1983–2000 Before the existence of
ESPN, live coverage of NASCAR Winston Cup races on television was limited.
CBS covered the
Daytona 500, the June race at
Michigan and the July race at
Talladega.
ABC usually did the
Atlanta race in the spring. TBS broadcast the
Richmond spring race, held the week after
Daytona Speedweeks, from 1983 to 1995, as well as the fall races at
Rockingham (1985–1987),
Atlanta (1983–1985) and
Riverside (1982–1987). For several years in the 1990s, the only Cup Series races aired on TBS were the two races from
Charlotte Motor Speedway (
Coca-Cola 600 from 1988–2000,
UAW-GM Quality 500 from 1989–2000); TBS did not have rights to
The Winston, which usually aired on
TNN. Also, the channel aired the
July race at
Pocono Raceway from 1993 to 2000. TBS was also the home of the postseason exhibition races held at
Suzuka Circuit and
Mobility Resort Motegi in Japan from
1996–
1998. The now defunct
Prime Network meanwhile, was the first to televise NASCAR Winston Cup qualifying races on a regular basis. The telecasts were mainly for races that would be televised by TBS. TBS aired side-by-side coverage during commercials during the
2000 UAW-GM Quality 500 in
Charlotte.
2001–2006 Races were switched from TBS to TNT in
2001 as part of the then-new NASCAR television deal, although the initial plans were for TBS to carry the races. However, Turner decided that NASCAR would better fit TNT's "We Know Drama" rather than TBS's eventual "Very Funny" slogan. TNT aired its first
NASCAR Winston Cup Series race under the new contract at
New Hampshire International Speedway in July 2001. Both networks shared the broadcast team of
Allen Bestwick,
Benny Parsons, and
Wally Dallenbach Jr. in the booth and
Bill Weber, Marty Snider,
Dave Burns, and
Matt Yocum on pit road, as well as both being produced with Turner Sports' graphical look. The only differences were the placement of the network's logo on the graphics package and different colored pit reporter fire suits. Also, Liz Allison, widow of former driver
Davey Allison, worked as a reporter exclusively for TNT during the 2001 season. TNT was treated as the secondary broadcaster, as far as broadcast rights are concerned, during its relationship with NBC because it is a cable rather than broadcast network (Turner produced all of NBC's telecasts as well). NBC's portion of broadcast included almost all of the prestigious races during their half of the year (with the exception of the
Southern 500 at Darlington, the fourth leg of NASCAR's
Grand Slam, in 2001 and 2002, and the
Chevy Rock & Roll 400 at Richmond from 2004 to 2006, when the race was the last race of the regular season under the season format). The idea was that ratings would most certainly be higher for NBC's coverage of a given race next to TNT's due to a broadcaster's penetration. TNT was given most of the
Busch Series schedule except for major races, then covered by NBC. Night races were almost always covered by TNT except for the
Pepsi 400 at Daytona, which aired on NBC in years that they had the rights to it, and (later) the
UAW-GM Quality 500 at Charlotte when that race was moved from Sunday afternoons to Saturday nights. Otherwise, following the fall Richmond race, TNT's Cup Series coverage was limited to one, two or three races (including the
Pop Secret Microwave Popcorn 400 at Rockingham, which they covered from 2001 to 2003). It was generally understood that anytime a major news story needed to be covered by NBC its NASCAR coverage would be switched over to TNT. This occurred only once: the
2001 UAW-GM Quality 500 at
Lowe's Motor Speedway was interrupted during the prerace show when President
George W. Bush announced the beginning of
Operation Enduring Freedom in response to the
September 11 attacks. NBC covered the news until 25 laps to go (simulcast with TNT), and the entire race was shown on TNT. TNT also would broadcast any NBC-scheduled races that were postponed by rain until the following day, much like FX would do for Fox during this contract (this is no longer applicable as Fox airs rain-delayed races the following day, since Fox has no daytime programming, unlike
ABC,
CBS and
NBC). The TNT–NBC partnership broke off when
NBC chose not to bid for the NASCAR contract when it expired in 2006.
