NASCAR on WBC (Johnsonverse)
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NASCAR on WBC is an American television show that broadcasts NASCAR races on the Johnson Industries-owned WBC and WBCSN television networks. It has aired since the 2014 season, though it previously broadcast the Rebel 400 at Darlington Raceway on May 10, 1969, and WBC-owned networks such as The Nashville Network had covered races in the past. WBC's broadcasting team covers many races throughout the season, with ESPN (through the revived ESPN SpeedWorld) and several other networks covering races if needed, all using their own graphics and music with the WBC broadcasting team. WBC's coverage has been critically acclaimed for its broadcasting team, and has won several awards since debuting in broadcasting full-time.
It is expected that once the current television broadcast contract goes up in 2024, all Cup, Busch, and Craftsman Truck events will move to WBC, WBCSN or WBC-owned networks such as ESPN, ESPN2, Speed Channel, Cartoon Network, Freeform, or TNN, depending on broadcasting commitments. Many other series began broadcasting on a new spin-off channel to Speed Channel, named The NASCAR Network, in 2019; before its creation, races in the lower series were primarily broadcast on ESPN and ESPN2 using ESPN graphics and WBC broadcasters.
History
In 1969, the then-fledgling WBC network and Darlington Raceway struck a deal to broadcast the Rebel 400, which ran on May 10 of that same year. The coverage, hosted by WBC News reporter Tom Stephenson with Ken Squier, Ned Jarrett, and David Hobbs in the booth, and Brock Yates as the pit reporter, was the first NASCAR race broadcast flag-to-flag, though it is often overshadowed by CBS' later telecast of the 1979 Daytona 500. The broadcast was so successful that WBC considered broadcasting more races flag-to-flag as well, including the 1970 Daytona 500, but never did, due to WBC's desire to focus on their other sports.
While he was running WBC (then known as JTV) during the 1980s, infamous Johnson CEO Phil Stacker, himself a NASCAR fan, considered broadcasting NASCAR races on JTV, but opted to focus on broadcasting for other sports like MLB and NBA due to being unable to secure deals with various tracks, many of whom feared that JTV's coverage would either be "way too cheesy" (since JTV’s coverage of other sports infamously featured cheaply-chyroned graphics that frequently glitched), heavily biased in favor of certain drivers (as JTV's NBA coverage was infamous for being biased in favor of certain teams), or both, while the tracks he owned himself tended to broadcast on other networks; incidentally, Stacker fully approves of current CEO Tim Johnson's leadership of NASCAR.
When Johnson Industries took full control of NASCAR in 2014, having acquired the sport in 2009, WBC was added to the list of broadcasters alongside Fox, TNT, Johnson-owned ESPN, and ABC (later pared down to Fox and NBC in 2015), with Stephenson returning as the host (though events on WBCSN are handled by his protégé, Ally Tyson), Squier as the play-by-play announcer and pre-race host, and Jarrett, Hobbs, and Buddy Baker as color commentators; after Baker's death in July 2015, he was replaced by former NBC/TNT broadcaster Wally Dallenbach, Jr., who has announced ever since, alongside Yates (until his death in 2016), ESPN broadcaster Dr. Jerry Punch, former CBS pit reporters Ralph Sheheen and Bill Stephens, former NBC/TNT pit reporters Bill Weber, Marty Snider, and Jamie Little, Fox play-by-play commentator Mike Joy, and former CBS/Fox pit reporter Dick Berggren as pit reporters, and Allen Bestwick as the post-race host, while Squier and TNN lead announcer Eli Gold alternate Busch Series events, and ESPN's Paul Page and Bob Jenkins split between Craftsman Truck Series events. It was also the first network to incorporate a virtual studio for analysis, and many of the set pieces in WBC Race Control were taken from the NASCAR on CBS studio that was used between 1997 and 2000, as the Johnsons acquired the set hours after the 2000 Chevy Silverado 200 Truck Series race (which was the final NASCAR race broadcast on CBS) on July 15 of that year, though Stephenson begins the telecasts out on the track itself, moving to WBC Race Control just before the race begins. Starting in 2018, former drivers Rick Mast, Dorsey Schroeder, and Danica Partick were all added as pit reporters. Due to Squier's COVID-19 diagnosis in November 2020, he was replaced in the final two races of the 2020 season by Bestwick, both as the pre-race host and lead broadcaster; Squier returned in both roles for the 2021 season, albeit wheelchair-bound and, in many cases, virtually from home.
