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IndyCar: Mike Tirico to host coverage of 2019 Indy 500

By Asher Fair

PARK CITY, UT - SEPTEMBER 25: Host of the Olympics on NBC Mike Tirico (Photo by Gene Sweeney Jr./Getty Images)
PARK CITY, UT - SEPTEMBER 25: Host of the Olympics on NBC Mike Tirico (Photo by Gene Sweeney Jr./Getty Images) /
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Mike Tirico is set to host the coverage of the 103rd running of the Indianapolis 500 during the 2019 IndyCar season next May. The race is set to be broadcast live on NBC.

Following a 54-year partnership with ABC, the Indianapolis 500 is set to move to NBC next year. In fact, all of the races on the 2019 IndyCar schedule are set to be broadcast live on either NBC or NBC Sports Network.

The Chevrolet Dual in Detroit, which consisted of two IndyCar races that were held on Saturday, June 2 and Sunday, June 3 earlier this year, were the final two IndyCar races set to be broadcast by ABC under the organization’s current deal with the series, a deal that was not renewed.

With the 2019 Indy 500 set to be broadcast live on NBC, it was revealed that Mike Tirico, who began working for NBC Sports as a sportscaster after he left ESPN in 2016 following a tenure with the organization that began back in 1991, is set to be the host of the 103rd running of the “Greatest Spectacle in Racing”.

This news has not yet been officially confirmed, but The Indianapolis Star reports that a source claimed that IndyCar learned that Tirico, who also hosted NBC’s coverage of each of the three legs of horse racing’s Triple Crown and each of the five games of NHL’s Stanley Cup Finals, would host NBC’s coverage of the 103rd running of the Indy 500 a few days before the 102nd running of the Indy 500 took place on Sunday, May 28 earlier this year.

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Here is what an NBC spokesperson had to say about the matter, according to The Indianapolis Star.

"“We will be announcing our commentators for the 2019 Indianapolis 500 much closer to the start of the event.”"

The NBC Sports Network IndyCar broadcasting team currently consists of Leigh Diffey, who does the play-by-play announcing, and driver analysts/color commentators Townsend Bell and Paul Tracy. Robin Miller and Jon Beekhuis have also filled in as color commentators. The pit reporters for NBC Sports Network’s IndyCar broadcasts include Miller, Beekhuis, Kevin Lee, Marty Snider, Katie Hargitt, Anders Krohn and Kelli Stavast.

Each of the eight remaining races on the 2018 IndyCar schedule, starting with the Kohler Grand Prix at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin on Sunday, June 24 and running all the way through the Grand Prix of Sonoma at Sonoma Raceway in Sonoma, California on Sunday, September 16, are set to be broadcast live on NBC Sports Network before NBC officially takes over as the sole broadcast television network of IndyCar starting next season.

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Be sure to tune in to NBC for the live broadcast of the 103rd running of the Indianapolis 500 next Memorial Day Sunday. The race is set to be broadcast live starting at 11:00 a.m. ET on Sunday, May 26, 2019.