Sunday's race at Homestead was the last Sprint Cup telecast for ESPN, ending an eight-season stint broadcasting the last 17 races of that season as well as the entire season of what will soon be known as the Xfinity Series (previously the Busch and Nationwide series). ESPN's final trio of NASCAR commentators - former Motor Racing Network and NBC announcer Allen Bestwick, 1999 Sprint Cup champion Dale Jarrett and former Dale Earnhardt crew chief and Cup and Truck series team owner Andy Petree - said goodbye as race and championship winner Kevin Harvick celebrated on the championship stage with his crew and family. They gave a shout-out to other NASCAR on ESPN crew members (pit reporters, infield studio reporters, etc.) such as Dave Burns, Dr. Jerry Punch, Marty Reid, Jamie Little, Vince Welch, Brad Daugherty and Ray Evernham.
ESPN's first Cup Series telecast came in 1981 at the spring race in Rockingham, North Carolina, which was won by that year's series champion Darrell Waltrip. ESPN continued to broadcast various races in the Cup and Xfinity series until the end of the 2000 season. They also carried Truck Series races from 1995 to 2002. From 2001 to 2006, Cup and Xfinity telecasts belonged to Fox and NBC, and their respective cable partners FX and TNT. In 2007, NASCAR returned to ESPN, which became the exclusive home of the Xfinity Series for eight seasons, and the home of most of the second half of the Cup season, until the end of the 2014 season, which we have now reached. TNT, which split from NBC after 2006 and continued doing Cup telecasts with the six-race Summer Series in those same eight seasons, also had their final telecast at New Hampshire in July. From 2015 until 2024 the Cup and Xfinity series will once again be split between Fox and NBC, but this time with new cable partners Fox Sports 1 and NBC Sports Network.
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