FOX NASCAR opens the 2015 season, its 15th year broadcasting NASCAR Sprint Cup Series events and the first of its new 10-year media rights agreement, with expanded coverage and the return of its popular broadcast team, coupled with new on-air faces that include a rotation of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champions.
“Broadcasting any sports property for 15 years is a labor of love and a tremendous privilege,” said Eric Shanks, President and COO, Executive Producer, FOX Sports. “NASCAR has been part of the fabric of FOX Sports since we first hit the air at Daytona in 2001, and with our new 10-year commitment, FOX NASCAR is poised to showcase what we expect to be the most riveting competition in years with what certainly is our deepest pool of on-air personalities ever.”
Mike Joy, Hall of Famer Darrell Waltrip and Larry McReynolds, the original FOX Sports broadcast team which began its NASCAR run at the 2001 Daytona 500, return to the booth for NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races on FOX and FOX Sports 1. The team is joined on pit road by reporters Matt Yocum and newcomers Jamie Little and Chris Neville. FOX NASCAR expands its schedule from 13 to 16 races in 2015 with 10 on FOX and six on FOX Sports 1.
Chris Myers hosts FOX NASCAR Sunday, the network’s fast-paced prerace show from the traveling Hollywood Hotel, alongside brothers Darrell and Michael Waltrip.
This season, FOX Sports adds coverage of the NASCAR Xfinity Series, second only to the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series as the most-watched racing series in the country, the first 14 races of the year. FOX Sports 1 telecasts 12 of the events while FOX broadcasts the races from Phoenix and Talladega. Adam Alexander calls play-by-play alongside Michael Waltrip and a rotation of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers scheduled to contribute as analysts, including reigning champion Kevin Harvick, four-time champ Jeff Gordon and 2012 champion Brad Keselowski. Vince Welch leads reporting on pit road for every Xfinity Series race, joined by a rotation of Little, Neville and Yocum.
FOX Sports 1 continues with exclusive coverage of the entire NASCAR Camping World Truck Series season for the 13th consecutive year with Alexander, Joy and Brian Till filling in on play-by-play until Steve Byrnes returns from a medical leave of absence. Joy has the call from Daytona for the season opener. Longtime FOX Sports 1 analysts Phil Parsons and Michael Waltrip are back in 2015. Hermie Sadler leads pit road reporting with a regular rotation of Welch, Yocum and Kaitlyn Vincie. FOX Sports 1 telecasts 22 of the series’ 23 races live in 2015, while FOX broadcasts the Talladega race.
NASCAR RaceDay, FOX Sports 1’s popular prerace show, heads back to the track in 2015, live from the middle of the fans at the new and versatile FOX Sports Stage, which puts fans in the center of prerace activities prior to each Sprint Cup race. Danielle Trotta hosts during the FOX portion of the year with McReynolds and Kenny Wallace before handing off hosting duties to John Roberts for the second half of the season. Vincie and FOX Sports 1 newcomers Alan Cavanna and Andrew Doud report alongside FOX NASCAR team pit reporters covering the day’s race.
For NASCAR Xfinity Series prerace coverage, Trotta hosts NASCAR RaceDay-Xfinity live from the track, with McReynolds and Wallace offering analysis and Little, Neville, Welch and Yocum reporting. Roberts hosts NCWTS Setup live before each Truck Series race with analysis from two-time series champion Todd Bodine.
NASCAR Race Hub, FOX Sports 1’s daily news and update program, kicks off the 2015 season live from the Charlotte Motor Speedway Media Tour on Monday, Jan. 26 at its new time of 6 p.m. ET. Alexander, Trotta and Roberts co-host the hour-long program. The network bolsters its analyst pool in 2015 to include Wally Dallenbach, Jeff Hammond and McReynolds, who are joined by a rotating team of drivers and crew chiefs that features AJ Allmendinger, Greg Biffle, Drew Blickensderfer, Bodine, Chad Knaus and Joey Logano. For the first time, NASCAR Race Hub features three fulltime reporters with Cavanna, Doud and Vincie reporting daily from NASCAR race shops and Ray Dunlap delivering Truck Series feature reports. NASCAR Race Hub airs Mondays through Thursdays at 6 p.m. ET.
NASCAR Race Hub expands to the weekend in 2015 to offer at-track updates and news as it breaks throughout the course of the race weekend. Roberts hosts alongside Hammond with reporting by Cavanna and Vincie. In addition, NASCAR Victory Lane on FOX Sports 1 recaps each Sprint Cup Series race with highlights and analysis. Myers hosts with Wallace and Michael Waltrip and post-race reports from the garage.
