NASCAR on TNT
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NASCAR on TNT is the tagname for any NASCAR series race that has been broadcast on TNT.
Prior to 2001, Turner Sports' home for NASCAR was TNT's sister station, TBS. With the new contracts signed for 2001, Turner entered a partnership with NBC and moved its races to TNT.
TNT aired its first NASCAR Winston Cup Series race at Michigan International Speedway in August of 2001. The TNT/NBC partnership broke off when NBC chose not to bid for the NASCAR contract when it expired in 2006.
As part of the new 2007 television contract, TNT retains its coverage, with rights to televise six races: the Pocono 500 at Pocono, the Michigan 400, the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Infineon, the Lenox Industrial Tools 300 at New Hampshire, the annual July 4 weekend Pepsi 400 at Daytona, and the USG Sheetrock 400 at Chicagoland. TNT also becomes the exclusive home of the Pepsi 400 for the remainder of the contract.
TNT and NBC shared the broadcast team of Allen Bestwick on play-by-play and Benny Parsons and Wally Dallenbach on color commentary. Dave Burns, Matt Yocum, Marty Snider, and Bill Weber were the pit reporters, with Weber hosting the Countdown to Green pre-race show.
When TNT would broadcast NASCAR Busch Series races that conflicted with the Winston/NEXTEL cup races, other pit reporters, such as Glenn Jarrett, Mark Garrow, Ralph Sheheen, and Lindsay Czarniak would join the coverage.
In 2005, Bestwick and Weber traded positions, with Bestwick becoming the lead pit reporter. He would occasionally do play-by-play for Busch races that conflicted with the schedule for the primary series.
For 2007, Weber and Dallenbach will return to the booth, and will be joined by Kyle Petty, who will take time off from his NEXTEL Cup racing duties for Petty Enterprises to fill the seat left when Parsons died in early 2007. With Fox producer Barry Landis and assistance from Fox for production of broadcasts, Larry McReynolds, a booth analyst on the Fox telecasts, will be the pre-race analyst and is also expected to contribute during the race by using a demonstration "cut-away" car similar to those used by Jeff Hammond (FOX/SPEED) and Tim Brewer (ESPN/ESPN2/ABC). It's possible that Weber, who hosted the pre-race shows on NBC/TNT in the old contract, will repeat his role alongside McReynolds in what could be again called Countdown to Green, but no final decision has been made.[1]
Matt Yocum and Marty Snider will return on pit road being joined by Ralph Sheheen and Lindsay Czarniak
TNT plans to present the Pepsi 400 on July 7, 2007 with limited commercial interruptions. Local cable companies and national satellite providers will receive four minutes of full-screen air time per hour to show ads. Otherwise, no full-screen commercials will air. It is similar to the "side-by-side" split screen coverage that ESPN/ESPN2/ABC has for the Indy Racing League.[2]