TNT names new play-by-play announcer: TNT announced that veteran NASCAR broadcaster Adam Alexander will join the network as its NASCAR Sprint Cup Series play-by-play announcer, calling all six races of TNT’s Summer Series. Alexander will be joined in the booth by returning analysts Kyle Petty and Wally Dallenbach. Alexander will debut during TNT’s exclusive coverage of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series racing from Pocono, Pa. on June 6 and will also call races live from Michigan (June 13), Loudon (June 20) and Sonoma (June 27) and TNT’s primetime Saturday night races in Daytona (July 3) and Chicago (July 10). In addition, Alexander will contribute to NASCAR.COM. In a new role, TNT announcer Lindsay Czarniak will become the new host for Countdown to Green, 60 minutes of pre-race coverage that leads into TNT’s green flag racing coverage. In addition, she will host TNT and NASCAR.COM’s post-race coverage, as well as give mid-race updates and reports. Czarniak will be joined by analysts Larry McReynolds and Petty.
Beyond Alexander’s TNT duties during six weeks of Summer Series coverage, Alexander also works for SPEED as a reporter for the network’s racing coverage. He has also worked as a play-by-play announcer on the Motor Racing Network (MRN) and as a pit reporter for its NASCAR Sprint Cup and Nationwide series coverage. Alexander began his career as an announcer for the Tri-State Speedway in Evansville, Ind.
In addition to Czarniak’s tenure as a TNT announcer, she also serves as the full-time sports anchor at NBC’s WRC-TV in Washington, D.C. Prior to that, Czarniak was co-host with George Michael on the syndicated Sports Machine with George Michael. In 2008, Czarniak was a studio host for NBC’s Olympic Summer Games in Beijing, China, and in 2006, she was a sports desk reporter for the network’s Olympic Winter Games in Turin, Italy. She appeared on various NBC-owned networks.
TNT’s NASCAR telecasts will return with popular production features and enhancements, including TNT RaceBuddy. In addition, the acclaimed Pride of NASCAR series will continue as TNT profiles six new NASCAR legends, highlighting the sport’s history and history makers. Finally, TNT’s innovative Wide Open Coverage will air for the fourth year during NASCAR Sprint Cup Series racing from Daytona. Also returning to TNT this summer will be pit reporters Ralph Sheheen, Marty Snider and Matt Yocum. This marks TNT’s [TBS] 27th consecutive year of televising Cup coverage, making it NASCAR’s longest running broadcast partner.(TNT)(3-4-2010)

Bill Weber....a magician: Bill Weber, who was TNT's lead NASCAR race announcer before being suspended before a race in July and not returning, says he's performing as a magician. "It's a passion I hope to turn into a profession," says Weber, who says his TNT contract wasn't renewed. "I hope to continue sports announcing, but this is something I've wanted to do for a long time." Weber, saying he worked some NBC motor sports last year, adds he's "waiting for NBC to get back from Olympics to see what motor sports opportunities they might have."(USA Today)(2-25-2010)

New TV deal allows UK fans to watch NASCAR races: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races are again on television in the United Kingdom as the Open Access 3 channel starts covering the series this weekend from Las Vegas. Previous UK NASCAR broadcaster Sky ceased its live coverage at the end of last season, bar a one-off reappearance for the Daytona 500. But NASCAR has now announced a new deal with Open Access 3 - channel 190 on Sky - starting from the next race, with the broadcast beginning Sunday.(AutoSport)(2-25-2010)

SPEED named exclusive TV home of NASCAR HoF: SPEED and NASCAR have reached a multiyear agreement naming SPEED as the official television home of the NASCAR Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony. As part of the deal, SPEED will continue to offer live coverage of special events leading up to the annual induction ceremonies, including nomination and voting days for each Hall class. As part of the inaugural NASCAR Hall of Fame opening on May 11, which SPEED will televise live, the network also will offer a special “walking tour” broadcast from the striking new Charlotte, N.C., facility just before it opens to the public, as well as extensive pre-event programming. Beginning in April, SPEED also will produce and air one-hour documentaries on each incoming NASCAR Hall of Fame class member. For more information on NHOF events, please visit www.NASCARHall.com.(SPEED)(1-24-2010)

