Prior to 2001

Prior to 2001, Turner Sports' home for NASCAR was TNT's sister station, TBS. Booth announcers/analysts included Ken Squier, Buddy Baker, and Dick Berggren. After TBS made a host/booth switch, Allen Bestwick became the lap-by-lap announcer with Baker and Berggren in the booth for TBS' 2000 coverage at Lowe's and Pocono while Squier moved to a host position, the same position he had held at CBS since the start of the 1998 NASCAR season.

TBS typically covered the Coca-Cola 600 and UAW-GM Quality 500 at Charlotte, the July race at Pocono, and several NASCAR Busch Series races. TBS aired side by side coverage during commercials during the 2000 UAW-GM Quality 500.

When NASCAR's new broadcasting rights contract was signed in 1999, which included Fox, FX, and NBC, TBS was to keep its rights to NASCAR by serving as NBC's cable partner. The deal was to begin with the 2001 NASCAR season.

However, Turner elected to move the race coverage to sister network TNT as part of its new branding and "We Know Drama" slogan. Also, TBS' coverage of Atlanta Braves baseball games, which were a staple of the channel lineup for years, often was aired on weekends afternoon or evening and would clash with NASCAR races.

2001–2006

TNT aired its first NASCAR Winston Cup Series race under the new contract at New Hampshire International Speedway in July 2001. Both networks shared the broadcast team of Allen Bestwick, Benny Parsons, and Wally Dallenbach Jr. in the booth and Bill Weber, Marty Snider, Dave Burns, and Matt Yocum on pit road, as well as both being produced with Turner Sports' graphical look. The only differences were the placement of the network's logo on the graphics package and different colored pit reporter fire suits. Also, Liz Allison, widow of former driver Davey Allison, worked as a reporter exclusively for TNT during the 2001 season.^[1]

TNT was treated as the secondary broadcaster, as far as broadcast rights are concerned, during its relationship with NBC because it is a cable rather than broadcast network (Turner produced all of NBC's telecasts as well). NBC's portion of broadcast included almost all of the prestigious races during their half of the year (with the exception of the Mountain Dew Southern 500 at Darlington, the fourth leg of NASCAR's Grand Slam, in 2001 and 2002, and the Chevy Rock & Roll 400 at Richmond from 2004 to 2006, when the race was the last race of the regular season under the season format). The idea was that ratings would most certainly be higher for NBC's coverage of a given race next to TNT's due to a broadcaster's penetration. TNT was given most of the Busch Series schedule except for major races, then covered by NBC. Night races were almost always covered by TNT except for the Pepsi 400 at Daytona, which aired on NBC in years that they had the rights to it, and (later) the UAW-GM Quality 500 at Charlotte when that race was moved from Sunday afternoons to Saturday nights. Otherwise, following the fall Richmond race, TNT's Cup Series coverage was limited to one, two or three races (including the Pop Secret Microwave Popcorn 400 at Rockingham, which they covered from 2001 to 2003).

It was generally understood that anytime a major news story needed to be covered by NBC its NASCAR coverage would be switched over to TNT. This occurred only once: the October 7, 2001 race at Lowe's Motor Speedway was interrupted during the prerace show when President George W. Bush announced the beginning of Operation Enduring Freedom in response to the September 11, 2001 attacks. NBC covered the news until 25 laps to go (simulcast with TNT), and the entire race was shown on TNT.

TNT also would broadcast any NBC-scheduled races that were postponed by rain until the following day, much like FX would do for Fox during this contract (this is no longer applicable as Fox airs rain-delayed races the following day, since Fox has no daytime programming, unlike ABC, CBS and NBC).

The TNT–NBC partnership broke off when NBC chose not to bid for the NASCAR contract when it expired in 2006.

