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Although Foxtel axed the SPEED Channel halfway through last year, there is some good news for racing fans.
The good news for fans of the series once inhabited by our own Marcos Ambrose is that Foxtel have guaranteed that they will show every race from all three of NASCAR’s national divisions.
Some of these races might not be live, but the important thing is that we will see them all in Australia.
2015 ushers in a new era of broadcast contracts for NASCAR in America. Sprint Cup and Xfinity Series coverage will be split between FOX (and it’s cable cousin, FOX Sports 1) and NBC (which will show some races on their fledgling NBC Sports Network).
The first 16 Sprint Cup Series races will be covered by the FOX crew including the Daytona 500 and Coke 600, while NBC returns to the sport after a long absence and covers the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. Their portion of the season includes prestigious races at Indianapolis, Talladega and the night race at Bristol Motor Speedway.
The networks’ cable arms will broadcast the bulk of the Xfinity Series (with a few appearances on broadcast networks) and FOX Sports 1 is the exclusive home of the Camping World Trucks.
Although races here will be shuffled across the five FOX Sports channels, there will still be a lot of faces, some familiar and some not, on TV via the feeds from any given racetrack, so here’s your simple breakdown of who is calling what, where:
FOX/FOX Sports 1
First Race Sprint Cup Series Race: Daytona 500 (February 22)
Last Sprint Cup Series Race: Sonoma (June 28)
Xfinity Series races covered: fourteen, beginning at Daytona on February 21.
The broadcast crew for their run of 16 Sprint Cup Series races (plus the All-Star Race in May) remains the same: Mike Joy on play-by-play with analyst Darrell Waltrip and Larry McReynolds.
Veteran pit reporter Matt Yocum is joined by ESPN refugees Vince Welch and Jamie Little, and former FOX sports car reporter Chris Neville.
The divisive Chris Myers hosts the pre-race show with two other divisive characters, Michael Waltrip and Darrell Waltrip.
Former TNT broadcaster Adam Alexander will call all of FOX’s fourteen Xfinity Series races with Michael Waltrip as his analyst and a rotating pit road crew, from Yocum, Welch, Little and Neville.
The Camping World Trucks will be called by either Mike Joy or Brian Till until Steve Byrnes returns from an indefinite medical leave of absence, while Michael Waltrip and Phil Parsons return as analysts. Hermie Sadler joins Welch and Youcm on pit road, while Danielle Trotta hosts the pre-race show with Ray Dunlap and Todd Bodine.
NBC/NBC Sports Network
First Sprint Cup Series race: Daytona (July 4)
Last Sprint Cup Series Race: Championship Weekend at Homestead-Miami (November 22)
Xfinity Series races covered: nineteen, beginning at Daytona on July 3
The Peacock returns to NASCAR and will feature former Camping World Trucks broadcaster Rick Allen in the play-by-play booth alongside recently-retired driver Jeff Burton and Dale Earnhardt Junior’s former crew chief, Steve Letarte in expert commentary.
Dave Burns, Mike Massaro, Kelli Stavast, formerly a sports car and IndyCar reporter who is new to NASCAR, and Marty Snider roam pit road.
Former FOX host Krista Voda anchors the NBC pre-race show, with contributions from Kyle Petty and former ESPN broadcaster Dale Jarrett.
Jarrett will also act as a race analyst, presumably when there are standalone Xfinity Series events. No word on potential booth changes for the second-tier series, like FOX has done, so we assume, for the moment, that companion races to Sprint Cup events will be called by Allen, Burton and Letarte.
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