page_title: NASCAR on ESPN
section_title: Prior to 2007
hierarchical_section_title: NASCAR on ESPN / History / Prior to 2007
caption_attribution_description: A helicopter taping at w:Road America for the w:ESPN coverage of the track's first NASCAR w:Nationwide Series race in 2010.
context_page_description: NASCAR on ESPN was the coverage of NASCAR on ESPN, ESPN2, and ABC. ABC, and later ESPN, carried NASCAR races from the sanctioning body's top three divisions at various points from the early 1960s until 2002. ESPN resumed coverage of NASCAR with the Nationwide Series race at Daytona in February 2007 and the Sprint Cup Series at Indianapolis in July 2007. ESPN's final race was the Ford EcoBoost 400 at the Homestead Miami Speedway on November 16, 2014.
context_section_description: ABC's involvement with NASCAR began in the days of ABC's Wide World of Sports, in which it presented some of the biggest races in stock car racing.  One of its events was the Daytona 500.  ABC showed the last half of the race, except in 1976, when it showed the first 30 laps, went to the Olympics and then came back for the wild finish, in which David Pearson edged out Richard Petty with both cars sliding sideways across the track.  The race TV rights went to CBS Sports in 1979.  For much of the 1970s and 1980s, ABC broadcast NASCAR races on tape delay.  The commentary was added later in post production.  They would actually sit in the booth and call something live if they needed to for the satellite feed.  Otherwise, ABC would do all the editing afterwards for the final telecast.
  ESPN began showing NASCAR races in 1981, with the first event being at North Carolina Speedway.  The last of its 265 Cup telecasts (that number includes some on ABC Sports) was the 2000 NAPA 500 in Atlanta (now the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500).  Even though Fox, FX, NBC, and TNT were the exclusive broadcasters of the Winston/Nextel Cup Series and the Busch Series from 2001 to 2006, the ESPN networks still carried the Craftsman Truck Series in 2001 and 2002 because the Truck races were under a separate contract; ESPN had been broadcasting Truck races since the inaugural race in 1995. Speed Channel took over the Truck broadcasts in 2003.
caption: ESPN helicopter
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