2007–2014

TNT, however, elected to make a bid for rights in the new television contract and was successful in retaining its coverage, joining Fox and the ESPN family of networks in a contract that ran until 2014. Under the terms of said contract TNT gained broadcast rights to six June and July races, which it calls the NASCAR on TNT Summer Series. TNT's six races in 2014 were the Pocono 400 at Pocono Raceway, the Quicken Loans 400 at Michigan International Speedway, the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway, the Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway, the annual July 4 weekend Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway, and the Camping World RV Sales 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Unlike in the previous contract TNT was not able to procure rights to any Nationwide Series races, as ESPN successfully bid to be the exclusive carrier of the series. However, TNT became the exclusive home for the Coke Zero 400, much like Fox had become exclusive home for the Daytona 500 — in the previous contract, Fox and NBC alternated coverage of the two races at Daytona, with Fox airing the Daytona 500 and NBC the Pepsi 400 in odd-numbered years, and vice versa in even-numbered years.

Bill Weber stayed on as TNT's NASCAR voice and Wally Dallenbach Jr. was retained to be his color commentator. Originally, Benny Parsons was to join the two in the booth, but he died from lung cancer prior to the beginning of the 2007 season. Kyle Petty elected to take time off from his driving duties to take the position in the broadcast booth. Marty Snider and Matt Yocum returned as pit reporters. To replace Allen Bestwick and Dave Burns, both of whom went to ESPN following the 2006 season, TNT promoted Ralph Sheheen and Lindsay Czarniak to full-time pit reporter positions; previously both of them served as substitutes or for stand-alone Busch Series races that conflicted with the Cup Series schedule. To round out the coverage, Larry McReynolds was loaned by Fox to provide analysis and explanations.

The end of NASCAR on TNT and Turner Sports

The 2014 Camping World RV Sales 301, on July 13, at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, was the final NASCAR race televised on TNT in its fourteen years with the network and marked the end of NASCAR's total 32-year run on Turner Sports, dating back to 1983; in the wake of former co-partner NBC signing a new agreement to televise races from the major NASCAR series (mainly Cup Series and Xfinity Series as well as Mexico Series races on its Spanish-language networks). Thus, TNT decided to devote a large segment of the pre-race show to showing clips of signature NASCAR moments to air on both it and TBS; and also welcomed NASCAR president Mike Helton to the TNT booth to talk about the relationship of NASCAR with Turner Sports, as Helton had been president of the Atlanta Motor Speedway when Turner Sports showed its first race at AMS, which had aired on TBS in 1983, 32 years prior. Finally, the conclusive pre-race broadcast in fourteen years of NASCAR on TNT was closed out by former TBS lead announcer and New England native Ken Squier,.^[3]

Hello everyone, I'm Ken Squier. And as the engines have fired at New Hampshire, I remind you that this is the final NASCAR broadcast for Turner Sports. I was the play-by-play announcer for TBS for 18 years beginning in the very first year of NASCAR coverage, 1983. It's been a real honor to be a part of today's broadcast and I wish my colleagues the very best today on TNT, as this amazing 32-year run comes to a close. I hope you enjoy today's race.

During NASCAR's 32-year run on Turner Sports, the races aired on TBS (1983–2000) and TNT (2001–2014).

2025 return

On November 29, 2023, TNT Sports announced that it had acquired the rights to five yearly summer NASCAR Cup Series races starting in 2025. TruTV will also hold the rights to practice and qualifying for 19 Cup Series races per season. All races, as well as practice and qualifying, will stream on Bleacher Report Sports Add-On on Max.^[4]

Broadcast team history

TNT and NBC shared the broadcast team of Allen Bestwick on lap-by-lap and Benny Parsons and Wally Dallenbach Jr. on color commentary. Dave Burns, Matt Yocum, Marty Snider, and Bill Weber were the pit reporters, with Weber hosting the Countdown to Green pre-race show.

When TNT would broadcast Busch Series races that conflicted with the Cup races, other pit reporters, such as Glenn Jarrett, Mark Garrow, Ralph Sheheen, and Lindsay Czarniak would join the coverage.

In 2004, Weber became the lap-by-lap announcer for two races as Bestwick recovered from a leg injury he suffered while playing hockey.

Cup Series

Busch Series