Dale Earnhardt Jr., Steve Letarte, and Adam Alexander. (Edit by Liam McGuire.)
By Drew Lerner on

NASCAR’s new media rights deals begin next season, and with them come brand new broadcasting booths.

Beginning in 2025, Amazon and TNT Sports will air five mid-season NASCAR Cup Series races each, with Amazon starting its run at the Coca-Cola 600 on Memorial Day Weekend and TNT beginning its season with the Quaker State 400 Available at Walmart on June 28th.

Luckily for fans, even with NASCAR adding two additional broadcast partners (to join NBC and Fox), they’ll only have to acclimate to one new announcing booth. That’s because both Amazon and TNT will utilize the same announcers during their 10-race stretch next summer.

According to announcements by both broadcasters on Monday, Adam Alexander will serve as play-by-play commentator, Steve Letarte will join as an analyst, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. will round out the three person booth as had been previously announced.

Alexander will return to TNT Sports after having served as a play-by-play commentator for NASCAR on TNT from 2010 to 2014. Most recently, Alexander co-hosted NASCAR Race Hub on FS1 prior to its cancellation earlier this year. He also called the NASCAR Xfinity Series for Fox before that circuit moved to The CW in the fall.

Letarte continues his second act as a race analyst following a successful career as a crew chief for Hendrick Motorsports. Following his retirement from Hendrick, Letarte joined NBC Sports as a broadcaster where he has remained since 2014. He will continue his role for NBC in addition to Amazon and TNT next season.

And of course, Dale Earnhardt Jr. will also serve as a race analyst for both outlets as was announced in May. Earnhardt Jr. is one of the most popular figures in motorsports history, having been voted as NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver by fans for 15 consecutive years.

“It’s so nostalgic to see TNT Sports return to NASCAR,” Earnhardt Jr. said in a statement to TNT. “I enjoyed watching their coverage back in the day. I’m looking forward to being a part of the team and working with Adam (Alexander) and (Steve) Letarte.”

It’s likely a wise decision on the parts of both Amazon and TNT to keep one booth intact across their entire stretch of races. With each broadcaster only airing five races each, it’d be hard to build any semblance of chemistry with the booth if they’d hired different talent. Ten races gives the group a better chance to come together. It will also provide a sense of continuity throughout the middle of the season when fans are learning to find where the races are being aired.

And given the experience all three broadcaster bring to the table, Amazon and TNT have set their NASCAR presentations up for success in year one.

[TNT Sports PR]

About Drew Lerner

Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.

View all posts by Drew Lerner