NASCAR: Familiar face returning at North Wilkesboro Speedway

Darrell Waltrip is set to make his return to the Fox Sports broadcast booth for the NASCAR All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway.

Fox and Fox Sports 1 are nearing the end of their portion of the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series broadcast schedule, with just four more races remaining before the switch to NBC and USA Network for the remainder of the regular season and playoffs.

The first of these four races is a non-points race, that being this coming Sunday afternoon’s All-Star Race at North Wilkesboro Speedway.

North Wilkesboro Speedway is a track where the Cup Series hasn’t run in any capacity — aside from iRacing during the COVID-19 hiatus in 2020 — since 1996.

Who better to join the Fox Sports booth at the four-turn, 0.625-mile (1.006-kilometer) North Wilkesboro, North Carolina oval than 10-time North Wilkesboro Speedway winner and former Fox announcer Darrell Waltrip?

Waltrip, who retired from his duties as a driver analyst in the booth following Fox’s 2019 portion of the broadcast schedule, returned to the booth last April for the dirt race at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Now Darrell Waltrip is set to return and call another NASCAR Cup Series race alongside lead announcer Mike Joy and analyst Clint Bowyer.

Fox has continued their approach of bringing in different guest analysts from week to week for a second season, having not named a full-time replacement for Jeff Gordon when he moved on following their portion of the 2021 season.

Next year, however, they are set to go back to having three full-time announcers, with Kevin Harvick slated to join Joy and Bowyer after retiring from Cup Series competition.

Be sure to tune in to Fox Sports 1 at 6:00 p.m. ET this Sunday, May 21 for the live broadcast of the All-Star Open from North Wilkesboro Speedway, and stay tuned in for the All-Star Race at 8:00 p.m. ET. Start a free trial of FuboTV today and don’t miss any of the action from NASCAR’s long-awaited return to a track most recently visited 27 years ago!