories from the racing world. After the interview segment, Despain did a segment just for him, titled "My Take", in which he gave his opinion on news from the racing world. There was also an award for the best e-mail or phone call from each show, as the winning viewer received a Despain bobblehead. It was a coveted prize among viewers.
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.
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.
NASCAR RaceDay is an American pre-race television show on Fox Sports 1 that precedes all NASCAR Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race broadcasts. Part of the Fox NASCAR series, the show previously aired on Fox Sports Net and Speed. NASCAR RaceDay is hosted by Shannon Spake or Kaitlyn Vincie with analysis from Bobby Labonte and Jamie McMurray from the Fox Sports studio in Charlotte, North Carolina. Alan Cavanna and Bob Pockrass report from the track
The Goody's 250 was a NASCAR Busch Series stock car race held at Martinsville Speedway, in Martinsville, Virginia. The race was only held once, on July 22, 2006, as a standalone event during the summer. It had been speculated the race would be held at night, under a temporary lighting system to be installed at the track, but it was held in the afternoon instead. The Goody's 250 replaced the ITT Industries & Goulds Pumps Salute to the Troops 250 on the Busch Series schedule. After a Busch Series Martinsville record high 19 cautions for 87 laps, the Goody's 250 was replaced in 2007 by the NAPA Auto Parts 200 at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve road course in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The race was the final start in NASCAR for Darrell Waltrip and Ricky Craven.
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.
Speed Center was a motor sports news program on Speed Channel. Debuting on February 13, 2011, it was anchored by Adam Alexander with Jeff Hammond and Sam Hornish, Jr. as analysts on Sunday episodes. Ricky Rudd was the analyst for the first two races at Daytona and Phoenix.
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.
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 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series was the 60th season of professional stock car racing in the United States and the 37th modern-era Cup season. It was contested over thirty-six races, and began on February 9 at Daytona International Speedway with the Budweiser Shootout exhibition race, followed by the 50th Daytona 500 on February 17. The season continued with the 2008 Chase for the Sprint Cup beginning on September 14 with the Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and concluded with the Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway on November 16.
This Week in NASCAR was a 60-minute program that aired Monday nights on the Speed Channel. It was hosted by veteran NASCAR personality Steve Byrnes with panel members Michael Waltrip and Greg Biffle. Other panelists such as Chad Knaus, Bootie Barker, and Dave Blaney made regular appearances. The panel reviewed the past weekend's races and get geared up for the NASCAR racing week ahead with informative and historical videos. Each episode told the stories of the track, region, drivers and offered team perspectives as well as memorable historical races from the track with present and past drivers on hand. Their cameras capture the "behind the scenes" and "show me what I don't already know!" moments, that tell critical, colorful and entertaining race stories.
NASCAR on TNN was the name of a television program that broadcast NASCAR races on The Nashville Network.
NASCAR on SportsChannel America relates to NASCAR's Busch Grand National races broadcast on the now defunct SportsChannel America television network. SportsChannel America's coverage began in 1990. For instance, SportsChannel America broadcast the Roses Stores 200 and the Chevy Dealers of New England 250.
NASCAR Race Hub is a daily NASCAR news program broadcast on Fox Sports 1 Monday through Thursday. Originally broadcast on Speed, the show replaced NASCAR Nation and This Week in NASCAR. NASCAR Race Hub premiered on October 12, 2009, as a 30-minute show, but was extended to 60 minutes in the following years. The show was again shortened to 30 minutes after moving to Fox Sports 1 from Speed in August 2013, only to be returned to 60 minutes starting on September 23.
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: