NASCAR
and NBC Sports Group have announced a broadcast line-up of NASCAR’s regional
touring series, with a 39-race telecast schedule for racing’s grassroots series.
NBCSN’s
slate features all 25 races on NASCAR’s top developmental series, the NASCAR
K&N Pro Series East and West. The coming season will also see triple the
television exposure from previous years for the stars and cars of the Whelen
Modified Tours, NASCAR‘s only open-wheeled division, which compete at historic
short tracks from New Hampshire to North Carolina. A total of 14 NASCAR Whelen
Modified Tour and NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour events are included on
this season’s schedule.
“This
represents a big step forward for all four of our U.S. tours and reinforces NBC
Sports Group’s commitment to these important NASCAR developmental series,” said
George Silbermann, NASCAR vice president for regional and touring series.
“We’re
excited to begin our partnership’s racing coverage with the up and coming stars
of NASCAR,” said Mike Perman, Vice President of Programming, NBC Sports
Group. “NASCAR’s Regional Touring Series gives NBCSN a great way to
kick off our racing action and compelling stories that will unfold throughout
the year.”
NBCSN’s
inaugural touring series event is the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East
season-opener at Florida’s New Smyrna Speedway. The New Smyrna 150 will be
contested on Feb. 15 and will air four days later on Feb. 19 on NBCSN.
All
39 races are scheduled to be presented by NBCSN in one-hour shows the week
following the event.
NASCAR
also announced that the K&N Pro Series East event at Richmond International
Raceway, originally scheduled for Apr. 24, has been moved to the fall NASCAR
weekend at “America’s Premier Short Track” and will open the weekend racing
schedule on Thursday, Sep. 10. The race will air on NBCSN on Sept.
16.
“Working
with our partners at the track and competition officials, we determined that
moving the K&N Pro Series East event at Richmond to the fall date made
sense for everyone involved,” Silbermann said. “This fills what was previously
a month-long gap before the series finale, something I know the competitors
will appreciate.”
Awesome
ReplyDeleteThis is huge. More coverage, more exposure for the racers, win win for everybody.
ReplyDeleteLet's hope the change in coverage helps these series. The Modifieds provide great racing with their New Hampshire races among the most exciting anywhere. The K&N Series have good racing - seeing the mid-summer shootout at Iowa where they raced four wide up front like it was old-school Michigan International Speedway was amazing.
ReplyDeleteAlso kudos to NBC Sports Network for showing the NASCAR Gridiron Challenge at Charlotte this past weekend - it turned out to be a genuinely good race - an eye-opener, really.
This is great. We'll get to see some GOOD NASCAR racing for a change. The K&N series is a good example that when the cars are slowed the racing is better.
ReplyDeleteNot only slowed, but also running bias ply tires.
DeleteWelcome Back NBC and Thank you. Goodbye ESPN
ReplyDelete