With a thrilling weekend of racing at Kentucky Speedway in the rear-view mirror, NBCSN's coverage of NASCAR Sprint Cup and XFINITY Series racing heads to New England for a full slate of weekend action from New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The green flag drops on this weekend's main events with Saturday's XFINITY Series race at 4 p.m. ET, followed by Sunday's Sprint Cup Series race at 1:30 p.m. ET.
Festivities get underway Friday on
NBCSN with consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup and XFINITY Series practice sessions beginning at 11:30 a.m. ET., followed by XFINITY Series final practice and Sprint Cup qualifying at 3 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. ET, respectively.
On Saturday,
NASCAR SPRINT CUP QUALIFYING is presented on
CNBC at 10 a.m. ET, before coverage shifts back to
NBCSN for XFINITY Series qualifying (11 a.m. ET) and Sprint Cup final practice (12:30 p.m. ET). At 3:30 p.m. ET,
NBCSN presents the XFINITY Series Countdown to Green prerace show prior to live coverage of NASCAR XFINITY Series Racing from New Hampshire Presented by Castrol GTX Magnatec at 4 p.m. ET.
On Sunday, the lead-up to New Hampshire Motor Speedway's main event of the weekend begins with a 60-minute edition of
NASCAR AMERICA Sunday at noon ET, followed by the Countdown to Green, Served by Sonic pre-race show at 1 p.m. ET. At 1:30 p.m. ET, coverage shifts from the pre-race set along pit road to the broadcast booth as
NBCSN presents
NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES Racing from New Hampshire Presented by Pixels.
NBCSN's Krista Voda hosts NBCSN's pre-race coverage for both NASCAR Sprint Cup and XFINITY Series events, alongside analyst Kyle Petty on Saturday and Sunday from New Hampshire Motor Speedway. They welcome crew chief Frank Stoddard to
NBC Sports' new open-air, pre-race set overlooking pit road. Stoddard will also contribute to NBCSN's Sprint Cup and XFINITY Series practice coverage on Friday and Saturday from the broadcast booth.
In addition to setting the stage for the upcoming race, Sunday's Countdown to Green, Served by Sonic pre-race show will include an in-depth interview with 2014 Sprint Cup Champion Kevin Harvick, conducted "Driver-to-Driver" by
NBCSN NASCAR analyst Jeff Burton. In the interview, Harvick discusses his California roots and the sacrifices he made to break into NASCAR. He also opens up about his fiery, competitive side, and the efforts he took to control his emotions along the way to becoming a champion.
Sunday's pre-race show will also include Burton's view of New Hampshire Motor Speedway from behind the wheel of
NBC Sports' Toyota Camry On Track Car. Burton is NASCAR's all-time winningest driver at NHMS, notching four consecutive Sprint Cup race victories at Loudon from 1997-2000, and boasts 15 top-10 finishes in 38 career starts at the track. Pre-race coverage will also feature input from analyst Steve Letarte, who grew up in nearby Cornish, Maine, and believes that this race arrives at an important juncture in the season:
"The race to the Chase is in full effect as we visit the only Chase track left on the 2015 schedule before the start of the playoffs," said Letarte earlier today. "It will be very interesting to see which drivers earn the remaining spots, and I'm curious to see how those teams who are already in the Chase use this trip to the Magic Mile to prepare for the next visit in late September when the stakes are even higher."
Contributing to pre-race coverage and then patrolling pit road during Sprint Cup and XFINITY Series racing on
NBCSN are reporters Marty Snider, Kelli Stavast, Dave Burns and Mike Massaro. Joining the
NBC Sports New Hampshire broadcast team this week is driver Parker Kligerman who will contribute to XFINITY practices and qualifying.
When engines start and the green flag is set to wave, NBCSN's coverage shifts to the booth, where Daytona 500-winning crew chief Letarte and 21-time Sprint Cup winning driver Burton join race announcer Rick Allen for the call of the NASCAR XFINITY Series race on Saturday and the Sprint Cup Series race on Sunday.
NBCSN has reached agreements with crew chief Frank Stoddard and driver Parker Kligerman, both of whom will be contributing to coverage at New Hampshire Motor Speedway this weekend, and joining
NASCAR AMERICA as regular analysts.
Stoddard will contribute to
NASCAR AMERICA from
NBC Sports' studio locations in Stamford and Charlotte, and brings more than 17 years of experience as a Sprint Cup crew chief into his analyst role. He enjoyed a very successful driver-crew chief partnership with fellow
NBC Sports NASCAR analyst Jeff Burton, during which they reached the winner's circle 14 times over the course of a four-year run (1998-2001).
Former NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Rookie of the Year (2011), Kligerman has experience behind the wheel in all three of NASCAR's elite national series. He captured his first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series checkered flag at the famed Talladega Superspeedway in 2012 and competed in the Sprint Cup Series as recently as the 2014 Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.
FIRST NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES RACE ON NBCSN LEADS NETWORK TO 224% WEEKEND INCREASE VS. 2014
NBCSN's first-ever live NASCAR Sprint Cup race led the network to several milestones this past weekend, including a total day average of 428,000 viewers, marking a 224% increase over the same weekend last year on NBCSN. Saturday's prime time presentation of NASCAR Sprint Cup Racing from Kentucky ranked as the most-watched cable sports program of the week and highlighted a triple-header weekend of racing that also included the most watched INDYCAR telecast in four years, as well a thrilling Friday Night NASCAR XFINITY Series race. Click here for more information.
NBCSN'S INDYCAR COVERAGE CONTINUES THIS SATURDAY IN PRIMETIME FROM IOWA SPEEDWAY
NBCSN continues its presentation of the 2015 Verizon INDYCAR Series this Saturday night with live coverage of the Iowa Corn Indy 300 in primetime at 8 p.m. ET. Coverage begins at 6:45 p.m. ET with qualifying, immediately following NASCAR XFINITY Series race coverage from New Hampshire, leading into live INDYCAR action from Iowa Speedway. NBC Sports Group lead INDYCAR play-by-play voice Leigh Diffey will call the Iowa Corn Indy 300, alongside analystsPaul Tracy and Townsend Bell. Robin Miller, Jon Beekhuis, Kevin Lee and Katie Hargitt will handle pit reporting duties
