NASCAR on Fox kicks off Feb. 22

November 9, 2001
2:59 PM EST (1959 GMT)

Following its critically-acclaimed premiere season, which drew 278 million television viewers, NASCAR Winston Cup racing returns to FOX, Sunday, Feb. 24 (12:30 PM ET), live from "The Rock," North Carolina Speedway in Rockingham, N.C. NASCAR on FOX race coverage begins Saturday, Feb. 23 (1:00 PM ET) with Rockingham's Busch Series event.

NASCAR racing legend Darrell Waltrip and former crew chief Larry McReynolds return to provide race analysis for all NASCAR on FOX Winston Cup and Busch Series events, and Mike Joy returns as race announcer. Prerace coverage is again hosted by Chris Myers with analyst Jeff Hammond.

In its second season as the home of NASCAR, FOX Sports airs 13 NASCAR Winston Cup races. The NASCAR on FOX schedule is highlighted by NASCAR Winston Cup races on Sunday, March 3 from Las Vegas Motor Speedway. (2:30 PM ET), Sunday, April 21 from Talladega Superspeedway (1:30 PM ET), Sunday, May 26 from Lowe's Motor Speedway in Charlotte (5:00 PM ET), and Saturday, July 6 from Daytona International Speedway (7:00 PM ET).

FX recorded the highest ratings in its history with NASCAR coverage in 2001 and its 2002 schedule is even more compelling than last season. In addition to being theprimary carrier of Busch Series races, with 12 events, FX airs four NASCAR Winston Cup races in 2002, up from three in 2001.

FX once again airs the Richmond 400 Saturday, May 4 (7:30 PM ET), and "The Winston" All-Star race live from Lowe's Motor Speedway, Charlotte, N.C., Saturday, May 18 (7:00 PM ET), and also airs Winston Cup races from Martinsville and Dover. NASCAR on FX begins its 2002 season with Happy Hour from Rockingham, Saturday, Feb. 23 (12:00 PM ET) and kicks off its race coverage with Busch Series racing live from Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Saturday, March 2 (3:30 PM ET).

High points of the FX season include Busch Series racing live from Nashville Superspeedway in Lebanon, Tenn., Saturday, April 13 (1:30 PM ET), and Busch Series racing live from Daytona International Speedway, Friday, July 5 (7:00 PM ET). FX is currently carried in more than 73 million homes, up from 58 million at the beginning of the 2001 NASCAR season.

Highlights of the Busch Grand National series on FOX Sports include live coverage Saturday, April 20 (2:00 PM ET) from Talladega Superspeedway, Saturday, April 27 (4:00 PM ET) from California Speedway in Fontana, Calif., and Saturday, May 25 (1:00 PM ET) from Lowe's Motor Speedway.

Fox Sports Net kicks off its NASCAR coverage on Friday, Feb. 22 (3:00 PM ET) with qualifying live from Rockingham. In addition to live coverage of 11 Friday qualifying events, other events include four ARCA races, a Goody's Dash Series race Saturday, June 1, and a NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Series race Saturday, June 29.

In its inaugural season, NASCAR on FOX' race broadcasts reached an average of 19.9 million viewers, one million more than the previous year's broadcasts on ABC and CBS (18.9 million). The 278 million total viewers who watched NASCAR Winston Cup racing on FOX in 2001 were more than double the total viewers for the same portion of the season in the previous year. The household ratings for the first season of NASCAR on FOX were also impressive.

When considering all Winston Cup races televised in the first half of the 2001 season, FOX Sports and FX combined to average a 5.3/13, an astounding 29% increase over the combined ratings of ABC, CBS, ESPN, TNN and TBS for the first half of 2000.