New Shows, some changes at SPEED: With a slate of new programs, an updated and enhanced Web presence and an upgraded 14,400-square-foot, at-track production and interactive marketing compound offering more to race fans than ever before, SPEED is putting the finishing touches on the most ambitious NASCAR on SPEED season in network history. This week, SPEED signed former NASCAR driver Kyle Petty to a new multiyear deal that will position the veteran television personality with John Roberts, Kenny Wallace and Wendy Venturini on the popular NASCAR Sprint Cup Series pre-race show, NASCAR RaceDay Built by The Home Depot. Petty also will appear on the post-race program, NASCAR Victory Lane, and continue his role on the popular game show, NASCAR Smarts.
As the season gets underway, SPEED is dedicating much of its effort to strengthening its Monday Night NASCAR lineup, with the following rotation beginning Feb. 15 -- NASCAR Race Hub (7:30 & 11:30 pm/et), NASCAR in a Hurry – Monday Edition (8:00 pm/et) and a new 30-minute talk show with fan favorite Jimmy Spencer, entitled What’s the Deal?, at 8:30pm/et.
Nicky Morse, The Racing Chef, will join the NASCAR on SPEED team in 2010, visiting restaurants around the race track and highlighting the culinary expertise of race fans who take enormous pride in their campground feasts. Three additional Monday night NASCAR shows are in development, with a planned rollout following the Las Vegas racing weekend.
Race replays for all three NASCAR national touring series are scheduled throughout the week, beginning with an encore presentation of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series on Mondays at 12:00pm/et, Tuesday nights, SPEED will air a cut-down version of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race, tentatively titled NASCAR Fast Laps, at 8:00pm/et. The full Cup race will re-air Wednesdays at 12:00pm/et and the full NASCAR Nationwide Series race replay will air Thursdays at 12:00pm/et. In addition, SPEED will air NASCAR Classics on Thursdays at 3:00pm/et.
In addition to its weekly NASCAR on SPEED lineup, SPEED will continue to be the home for the Gatorade Duel at Daytona [Feb 11th at 2:00pm/et], the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race [May 22nd], all three NASCAR national touring series awards ceremonies and the NASCAR Hall of Fame induction ceremony. The only title not returning in 2010 will be the long-running This Week in NASCAR.
At the race track, the SPEED Stage continues its evolution, as the network teams with Jay Howard Enterprises (JHE) and GMR Marketing to deliver a one-of-a-kind fan experience. First producing shoulder programming from the track in 2004, the original effort took only a single tractor trailer and two JHE employees to deliver. In 2010, the five-tractor-trailer effort now rolls in with three SPEED Stages and a lineup of interactive fan activities, where ‘SPEED Fanatics’ (my.speedtv.com) can experience what its like to operate a camera, sit on mock sets and get autographs from SPEED personalities and other NASCAR stars.(SPEED)(1-20-2010)

NASCAR races not picked up by UK's Sky Sports: Been told that United Kingdom's [England, Scotland, Ireland] Sky Sports did not secure the NASCAR Cup series for 2010, so after two years, there supposedly will be no live television coverage of NASCAR Sprint Cup races in the UK.(from Keith Huewen's website, he was one of the announcers of the races)(1-18-2010)

Nine of Ten Chase races on ESPN: Nine of the 10 races in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup and 14 total races in all will air on ESPN next season, the network announced Wednesday. ABC, which aired 11 races last year, will air three NASCAR races in 2010 -- all on Saturday nights. ESPN will handle the other 14 races to end the season, starting with the Brickyard 400 on July 25 and concluding with the final race of the season Nov. 21 at Miami-Homestead. All of the East Coast races will begin at 1:00pm/et. West Coast races will begin at 3:00pm/et (other than the Sept. 5 race at Atlanta, which is a 7:30pm/et start). The three Saturday night races on ABC will be at Bristol (Aug. 21); Richmond (Sept. 11); and Charlotte (Oct. 16), with the Charlotte race in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. All are scheduled to begin at 7:30pm/et. "Last year's performance showed us that ESPN provides the best home for NASCAR," said John Skipper, ESPN executive vice president, content, in a statement.
"This is exciting news for NASCAR and our fans," said NASCAR Media Group President Paul Brooks, in a statement. "The ESPN subscriber base is larger than ever at nearly 100 million, and the network has the proven ability to attract younger viewers. As the premier network during the most competitive time of the year for sports, having more NASCAR races on ESPN will create more exposure." Starting on Aug. 28, ABC will show 16 straight weeks of sports on Saturday nights, including the Little League World Series, three NASCAR races and 12 college football games.(ESPN)(1-13-2010)

