NASCAR: Who is Tony Stewart’s replacement in the booth?

At Sonoma Raceway two Sundays ago, Tony Stewart made his fourth appearance in the Fox NASCAR booth during the 2022 Cup Series season.

Despite the post-2021 departure of Jeff Gordon to focus on his new role as vice chairman of Hendrick Motorsports, Fox opted to continue operating a three-person broadcast booth for the live coverage of their NASCAR Cup Series races.

This decision was unlike the choice they made for the 2020 season after Darrell Waltrip’s post-2019 retirement, when they had only Gordon as an analyst and Mike Joy as the lead announcer.

But in 2022, despite keeping a three-person booth, they took a new approach, calling upon a number of different individuals to fill the third seat alongside Joy and Bowyer. Bowyer was added to the booth in 2021 as the third announcer alongside Joy and Gordon.

They opened up the season with Tony Stewart alongside Joy and Gordon in the booth for the Busch Light Clash exhibition race at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and then for the official season-opening Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway in February. Five weeks later, Stewart returned for the race at Circuit of the Americas.

Then two weekends ago, he made a fourth appearance at Sonoma Raceway, the site of his 49th and final Cup Series victory, though he did so along Joy and Fox analyst Larry McReynolds instead of Joy and Bowyer, as Bowyer was absent due to a late personal matter.

But unlike his previous appearances, he will not be replaced by another individual this weekend, as Fox’s portion of the 2022 schedule has concluded.

So the final “new” addition to the Fox booth for 2022 was Michael Waltrip, who called the inaugural race at World Wide Technology Raceway at Gateway alongside Joy and Bowyer three Sundays ago.

The Cup Series had its lone off weekend of the 2022 season this past weekend, Father’s Day Weekend. When the series returns, NBC is set to take over for the remainder of the season, starting with this coming Sunday’s race at Nashville Superspeedway.

This race is the 17th of 36 points races on this year’s schedule. It is the first of 10 regular season races for which NBC is responsible, prior to the four-round, 10-race playoffs.

Rick Allen is the lead announcer for NBC, and he is set to be joined by color commentators Steve Letarte, Jeff Burton, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. for a fifth straight season.

Do make note of the fact that only nine of the season’s final 20 races are set to be broadcast live on NBC, and the other 11 are set to be shown live on USA Network as opposed to NBC Sports Network. NBC Sports Network shut down at the end of 2021.

Fox have not yet revealed how their broadcast booth will look for the 2023 season.

Tune in to NBC at 5:00 p.m. ET this Sunday, June 26 for the live broadcast of the Ally 400 from Nashville Superspeedway. Be sure not to miss your chance to start a free trial of FuboTV before then!