Yesterday's Sprint Cup race in Loudon, New Hampshire marked the last race broadcast for TNT, as this was the last year of their current NASCAR contract and it was not renewed. The next ten years will see Fox and NBC split the Cup schedule. It also marks the end of more than 30 years of NASCAR broadcasts by Turner Sports.
Turner's original channel for NASCAR was TBS, from 1983 to 2000. TNT then started broadcasting Cup races in 2001 as the cable partner of NBC. They televised a few races during the second half of the season in NASCAR's first unified contract, from 2001 to 2006. When NBC pulled out after the 2006 season, TNT was given six races in the middle of the season for the next eight years (2007-2014) that was called the Summer Series. Yesterday's race was TNT's 48th and final Summer Series race.
ESPN, whose contract also ends after this year, will broadcast the last 17 races of this season. After that, NBC will return to NASCAR to broadcast the second half of the season until 2024. The only broadcaster staying through all of this is Fox, which is my favorite NASCAR broadcaster.
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