NASCAR on FOX Hires New Pit Reporter
By Alex Herbst
NASCAR on FOX will have a new face roaming pit road in 2017, albeit an old face from the days of Speed TV.
After big changes shook up the NASCAR on FOX team heading into the past two seasons, there will be yet another change coming for the start of the 2017 Cup schedule on TV. Fox Sports announced the addition of Shannon Spake to their bevy of reporters, covering college football, college basketball, the NFL…and yes, NASCAR racing.
Fans may remember Spake from her time patrolling pit road for ESPN and ESPN2 during their early years of NASCAR Nationwide and Cup coverage, making the move in 2007 to the network after a brief stint with Speed TV as host of NASCAR Nation. She began branching out near the end of the stock car racing run on the worldwide leader, becoming a sideline reporter for college football and college basketball. She quickly became popular among viewers, and was assigned to some high profile match-ups and worked closely with veteran broadcasters including Dan Shulman, Brad Nessler, and Dave Pasch.
The move to Fox Sports will provide a step up for her, as many have departed her former network in the face of budget cuts and the desire for upward motion in the ranks of sports broadcasters. She will get to be a sideline reporter for select NFL games, something she likely would not have the opportunity to do at ESPN. In addition, Spake is excited to get back to NASCAR coverage:
"I’m looking forward to being back in the garage. When I was at ESPN covering racing, it was all I did. We covered it from start to finish, the Nationwide series the entire season, and the Cup racing that we did, and it was a lot. I wanted to branch out into other sports and I did, but unfortunately in doing that, I lost racing, and then ESPN also lost racing. So to be able to continue to do what I’ve moved forward in doing, with college football and college basketball and hosting and the NFL, and to go back and do racing, is a dream come true."
With the addition of Shannon Spake to pit road, it can be expected that one of the current faces on pit road will depart. Vince Welch has moved into a full-time role as Camping World Truck Series announcer, so he is the most likely to be bumped off regular pit road duties. He could still be seen in some races, as NASCAR on FOX has used up to five people on pit road for big events, like the Daytona 500.
On the other hand, Fox Sports has also chosen to use less reporters in some races during their part of the schedule, going with only three reporters on some occasions. Often either Vince Welch or Chris Neville would be given the weekend off, which could mean potentially less assignments for Neville too with Spake now in the fold. Perhaps he will be moved back to sports car racing with the network’s coverage of IMSA, freeing up Brian Till for more of his work on IndyCar.
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Regardless of the further moves that NASCAR on FOX makes with their on-air crew, many are ready to welcome back Shannon Spake to stock car racing coverage. What do you think of the addition to the Fox Sports team? Give us your two cents on their 2017 team below.