NASCAR: New announcer named as potential Dale Jr. 'teammate'

The 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season is the 10th and final season of the sport's current media rights deal with Fox and NBC.

Starting next year, a new seven-year agreement is set to go into effect, and it is set to include not only Fox and NBC but Amazon Prime Video and TNT Sports as well.

Fox's current portion of the broadcast schedule consists of the season's first 16 points races, plus the preseason Busch Light Clash exhibition race at the All-Star Race, while NBC's consists of the season's final 20 races, including the entire four-round, 10-race playoffs.

Fox's portion is split up between Fox and Fox Sports 1 while NBC's is split up between NBC and USA Network. USA Network replaced NBC Sports Network as the alternate channel during NBC's portion after NBC Sports Network shut down at the end of 2021.

Amazon, TNT set to join Fox, NBC

But next year, Amazon Prime Video and TNT Sports are set to take over for five races each, reducing Fox's portion of the schedule from 18 to 14 races (16 to 12 points races) and NBC's from 20 to 14.

Fox is still set to lead things off before Amazon Prime Video takes over for its five races, starting with the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. TNT Sports is next up on the schedule, followed by NBC to wrap up the season.

Entering the 2024 season, it was revealed that Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s contract with NBC had come to an end after the 2023 season. He had been with the network as a color commentator during Cup Series races since 2018, the year after he retired from full-time Cup Series competition.

The 15-time Most Popular Driver later confirmed that he plans to move to both the Amazon Prime Video broadcast booth and the TNT Sports broadcast booth in 2025.

The rest of the NBC broadcast booth remained the same for the 2024 season, with Rick Allen serving as the lead announcer and Jeff Burton and Steve Letarte serving as the color commentators. They have all been together in the booth since the current media rights deal began in 2015.

But another change is set to be made after the upcoming three-week Cup Series hiatus due to the Summer Olympics in Paris, France.

Current IndyCar on NBC lead announcer Leigh Diffey is set to replace Allen as the lead announcer next month. The move was announced before it was confirmed that IndyCar is set to move from NBC to Fox next year. Allen is still set to call Xfinity Series races throughout the rest of the 2024 season.

And it's quite possible that the changes won't stop there.

According to Sports Business Journal's Adam Stern, Letarte is considered a top candidate to reunite with Earnhardt at both Amazon and TNT next year.

Letarte also served as Earnhardt's crew chief at Hendrick Motorsports from 2011 to 2014. The duo ran 142 races together and won the 2014 Daytona 500, plus four other events.

The speculation adds to the uncertainty surrounding next year's many broadcast booths with a new era of NASCAR broadcasting on the horizon.