Top-Five NASCAR TV Announcers of All-Time

1. Bob Jenkins

Arguably the single announcer that ushered NASCAR into the modern era of sports broadcasting was Bob Jenkins in his time with ESPN and ABC. By the 1980s, NASCAR was no longer a part of the Wide World of Sports as it was previously. Now, the stock cars stood on their own, with live full races on ABC’s partner network (and now sister channel) ESPN. And Bob Jenkins would be their shepherd through this time.

Jenkins is one of the most competent announcers even to this day in racing. He flawlessly would be able to guide NASCAR coverage into the new millennium, and built great working relationships with two of NASCAR’s all time greats on track and in the broadcast booth – Ned Jarrett and Benny Parsons. He would continue this work even after NASCAR left the network, doing two stints of covering IndyCar, one with ESPN and one with NBC.

The single attribute that put Jenkins into this list is his ability to connect to the viewers. His popularity in IndyCar from his coverage on the IMS Radio Network carried over to the TV screens, where the ESPN crew had such a strong following week to week with NASCAR racing on Sunday afternoons. It should have surprised no one that ESPN was unable to recreate the magic when they reacquired NASCAR rights in 2007, as the leader in their booth created much of that.

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