NBC plans a special theme for its scaled-back NASCAR coverage

NBC has planned a special theme for its 2025 stint with the NASCAR Cup Series. The NBCUniversal-owned sports arm will cover its first premier series race of the season this coming Sunday at Iowa Speedway.

That being said, NBC worked alongside Amazon, broadcasting the green-flag-to-checkered-flag portions of the five races televised on Prime Video. Notably, NASCAR made its Cup Series debut on Amazon Prime with this year’s running of the crown jewel, the Coca-Cola 600, at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

The motivation for NBC’s 2025 theme surfaced during a conversation between NBC Sports VP of NASCAR Jeff Behnke and NASCAR analyst Jeff Burton. Acknowledging how challenging it is to run at daredevilish speeds on various tracks, Burton said the drivers deserve to be appreciated.

Recalling the conversation, Behnke said:

“Burton brought up the fact of how tough these drivers are and you always hear the term, ‘Oh they’re going 200 miles an hour.’ But there’s so many tracks… there’s short tracks that we do on our schedule, Bristol, Richmond and Martinsville and even the road courses… and these drivers are tough, nitty gritty and they are in incredible physical shape, and we’re going to celebrate that.”

“The way that their bodies are impacted during the course of a race, not just during crashes, but during the course of a race and the heat they overcome and the strength it takes to turn those wheels, we are going to celebrate that and showcase that, and that is our undercurrent,” he added.

This coming weekend’s race at Iowa Speedway will mark NBC Sports’ 200th NASCAR event broadcast since it began airing the sport in 2014 after an eight-year stint covering the Sunday Night Football telecast under a restructured deal transferred by ESPN. That same deal allowed Fox to broadcast the Daytona 500 from 2007 until 2014.

NASCAR’s new show is expected to open the Iowa Corn 350 this coming Sunday

NASCAR will start a new show with the upcoming Cup Series race at Iowa Speedway. Per reports, the show will feature the familiar tune of “Space Truckin” by Deep Purple.

The show will feature a two-minute intro that will show some nerve-chilling footage of flips and crashes, in addition to a creative shoot that NBC did with the Cup Series drivers earlier this season.

As reported by Sports Business Journal:

“Scenes from the shoot include drivers hanging out at a bar drinking beers, shooting pool, playing cards, playing a jukebox and working on street cars outside. The clips from actual races are both from recent times and include historical moments from decades past.”

The creative shoot includes former and current Cup Series regulars like Richard Petty, Shane van Gisbergen, Ross Chastain, Denny Hamlin, Chase Elliott, Joey Logano, and Ryan Blaney, among several others.