Fox NASCAR

Contract extensions

On December 7, 2005, NASCAR signed a new eight-year broadcast deal effective with the 2007 season, and valued at $4.48 billion,^[3] 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:

• Fox became the exclusive broadcaster of the Daytona 500 and also hold the rights to the first thirteen points paying races. In addition, the network carried the Sprint Unlimited and two Truck Series races (the network aired the Kroger 250 from Martinsville Speedway, and the Ohio 250 at Mansfield Motorsports Park in 2007; and the Kroger 250 from Martinsville, as well as the San Bernardino County 200 at Auto Club Speedway, in both 2008 and 2009). Fox did not air any races of what is now the Camping World Truck Series from 2010 to 2013, with all 25 races instead airing on Speed.^[4] Fox's 2011 coverage ended with the STP 400 at Kansas Speedway.
• TNT carried six NASCAR Cup Series races during the month of June and the first half of July, including the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona. In 2013, in particular, the network aired Pocono Raceway, Michigan International Speedway, Sonoma Raceway, Kentucky Speedway, the Coke Zero 400, and New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
• ESPN and ABC (through the ESPN on ABC arrangement) carried the final seventeen NASCAR Cup Series races from the Brickyard 400 through the end of the season, with the Cup Series Chase for the Championship races airing on ABC (until 2010, when ESPN took over most of the coverage, leaving ABC with the last 3 Saturday night races in their broadcasting period). The entire Nationwide season was aired primarily on ESPN2 and ESPN, with selected races on ABC, NASCAR returned to ESPN airing the first six races including Daytona, Atlanta, Las Vegas, and ESPN2 carrying Phoenix to Michigan.
• Speed/Fox Sports 1 carried the Budweiser Duel races and the Sprint All-Star Race, as well as the entire Camping World Truck Series season, except for the 2 races carried each year by Fox from 2007 to 2009. After the 2009 season, all the Truck races aired on Speed/FS1 – with the exception of the 2014 Talladega race, which aired on Fox.

In October 2012, NASCAR extended its contract with Fox Sports through 2022, which allowed Fox the online streaming rights for its event telecasts; the Fox Sports contract also retains coverage of the first 13 races of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and exclusive coverage of the Daytona 500.^[5] However, on August 1, 2013, due to NBC Sports contract lasting until 2024, Fox Sports extended its contract by two years (through 2024) and acquired the rights to the first 16 races of the NASCAR Cup Series season, as well as the first 14 Xfinity (formerly Nationwide) Series events.^[6] As a result, Fox will broadcast the races it already covers, as well as all of the events held in June, which include the events at Pocono and Michigan Speedways – with coverage ending with the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma. Fox had previously held rights to these three races under its initial 2001–06 contract.

Under the current deal:

• Fox broadcasts ten points races over the air, including the Daytona 500. Fox Sports 1 carries several other events, including the Advance Auto Parts Clash, Can-Am Duel, the NASCAR All-Star Race and six points-paying races, plus the first half of the Xfinity Series season (with the exception of the more prestigious races, which instead air on Fox).
• NBC will broadcast seven races over the air including some races in the NASCAR playoffs, with the other races in this part of the season being aired on NBCSN. NBC also airs the remaining races in the Xfinity Series. Playoff races on NBC are a lead in to NBC Sunday Night Football (after local news and NBC Nightly News).
• The Camping World Truck Series remains exclusively on Fox Sports 1, with the Talladega race broadcast on Fox.
  • However, in 2017, the Truck Series expanded its presence on Fox. Two races were now also broadcast on Fox, and because of the 2017 CONCACAF Gold Cup, the Eldora main race aired on Fox Business.
  • In 2018, the Bristol race was moved to Fox and was broadcast in primetime.

Studio

Chris Myers (left) and Jeff Hammond (center) appear on the studio set alongside Vice President of the United States Dick Cheney (right) during the 2006 Pepsi 400.