New 'Stock Car' series premiering on History Channel: History will premiere Madhouse on Sunday, January 10th, 10:00pm ET/PT. The 13-hour series tracks the long history of a family feud between the Myers and the Millers set to the backdrop of intense weekly car races and colorful characters. Each week, the drivers and their crews build, repair and hone their “weapons” to prepare for the breakneck battle on Saturday night. At the granddaddy of all NASCAR short tracks in the U.S., rivalries between racing families run deep and they run hot. Bowman Gray Stadium, the quarter-mile racetrack in Winston-Salem, NC, that locals call the "Madhouse" has a history going back to the moonshine-running days of the 1920s. Then, the cars were made fast in order to out-run the police. These days, the families race to win – for family honor and to continue a longstanding 61-year feuding tradition. And because they are settling scores – family rivalries that go back generations, age-old feuds like the Hatfields & McCoys that have festered for years – ramming, spin-outs, high-speed crashes and fistfights are what fans have come to expect on Saturday night at the Madhouse. More info at history.com.(1-5-2010)

Marty Reid Will Call ESPN’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Races in 2010: Marty Reid, whose 28-year career with ESPN has touched all forms of motorsports the network has covered, will expand his role and join analysts Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree in the booth as lap-by-lap announcer for ESPN’s full season of NASCAR coverage in 2010. Reid will call the action for all 17 of ESPN’s NASCAR Sprint Cup races as well as many of the network’s NASCAR Nationwide Series telecasts. He was lap-by-lap announcer for ESPN’s IndyCar Series coverage and selected NASCAR Nationwide Series races in 2009.
Returning to a role he helped define for ESPN for more than 20 years, Dr. Jerry Punch will join ESPN’s team of pit reporters for 2010, working both Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series races. Punch was lap-by-lap announcer for ESPN’s Sprint Cup coverage the past three years. “This group gives us the most versatile and comprehensive team in motorsports, and strengthens us in the booth,” said Norby Williamson, ESPN executive vice president, studio and event production. “We play to the strengths of our announcers, and Marty’s strength is calling the tactical aspects of the race while deferring to the analysts. And from the early days of our NASCAR coverage, Jerry helped evolve the significant role that reporting from the pits plays,” Williamson said. “He will bolster our already-strong stable of pit reporters.”
All other members of the NASCAR on ESPN race coverage team will return in 2010, including analysts Rusty Wallace, Brad Daugherty, Tim Brewer and Ray Evernham, NASCAR Countdown host Allen Bestwick and pit reporters Dave Burns, Jamie Little, Mike Massaro, Shannon Spake and Vince Welch. Specific assignments and schedules will be announced later.
In addition to his expanded role with NASCAR, Reid will continue as the lap-by-lap announcer for ESPN’s five-race IndyCar Series schedule, including the Indianapolis 500. ESPN’s 2010 NASCAR season begins with live, flag-to-flag coverage of the NASCAR Nationwide Series opener at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday, Feb. 13. The first NASCAR Sprint Cup race on ESPN’s schedule is at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday, July 25.(ESPN)(12-16-2009)

Showtime Adds Weekly NASCAR TV Show: Showtime said on Monday it will carry a new series, “Inside Nascar,” that will be shown each week of the Sprint Cup season. The hour-long program will be taped at the new Nascar Hall of Fame in Charlotte, N.C., and shown Wednesday nights at 10pm, starting Feb. 10. It will carry footage shot at each week’s race, as NFL Films does for “Inside the NFL,” with commentary from a group of studio analysts that has not been announced. The 38-week-long series will also have access to the many drivers, crew chiefs and owners who are based in the Charlotte area. Showtime has given the series a two-year deal with an option for a third. Ken Hershman, the senior vice president and general manager of Showtime Sports, said the announcers on the show will be familiar from their work at ESPN, Fox, Turner and the Speed Channel.(New York Times)(12-8-2009)

