NASCAR: Tony Stewart replacement confirmed for Las Vegas

Fox have confirmed who will be in the broadcast booth for next Sunday afternoon’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Just as he was to start the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season, three-time champion Tony Stewart was in the Fox broadcast booth at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and at Daytona International Speedway to kick off the 2023 campaign.

Stewart joined lead announcer Mike Joy and analyst Clint Bowyer for the Busch Light Clash preseason exhibition race three Sundays ago and the 65th annual Daytona 500 two Sundays ago.

Unlike last year, he was also in the booth for this past Sunday afternoon’s race at Auto Club Speedway. However, he won’t be in the booth during either one of the next two races.

Set to join Joy and Bowyer for the next two races is Danica Patrick.

Patrick is set to join the full-time duo for the races at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday, March 5 and Phoenix Raceway on Sunday, March 12. She was in the booth for these two races last year as well.

Fox is taking the same approach they took last year again this year, switching up who calls the race alongside Joy and Bowyer on a regular basis.

They went with this approach last season following the departure of four-time champion Jeff Gordon, who left after the network’s portion of the 2021 schedule to focus on his new role as Vice Chairman of Hendrick Motorsports. He had been in the booth since 2016, the year after he retired from full-time Cup Series competition.

Instead of dropping the third seat altogether, which is what they did in 2020 following the retirement of Darrell Waltrip when it was just Joy and Gordon (since Bowyer hadn’t yet retired from competing), they kept it but did not hire a third full-time analyst for it.

The fact that they have taken this approach again and did not commit to a single individual for the third spot led many to believe that they wanted to sign Kevin Harvick as the third full-time member of the booth in 2024.

Harvick is set for his 23rd and final year in the Cup Series in 2023 and had long been linked to a broadcasting career following his driving career, especially after showcasing his announcing abilities on multiple occasions in Xfinity Series races and Truck Series races over the years. He is indeed set to take that third spot next year.

Stewart is set to return to the booth for the race at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday, March 19, a race for which Gordon was in the booth last year.

Fox is set to broadcast this Sunday afternoon’s race, the Pennzoil 400, live from Las Vegas Motor Speedway beginning at 3:30 p.m. ET. Start a free trial of FuboTV now and don’t miss it!