NASCAR on Fox original logo (2001–2012)

NASCAR on Fox vertical logo (2013–2014)

Fox NASCAR vertical logo (2015-2016)

NASCAR on Fox logo (2001–2003)

NASCAR on Fox logo (2004–2006)

• Chris Myers – host
• Jeff Gordon – analyst (pre-race only)
• Darrell Waltrip – analyst (pre-race only)
• Michael Waltrip – analyst

For all of its broadcasts, Fox uses a portable studio called the Hollywood Hotel for pre-race coverage. For the 2001 to 2007 races held at Daytona International Speedway, the infield media center situated next to Gatorade Victory Lane was used instead.

If the race is delayed to a Monday, the Hollywood Hotel studio is usually not used, with the exception of the 2012 Daytona 500, which was delayed by one day. This was because Myers also hosted a talk-show for Fox Sports Radio, resulting in him having to return to Los Angeles to begin the following week's shows. John Roberts filled in for Myers for this particular race, and had also filled in for Myers the previous week for the Budweiser Shootout as Myers was on bereavement leave.

However, if a Saturday night race is rained out to Sunday then the studio will be in use for the delayed coverage. Prior to 2015, if the Hotel was no longer available, Jeff Hammond could be shifted to substitute for a pit reporter or analyst if necessary. For instance, Hammond did this in 2002 for the Dodge/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway to replace Steve Byrnes, as Byrnes was unable to make it due to the birth of his son Bryson. During the 2004 Dodge/Save Mart 350, the studio was not used and Myers and Hammond were located on the hillside on outdoor chairs; no explanation was given for this.

NASCAR on Fox logo (2007–2012)

NASCAR on Fox logo (2013–2014)

Fox NASCAR logo (2015–2016)

In 2011, Pizza Hut became the presenting sponsor of the pre-race show. In addition, the first segment of the telecast was moved from the hotel to a tented facility either trackside or in the infield, depending on the venue. The idea was to build a crowd around the production of the segment; this has similarities to Fox's own NFL pregame show in 2006, as well as the College GameDay football and basketball shows on ESPN.

In 2012, John Roberts filled in for Chris Myers as host for the Budweiser Shootout and the Daytona 500, as Myers was on bereavement leave following his son's death in a motorcycle accident. For the 2014 Sprint Unlimited, Michael Waltrip filled in for Darrell, who was undergoing gallbladder surgery; for Daytona 500 Practice and Pole Qualifying, the position was filled by Phil Parsons. Darrell Waltrip returned for the Budweiser Duels. In 2016, Jeff Gordon replaced McReynolds in the booth while McReynolds was reassigned as the rules and technical analyst, replacing Andy Petree.

On June 10, 2017, the Xfinity Series race at Pocono Raceway was presented by current drivers in the Cup Series, the first time that a national sporting event was covered by currently active athletes. The presenters provided coverage from all three perspectives during the race (Hollywood Hotel studio, lap-by-lap commentary and pit road coverage). The driver commentators were Kevin Harvick (lap-by-lap), Joey Logano, Clint Bowyer (color analysts), Erik Jones, Ryan Blaney, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (pit road), Danica Patrick and Denny Hamlin (Hollywood Hotel).^[7]

On April 28, 2018, the Sparks Energy 300, the Xfinity race at Talladega Superspeedway, was an all-drivers broadcast, the second time that a national sporting event was covered entirely by active athletes, the first being the aforementioned Pocono race. The presenters provided coverage from all three perspectives during the race (Hollywood Hotel studio, lap-by-lap commentary and pit road coverage). The booth team of Harvick, Logano and Bowyer was retained, while Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was moved to the Hollywood Hotel alongside Brad Keselowski, with Darrell Wallace, Jr. replacing Stenhouse as a pit road reporter.

Broadcast booth

• Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series
  • Mike Joy – lap-by-lap announcer
  • Darrell Waltrip – color analyst
  • Jeff Gordon – color analyst
  • Larry McReynolds – rules and technical analyst
• Xfinity Series
  • Adam Alexander – lap-by-lap announcer
  • Michael Waltrip – color analyst
  • Larry McReynolds – color analyst (fill-in)
  • Phil Parsons – color analyst (fill-in)
  • guest analyst (see notes)
• Fox announced that they would do a "Drivers Only" broadcast for the 2018 Sparks Energy 300.^[8]
  • Studio Hosts
    • Brad Keselowski
    • Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
  • Broadcast Booth
    • Kevin Harvick – lap-by-lap announcer
    • Joey Logano – color analyst
    • Clint Bowyer – color analyst
  • Pit Reporters
    • Erik Jones
    • Ryan Blaney
    • Darrell Wallace Jr.
• Camping World Truck Series
  • Vince Welch – lap-by-lap announcer
  • Phil Parsons – color analyst
  • Michael Waltrip – color analyst
  • Todd Bodine – color analyst (fill-in)
  • Kevin Harvick - color analyst (select races)
  • Kyle Larson - color analyst (Eldora only)
  • Kurt Busch - color analyst (Martinsville only)