NASCAR takes ABC to task for 'boring' race: Almost everybody who watches TV sports is an instant critic. One exception: Sports leagues themselves, who almost never publicly criticize the networks that cover them. And when it comes to ESPN, and its various TV platforms including ABC, the last criticism you'd expect is that the worldwide leader in hype wasn't enthusiastic enough about something it had paid to cover. But NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston, in a blog posting on nascar.com, specifically knocked ESPN/ABC's coverage of Sunday's Sprint Cup race in Talladega, Ala. At issue: Whether the race was boring.
Usually, TV sports analysts go to great pains to avoid even hinting what they're showing is boring. But Poston suggested ESPN/ABC analysts, including Dale Jarrett, "certainly weren't happy with the race and felt compelled to remind viewers of that virtually every lap. ... And along the way, ABC missed a lot of very good racing." On Sunday's race on a long track with steep banks, NASCAR cited safety reasons for prohibiting so-called bump-drafting to provide extra room between cars on turns. Although ESPN/ABC let viewers eavesdrop on driver Tony Stewart asking his crew during the race to tell him something interesting "so I don't fall asleep out here," Poston says the event had "seriously intense racing." ESPN, in a statement, said only that it had a "strong telecast" and had no comment on Poston's post.(USA Today)(11-6-2009)

Latest on standard times for races: Word is that NASCAR is eyeing two future schedule changes which would affect television viewers and would affect viewers in the grandstands. Grant Lynch, chairman of Talladega Superspeedway and International Speedway Corporation’s vice president of strategic operations, has heard about both and talked about both on Saturday. The first is standardization of the starting times of Sprint Cup races. “From what we’ve been hearing from fans, that move would be real positive,” Lynch said. Currently starting times vary. This year, there have been 16 races starting at 2:00pm, five at 3:25-3:30pm, six from 7:20-7:30pm, two at 8:00pm, as well as other races starting at 1:00pm, 1:30pm, 4:30pm, 5:00pm, 5:45pm, 6:00pm and 8:30pm. The standardized starting time being talked about most for Sunday races is 1 p.m. Eastern.
Also getting attention are reports that NASCAR may try to insert more two-day shows onto the schedule [like was used at Atlanta in Sept]. That is, cut out action on the tracks on Fridays and have the Cup cars qualify on Saturday and race on Sunday.(Racin' Today)(10-4-2009)

New NASCAR themed show: coming to the History Channel is "Madhouse." Previously announced as in development, the reality series revolves around rivalries at a North Carolina NASCAR track, where local families race to continue a 61-year feuding tradition. The show is produced by Triage Entertainment, with Stephen Kroopnick, Stu Schreiberg, Jym Buss, Grant Kahler, Aengus James, Tim Tracy, David McKillop and Carl Lindahl executive producing; 13 episodes have been ordered, and a first-quarter premiere is planned.(Hollywood Reporter)(10-1-2009)

New NASCAR Show: Versus has signed a multiyear deal with NASCAR to air a fast-paced, up-close HD look at the 12 drivers competing in the 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup. The weekly, half-hour series, Quest for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, will air at 11:00pm/et Tuesdays, beginning Sept. 22. The program will air each week until the conclusion of the 2009 season.(NASCAR)(9-19-2009)

Start times for races could be more consistent in 2010: NASCAR is expected to have more consistent start times by the 2010 season. Officials confirmed they are working with the networks to standardize starting times that fans have criticized for years. Atlanta Motor Speedway president Ed Clark told reporters on Saturday that the plan is to run most afternoon races at 1:00pm/et and most night races at 7:30pm/et. This may vary for West Coast races.(more at ESPN Insider)(9-11-2009)

Fox - 13 races [plus the Budwesier Shootout] in the 2010 season - starting at Daytona thru Charlotte in May, then off until the 2011 Daytona 500