The NASCAR Cup Series broadcast partner tally doubled from 2024 to 2025 amid NASCAR's new seven-year, $7.7 billion media rights deal. Fox returned as the rights holder to open up the season, and NBC returned as the rights holder to conclude the year, with Fox's races still split between Fox and Fox Sports 1 and NBC's still split between NBC and USA Network.
But Amazon Prime Video and TNT Sports were added, the former joining the sport for the first time and the latter returning for the first time since the previous media deal expired in 2014. They each took over for five races between Fox's portion and NBC's portion, so Fox lost four races and NBC lost six.
The Fox Sports broadcast booth still consisted of lead announcer Mike Joy alongside color commentators Clint Bowyer and Kevin Harvick. The Prime broadcast booth consisted of lead announcer Adam Alexander alongside color commentators Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Steve Letarte, and TNT opted to go with the exact same trio for their return.
NBC's NASCAR Cup Series coverage to begin at Iowa
Now it's NBC's turn, and while there haven't been any changes since the end of last season, this year's trio is different from what it was to start NBC's portion of last year's schedule.
NBC kicked things off last year at Iowa Speedway, just like they are set to do this weekend, though it happened in mid-June rather than early August since their schedule consisted of the season's final 20 races rather than just the final 14.
Rick Allen was the lead announcer, alongside Letarte and fellow color commentator Jeff Burton. But ahead of the late August race at Daytona International Speedway, Allen was replaced by Leigh Diffey.
While rumors swirled surrounding Allen's exit, considering the fact that it came during the season rather than after it, he recently admittedly that there was nothing specifically that led to his departure after 10 seasons.
All things considered, with NBC losing the IndyCar broadcast rights to Fox, it seemed like a strategic move to avoid losing Diffey, and with Allen's contract up ahead of NASCAR's own new media rights deal, they felt it was a move they needed to make to keep Diffey in-house for the 13th straight year.
As a result, this year's NBC trio, which is the same whether the races are shown on NBC or USA Network, consists of Diffey, Letarte, and Burton. Earnhardt, who was in the booth as a fourth member from 2018 to 2023, opted to stick with just Prime and TNT after sitting out 2024 entirely.
NBC's portion of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series broadcast schedule is officially scheduled to get underway this Sunday, August 3 at 3:30 p.m. ET. Tune in to USA Network for the live broadcast of the Iowa Corn 350 from Iowa Speedway. Start a free trial of FuboTV today if you have not already had the chance to do so!