For full races on Sunday, Waltrip is positioned initially in the studio for the show's pre-race segments.

Joey Logano, Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski, Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney, Clint Bowyer, Austin Dillon, Erik Jones, Jamie McMurray, and Regan Smith work as guest analysts on a rotating basis for Xfinity Series races.^[9][10]

Pit reporters

• Matt Yocum
• Jamie Little
• Vince Welch
• Regan Smith
• Hermie Sadler
• Kaitlyn Vincie
• Alan Cavanna
• Christopher Bell (Eldora Only)

Former

• Dick Berggren – pit reporter (2001–2012) (now pit reporter for ARCA races on CBS Sports Network)
• Steve Byrnes – pit reporter/NCWTS play-by-play (2001–2014) (deceased)
• Krista Voda – host/pit reporter (2007–2014) (now NASCAR on NBC pre- and post-race host)
• Jeanne Zelasko – pit reporter (2001–2006) (now working baseball/softball coverage on ESPN)
• Jeff Hammond – analyst/roving reporter (2001–2014) (now NASCAR Race Hub analyst)
• Andy Petree – rules and technical analyst (2015) (now NASCAR Race Hub analyst)
• Rick Allen – NCWTS play-by-play (2003–2014) (now NASCAR on NBC play-by-play commentator)
• Chris Neville – pit reporter (2015–2017)
• Dale Earnhardt Jr. – color analyst (2017 Advance Auto Parts Clash only) (now NASCAR on NBC analyst)^[11]

Turn cam and "Digger"

After limited usage in 2007, the network introduced the "Gopher Cam" full-time in 2008, a camera angle from the bottom banking of a track's turn. Fox implied that it invented the technology.^[16] However, it was quickly brought to light that Terry Lingner of ESPN, along with engineer James Fishman, had developed the technology 15 years earlier under the name "Tread Cam". However, it should be known that the devices are completely different.

"Digger," a CGI-animated gopher character that was voiced by Eric Bauza, began as a symbol of the corner camera and was later adopted as an unofficial mascot for Fox's NASCAR coverage. Beginning with the 2009 Daytona 500, Digger was extended into a series of short cartoons that aired during the pre-race show; country music superstar Keith Urban recorded the theme song for these shorts. Storylines revolved around Digger and his life beneath the infield of a fictional racetrack. Other characters include his girlfriend Annie and the track's security chief, Lumpy Wheels (respectively named after the daughter of Fox Sports president David Hill, and former track promoter Humpy Wheeler). Digger's souvenir trailer at the tracks attracted sizeable crowds of families with young children. However, the cartoon segment drew wide opposition from regular viewers of the broadcasts.

After a NASCAR town hall-style meeting at the end of May 2009, Fox Sports chair David Hill reported receiving an email from a high-ranking NASCAR official whose identity he chose to conceal, stating that Digger could have been the cause of ratings declines for Fox's NASCAR coverage.^[17] Hill said "It was because of Digger that people were turning off in droves because they couldn't stand it, I said, I'm so sorry. If I'd known, I never would have created him. I didn't realize how insidious he was. It's the biggest crock of (stuff) I've ever heard."

Among the reasons of criticism is the purpose of the character's usage. Though it was at one time commonplace for networks to create mascots for sports coverage to incorporate an educational and entertaining element into their coverage, which was the case with Peter Puck, Digger was created purely to add entertainment to the broadcast and reach out to a younger audience. Some NASCAR fans accused Fox of dumbing down and fluffing its coverage in order to gain revenue from Digger merchandise sales.