2007–2014 TNT, however, elected to make a bid for rights in the new television contract and was successful in retaining its coverage, joining
Fox and
the ESPN family of networks in a contract that ran until 2014. Under the terms of said contract TNT gained broadcast rights to six June and July races, which it calls the
NASCAR on TNT Summer Series. TNT's six races in
2014 were the
Pocono 400 at
Pocono Raceway, the
Quicken Loans 400 at
Michigan International Speedway, the
Toyota/Save Mart 350 at
Sonoma Raceway, the
Quaker State 400 at
Kentucky Speedway, the annual
July 4 weekend
Coke Zero 400 at
Daytona International Speedway, and the
Camping World RV Sales 301 at
New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Unlike in the previous contract TNT was not able to procure rights to any
Nationwide Series races, as ESPN successfully bid to be the exclusive carrier of the series. However, TNT became the exclusive home for the Coke Zero 400, much like Fox had become exclusive home for the Daytona 500 — in the previous contract, Fox and NBC alternated coverage of the two races at Daytona, with Fox airing the Daytona 500 and NBC the Pepsi 400 in odd-numbered years, and vice versa in even-numbered years.
Bill Weber stayed on as TNT's NASCAR voice and
Wally Dallenbach Jr. was retained to be his color commentator.
Benny Parsons was to join the two in the booth and had a contract for 2007, but he died from lung cancer in January after he missed four races in 2006 for treatment on his lung cancer.
Kyle Petty elected to take time off from his driving duties to take the position in the broadcast booth. Marty Snider and
Matt Yocum returned as pit reporters. To replace
Allen Bestwick and Dave Burns, both of whom went to ESPN following the 2006 season, TNT promoted
Ralph Sheheen and
Lindsay Czarniak to full-time pit reporter positions; previously both of them served as substitutes or for stand-alone Busch Series races that conflicted with the Cup Series schedule. To round out the coverage,
Larry McReynolds was loaned by Fox to provide analysis and explanations.
2007–2009 From 2007 to 2009, TNT's pre-race coverage began with a one-hour show called
NASCAR on TNT Live! This was followed by a 30-minute version of
Countdown to Green, followed by the race itself. The pre-race coverage was changed in 2010 to a simple one-hour version of
Countdown to Green due to NASCAR's new policy of earlier start times. Since 2007, each pre-race broadcast (whether it be on
NASCAR on TNT Live! or
Countdown to Green) featured "The Pride of NASCAR" segment which featured an interview with a historical NASCAR figure. Some examples include
Richard Petty (interviewed by his son
Kyle),
A. J. Foyt, and
Mario Andretti. One of the most popular features of TNT's coverage is RaceBuddy, a free online application on NASCAR.com that allows fans to watch the race through their choice of several camera angles. In 2009, Jim Noble was added as the RaceBuddy-only pit reporter. On July 7, 2007, during the
Pepsi 400, TNT used for the first time a new broadcast format called "Wide-Open Coverage". The race broadcast was moved to the top of the screen, with all scoring graphics placed in the bottom of the screen.The race was also broadcast with limited commercial interruption; only three green flag laps took place during commercials during the entire broadcast, because of cable and satellite television providers having several minutes every hour to air local ads, bypassing TNT entirely. All other commercials were aired in the lower third of the screen, similar to what is used by the
IndyCar Series but with a significantly larger window for the race coverage. Most of these commercials featured a special ad for that race, followed by their traditional ad. For each Daytona race through 2012, TNT featured the Wide-Open Coverage format. In
2009 and
2010, no green flag laps were missed. In
2013, the format was only used for the last 30 laps, as they were only able to get two sponsors for the format, and in
2014, was dropped entirely due to the race being delayed to Sunday by rain. During the broadcast of the
2008 LifeLock.com 400,
Larry McReynolds performed a magic trick, "cutting"
Marc Fein in half while green flag racing was taking place on the racetrack. This came at the dismay and outrage of many fans and viewers. TNT also missed the winning pass of the
2008 Coke Zero 400 when a last lap crash involving
Michael Waltrip took out several cars. When it was all said and done, TNT panned over to
Carl Edwards, who prematurely celebrated his victory, thinking he had the lead when the caution came out. Because the crash occurred on the last lap, the field is frozen at the moment the caution came out and NASCAR reviews the finishing order by using video replays and scoring loop data. Those replays all showed
Kyle Busch as the leader when the caution came out; Busch was declared the winner of the Coke Zero 400.
