Some fans may have been counting down the number of races left on the FOX Sports broadcast schedule. Well that countdown is near zero. This weekend’s Dover race marks the last broadcast for this season for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. This means, there won’t be another NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race on FOX until the 51st Running of the Daytona 500 in February.

Word on the grapevine is that a majority of fans enjoy the FOX race broadcasts more than TNT, and ESPN/ABC’s. Much of the reason is FOX’s all-star broadcast team - Darrell, Larry, and Mike.

NASCAR on FOX has broadcast NASCAR races since 2001 and now televises 17 events, including 13 NASCAR Sprint Cup points-race events and two NASCAR Craftsman Truck races.

Mike Joy, with almost 40 years in racing, returns as race announcer, and is joined by NASCAR racing legend Darrell Waltrip and former Daytona 500-winning crew chief Larry McReynolds, who return to provide race analysis for all NASCAR on FOX events. Prerace coverage is again hosted by Chris Myers with analyst Jeff Hammond, and returning to cover pit road are reporters Dick Berggren, Steve Byrnes, Krista Voda and Matt Yocum.

I think fans this season will be better for TNT and ESPN/ABC.

TNT’s broadcast team is well equipped with a lot of talent and knowledge.

Bill Weber, who joined the team in 2001, as the pre-race host and pit reporter. Weber also served as an auto racing commentator on ESPN and ESPN2, mostly as a pit reporter for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

Matt Yocum, pit reporter, once worked as a pit reporter for ESPN’s NASCAR coverage, and reported for “RPM2Night” and “NASCAR2Day”.

Another pit reporter, Marty Snider, was CNNSI’s NASCAR reporter from 1998-2002. Since 1995, he worked as a pit reporter for MRN. And 1994-1997, he worked as a pit reporter and associate producer for ESPN’s “NASCAR Today.”

Wally Dallenbach has had an impressive career. The NASCAR analyst for TNT has won the 24 hours of Daytona four times, the 12 hours of Sebring three times, won the Sports Car Club of America Trans-Am Series championships in 1985 and 1986. He is also a Sprint Cup Series vetern, appearing in 226 cup races throughout his career.

Kyle Petty, is a Petty. So he obviously has a great knowledge for the sport.

Raplh Sheheen is in his first year at TNT. He works for Speed, working split time as a reporter and announcer. He has also worked for ESPN, FSN, TNN, and CBS.

Lindsay Czarniak, a pit reporter, has experience at Speed, she is the former co-host of “George Michael Sports Machine,” and she was an associate producer for CNN.

Larry Mac is a pit report. He is the only FOX announcer to be on the TNT broadcast team.

After the six races for TNT, ESPN will take over.

Dr. Jerry Punch will be the lead announcer, joined in the booth for analysis by 1999 NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Dale Jarrett and two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion crew chief Andy Petree. Pit reporters will be Dave Burns, Jamie Little, Mike Massaro and Shannon Spake. Two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion crew chief Tim Brewer will continue to report from the ESPN DISH Tech Center.

ESPN took a lot of heat last year for bad broadcasts.  I didn’t think they were bad.  But remember.  They were kicked out of the sports for a while.  In fact, not many people know, but they weren’t even allowed to show highlights or cover the sport on any of their networks.

ESPN has shown great progress, and does a splendid job with the Nationwide Series.  So this year, expect them to hit full stride as they take us to Homestead.

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