Despite continuous outrage from the NASCAR fan community, as well as talk from the NASCAR community that the Fan Council was not pleased with the situation, Fox did not announce any plans to drop the usage of the characters, and even had posted pictures of holiday-themed versions of the Digger die-cast in 2009 and 2010. In response to the comments, in 2010, the Digger cartoon was not shown during pre-race shows and Digger appeared less often at the bottom of the screen. Throughout the 2011 season as well as the 2012 Budweiser Shootout and Daytona 500, Digger appeared very sparingly, usually only during commercial bumpers. Starting with the 2012 Subway Fresh Fit 500 all appearances and references to Digger were removed from the broadcast completely. However, nods to it occasionally came up (for example, at the Talladega race in 2014, when a track-level camera had a car drive over it, Darrell Waltrip commented that he hoped that nothing had happened to Digger, to which Mike Joy responded, "Digger's retired").

Digger made a cameo appearance in the 2009 film Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel. He also made an appearance in the Fox NFL Sunday introduction during the December 20, 2009 broadcast, in which the Chipmunks also made an appearance (Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel was distributed by 20th Century Fox, a corporate sister to the Fox network through 21st Century Fox, then known at the time as News Corporation).

Commercial bias

In the starting grid for the 2001 Twin 125 races at Daytona International Speedway (which used 3D representations of the cars), Fox showed only the logos on the hoods of cars that had paid the network to advertise during the race. For instance, the Budweiser logo on the No. 8 car of Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and The Home Depot logo on the No. 20 car of Tony Stewart were shown, but Miller Lite on the No. 2 car of Rusty Wallace was not. After outcry from some of the excluded companies, full logo graphics were restored to all cars three days later for the Daytona 500 telecast.

The computer-generated cars used initially on the starting grid and top-five standings when going to commercial break were phased out from main broadcast use, and were discontinued entirely in 2005 with the exception of the Daytona 500 starting grid (which featured the computer generated cars).

In 2012, Fox aired "In The Rear View Mirror" segments during the pre-race, showing computer-generated re-enactments of events during the 2012 season (most notably Juan Pablo Montoya's crash into a jet dryer at the Daytona 500); the intro sequence introduced in 2013 also incorporates CGI cars.

End of the 2001 Daytona 500 and Dale Earnhardt's death

The 2001 Daytona 500, which was the first NASCAR points race ever telecast by Fox, also brought an unrelated controversy. At the end of that race, Fox concluded coverage shortly after Dale Earnhardt, who was fatally injured in a crash on the last lap of the race, was admitted to Halifax Health Medical Center in Daytona Beach, Florida. The network provided no updates on his condition at the time of the 5:15 p.m. Eastern Time sign-off (although no information was available at that time), and continued airing regular programming (with the animated series Futurama) at the moment Earnhardt's death was confirmed at a press conference held at 7:00 pm. Eastern Time. NASCAR's other broadcast network partner, NBC, delayed a commercial break during a NBA telecast and ESPN (which aired the Craftsman Truck Series at the time) had coverage of Earnhardt's death and the aftermath that was both earlier and much more extensive. Fox News Channel and Fox Sports Net, however, did break into programming to announce the seven-time champion's passing, with Chris Myers providing reports on FSN programs. It is possible that Fox showed an on-screen crawl on the master control feed during Futurama. In addition, local affiliates may have chosen to pre-empt the episode, with anchors delivering the news live. However, none of this has ever been verified.

Shortly after the race, Hill explained to the Associated Press that the network had gone over its allotted time – as the result of an 18-car pileup on the back straightaway on lap 173 that led to the race being red-flagged for lengthy cleanup – and that continuing to cover the story would be too morbid. Producer Neil Goldberg also said Fox Sports staffers were not allowed near the crash scene.

When ESPN presented a tribute feature in remembrance of the ten-year anniversary of Earnhardt's death in 2011, it showed footage of the crash and aftermath, that looked like part of the live telecast. However, it was stamped with "WFTV", the call sign of the ABC affiliate in Orlando, Florida (Orlando and Daytona Beach share the same media market, and ABC's corporate parent The Walt Disney Company owns 80% of ESPN). How footage from Fox's NASCAR coverage got credited to the local affiliate of another network has not been made public. What can be speculated though, is that the footage is from Fox and WFTV, and later ESPN, used the footage which was credited to Fox.