2010–2014 The 2010 race also featured a 3-D broadcast on some cable/satellite providers and on NASCAR.com. There were some technical issues with TNT's final Sprint Cup race of the season at Chicagoland when the picture and sound went out during the prerace show, causing the invocation and the national anthem to not be televised. Beginning with the Party at the Poconos 400 race on June 9, 2013, TNT's NASCAR coverage switched to a
16:9 aspect ratio letterbox format, though it did retain its on-air graphics package that has been in use since 2007. The ticker across the top of the screen also changed, with the lap counter and TNT network logo both being moved to the upper right-hand corner of the screen. The screen on TNT's
standard-definition 4:3 feed now airs a
letterboxed version of the native HD feed to match that of
Fox's and
ESPN's respective default
widescreen SD presentations.
NASCAR on TNT was the last of the 3 broadcast partners to switch to a widescreen presentation.
NBC became the 4th to switch to letterbox format on SD feeds in 2015.
The end of the original run of NASCAR on TNT The
2014 Camping World RV Sales 301, on July 13, at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, was the final NASCAR race televised on TNT (until 2025) in its fourteen years with TNT and marked the end of NASCAR's total 32-year run on Turner Sports, dating back to 1983; in the wake of former co-partner
NBC signing a new agreement to televise races from the major NASCAR series (mainly Cup Series and Xfinity Series as well as Mexico Series races on its Spanish-language networks). Thus, TNT decided to devote a large segment of the pre-race show to showing clips of signature NASCAR moments to air on both it and TBS; and also welcomed NASCAR president Mike Helton to the TNT booth to talk about the relationship of NASCAR with Turner Sports, as Helton had been president of the
Atlanta Motor Speedway when Turner Sports showed its first race at AMS, which had aired on TBS in 1983, 32 years prior. Finally, the conclusive pre-race broadcast in fourteen years of NASCAR on TNT was closed out by former TBS lead announcer and New England native
Ken Squier. During NASCAR's 32-year run on Turner Sports, the races aired on TBS (1983–2000) and TNT (2001–2014).
2025 return On November 29, 2023,
TNT Sports announced that it had acquired the rights to five yearly summer NASCAR Cup Series races starting in 2025.
TruTV will also hold the rights to practice and qualifying for 19 Cup Series races per season. All races, as well as practice and qualifying, will stream on
HBO Max. NASCAR announced that they would hold a
mid-season bracket challenge for Cup Series teams that would take place during TNT's five races. The top 32 drivers from the three previous races who would be seeded in the bracket for the start of the tournament based on their finishes in those races. The driver who wins the bracket challenge will win $1 million. Max will also exclusively have the rights to air a driver cam for every driver in all Cup Series races. The cam will include scanner audio. On September 5, 2024, as a prelude to the package,
NASCAR Productions began producing a weekly studio show for TruTV known as
NASCAR Inside the Playoffs, featuring
Shannon Spake,
Steve Letarte,
Mamba Smith and Jordan Bianchi. TNT officially announced its broadcast team on November 18, 2024.
Adam Alexander returns as the lead lap-by-lap commentator, with analysts
Steve Letarte and
Dale Earnhardt Jr. The team will also be shared with
NASCAR on Prime Video. ==Commentators==