When
ESPN debuted in 1979, one of the first sporting events that they covered was auto racing. Initially the name of the show routinely changed to fit with the corresponding year at the time. Thus, when the program debuted, it was called Auto Racing '79, and then Auto Racing '80, Auto Racing '81 and so forth. This practice was dropped after 1986, when the name of the program was changed to SpeedWorld. The original commentators were primarily
Bob Jenkins and
Larry Nuber, who covered many diverse types of competition. Ultimately, by
1987, SpeedWorld's coverage encompassed not only
Formula One,
IndyCar,
NASCAR Winston Cup (and its feeder series such as
Busch Grand National,
ASA, and
ARCA), and
IMSA Sportscar Racing, but also racing less familiar to the average person, such as
NHRAdrag racing,
USACsprints and
midgets,
rallying,
motorcycle racing,
monster trucks and more. So many types of racing that were vastly different meant that specialization in broadcasting teams was necessary, so while Jenkins and Nuber continued with Winston Cup coverage, newer faces such as
Paul Page and
Bob Varsha began to take their places for broadcasts of other racing.
After losing the rights to NASCAR Winston Cup (and Busch Series) broadcasts for the 2001 season (as well as Formula One to
Speedvision in
1998, although for a while when Speedvision/Speed Channel aired Formula One, ABC were allowed to broadcast selected, mostly North American, Grands Prix), ESPN slowly began losing the remainder of their racing to other networks. For
their 2002 season,
CART signed a TV contract with
Speed Channel and
CBS, ending ESPN's partnership with CART that had begun 20 years before. NASCAR's
Craftsman Truck Series left ESPN, also for Speed Channel, in
2003. For
2004 the
International Race of Champions likewise moved to the Speed Channel. Since ESPN's reporters were no longer allowed (by NASCAR) to report from within the racetrack for RPM 2Night segments (due to their contract with
Fox and
NBC/
TNT), the weeknight show eventually came to an end. However, ESPN was not completely without racing, as
Indy Racing League, its
Indy Pro Series development championship, and the
NHRA were still on ESPN's lineup.
The SpeedWorld blanket title was discontinued in 2006; the final event aired under the branding was an
NHRA championship event in
Pomona Raceway. Sister network ABC maintained a package of IndyCar events produced by ESPN (pay television rights are held by
NBCSN). NASCAR events would return to ESPN and ABC from 2007 to 2014, holding rights to the NASCAR
Sprint Cup and
Nationwide Series; these events were instead branded as NASCAR on ESPN. After the NHRA left ESPN for Fox after the
2015 season and the
IndyCar Series left after
2018, the only motorsports coverage on the ESPN networks are
Formula One races on ABC, ESPN, and ESPN2 (which is simulcast with
Comcast-owned British broadcaster
Sky Sports) and, for 2023, the
Superstar Racing Experience (SRX) series, which saw the revival of the
Thursday Night Thunder name.[1]
On-air staff
This list does NOT include those who appeared on the air on
ABC only, or were not a part of
ESPN before 2007.