FOX Sports kicks off the season by offering multi-network, multi-platform coverage from Speedweeks at Daytona International Speedway, culminating with live coverage of the Daytona 500 on Sunday, Feb. 22 (1 p.m. ET) on FOX with live pre-race coverage on FOX NASCAR Sunday (Noon ET). FOX also carries Pole Day Qualifying on Sunday, Feb. 15 (1 p.m. ET) and the Sprint Unlimited on Saturday, Feb. 14 (8 p.m. ET), both live. FOX Sports 1 presents live coverage of its first NASCAR Xfinity Series race on Saturday, Feb. 21 (3:30 p.m. ET), the Budweiser Duel At Daytona on Thursday, Feb. 19 (7 p.m. ET) and live coverage of the season-opening NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race on Friday, Feb. 20 (7:30 p.m. ET).
Daytona 500 Bash At The Beach returns to FOX for its second year on Saturday, Feb 21 at 9 p.m. ET. On the eve of “The Great American Race,” NASCAR drivers gather to welcome fans to a pre-race party celebrating the 2015 season on the sands of Daytona Beach. Details are to be announced.
In addition, FOX Sports 1 premieres two NASCAR original specials during Speedweeks in a special programming block on Friday, Feb. 13. “A Perfect Storm,” debuting at 7:30 p.m. ET, chronicles the events of Feb. 18, 1979, detailing how a major blizzard struck the Eastern seaboard, creating a “captive” audience for the first live flag-to-flag television broadcast of the Daytona 500. The one-hour special, produced by NASCAR Productions, features excerpts from the race broadcast, recently discovered archival footage and first-person accounts from the network broadcasters, drivers and fans who witnessed the historic event that is credited with putting NASCAR on the map. A second special, entitled 1979 Daytona 500, premieres at 8:30 p.m. ET.
Also back by popular demand in May for the second consecutive year is FOX Sports 1 — 10 Days Of Thunder. The special multi-sport programming block is anchored by two weekends of NASCAR racing from Charlotte Motor Speedway, highlighted by live coverage of the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race and the Coca-Cola 600, in addition to comprehensive support programming and premieres of FOX Sports 1 originals.
All NASCAR programming on FOX and FOX Sports 1 is streamed live through FOX Sports GO, the critically acclaimed app that provides live streaming video of FOX Sports content. FOX Deportes, the leading sports network in Spanish, returns in 2015 for its third season of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series coverage with eight live races, beginning with the Daytona 500 on Sunday, Feb 22. Mexican driver and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series competitor German Quiroga joins the broadcast booth as analyst.
In 2013, FOX Sports extended its media rights agreement with NASCAR, ensuring the FOX family of networks’ broadcast of the first 16 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races each season beginning in 2015, as well as the first 14 NASCAR Xfinity Series races of the season and all NASCAR Camping World Truck Series events, through 2024.
So, to highlight the changes for 2015:
- Gordon, who announced last week he will step out of his #24 car following the season, will switch off his Xfinity Series analyst role with defending Cup champion Kevin Harvick and former Cup champ Brad Keselowski. Those are just part of many changes for FOX, which goes into this season splitting TV broadcasting duties with NBC.
- The familiar booth of Mike Joy, Larry McReynolds and Darrell Waltrip will remain intact for Cup Series broadcasts. Chris Myers will continue to host the Cup Series pre-race show alongside Waltrip and his brother, Michael. Fox and Fox Sports 1 have the first 16 races of the season.
- Matt Yocum, Jamie Little and Chris Neville will serve as pit reporters for both Cup and Xfinity broadcasts, joined by Vince Welch for the latter.
- Adam Alexander will serve as the play-by-play announcer for Xfinity races with analysts Michael Waltrip and the rotating trio of Gordon, Harvick and Keselowski. FOX and Fox Sports 1 have the first 14 races of the season.
- With Steve Byrnes battling cancer, Mike Joy, Adam Alexander and newcomer Brian Till will rotate play-by-play duties for the Camping World Truck Series (Joy will call the season opener). They’ll be joined in the booth by Phil Parsons and Michael Waltrip. Fox Sports 1 has the entire Truck schedule save for the October race at Talladega Superspeedway, which Fox will telecast.
- Pit reporters for the Truck Series include Hermie Sadler, Kaitlyn Vincie, Welch and Yocum.
- Danielle Trotta will host NASCAR RaceDay during the first half of the season and John Roberts will host the second half. They’ll be joined by analysts McReynolds and Kenny Wallace.
- Vincie, former NASCAR.com reporter Alan Cavanna and newcomer Andrew Doud will serve as reporters, alongside the team of pit reporters for RaceDay. They replace reporters Bob Dillner and Wendy Venturini.
- Trotta will host the Xfinity Series pre-race show with McReynolds and Wallace; Roberts will host the Truck Series pre-race show with former Truck champ Todd Bodine (former host Krista Voda left for NBC).
- FOX Sports 1’s daily news show, NASCAR Race Hub, will be hosted by Trotta, Alexander and Roberts and has added a large pool of analysts. Among them: Wally Dallenbach, Jeff Hammond, McReynolds, plus a rotation of AJ Allmendinger, Greg Biffle, Drew Blickensderfer, Bodine, Chad Knaus and Joey Logano.