At the 2014 Coke Zero 400, to promote the release of Sgt. Frog: The Great Rescue, the normal broadcasters were relieved of their duties by Tim Johnson, Chloe Johnson, and Belle Armstrong, in-character as their Sgt. Frog characters (Fuyuki Hinata, Natsumi Hinata, and Momoka Nishizawa, respectively), with Jenny Smith serving in the pits in-character as Koyuki Azumiya (the other pit reporters remained in their positions), with the voice actors standing off-camera and broadcasting the races in-character; this team was used again in the Tokyo races, though with an all-Johnson cast (Sheheen was replaced by Wendee Lee as Konata Izumi, Snider by David Matranga as Tomoya Okazaki, and Weber by Dan Castellaneta as Tamama, while the other pit reporters weren't used), leaving Stephenson and the analysts as the only non-cartoon members of the team; in 2019, the characters started appearing onscreen for the first time using Johnson's AnimeTronics.
Broadcasters
Play-By-Play
Almost every living NASCAR lead broadcaster is employed by WBC for NASCAR broadcasts. The exceptions are Ralph Sheheen and Dr. Jerry Punch (both pit reporters), Marty Reid (Tim was reported as saying "Like hell I will ever hire someone who can't tell the white and checkered flags apart", referencing Reid's infamous flub during the 2013 Kentucky 300 in which he declared Ryan Blaney the winner one lap early), and radio broadcasters (who remain at their posts on MRN, PRN, and IMS; several Johnson Radio stations are MRN affiliates, and all stations simulcast IMS coverage). The same broadcasting team is also used on Cartoon Network, TNN, Speed, Freeform, ESPN/ESPN2, and NASCAR Network broadcasts, with the exception of the booth broadcasters. Much like other WBC Sports broadcasters, the broadcasters in the booth, the virtual studio, and WBC Race Control wear blazers with a white version of Johnson's iconic "Blue Globe" logo on their left breast pocket, and often carry microphones also bearing the same white version; almost all pit reporters (with the exception of Mike Joy and Dick Berggren) also wear firesuits as in ESPN's telecasts.
- Rick Allen (2017-present, Elite Division, Dash Series, and Mid-Size events)
- Allen Bestwick (2016-present, SUV Series, E-Series, and Nintendo events, substituted for Ken Squier in the final two races of the 2020 season)
- Leigh Diffey (2018-present; reserve broadcaster, broadcasts Brands Hatch races starting in 2019)
- Eli Gold (2015-present, Busch events; alternates with Ken Squier, substituted for Bob Jenkins at the beginning of the 2021 season due to brain cancer treatments; later named as Jenkins' replacement following the latter's death)
- Bob Jenkins (2015-2021, Craftsman Truck Series events; alternated with Paul Page; died 2021)
- Tim Johnson (2014-present, 2014 Coke Zero 400 and all Tokyo Cup events as Fuyuki Hinata; Craftsman Truck and Busch Series events at Tokyo, 2021 Daytona 500, and all Convertible Series and Ultimate events as himself)
- Mike Joy (2017-present, Whelen Modified Tour, ARCA Series East and West, and ARCA events)
- Paul Page (2015-present, Craftsman Truck Series events; alternated with Bob Jenkins prior to the latter's death)
- Ken Squier (1969; 2014-present, Cup, Busch, and IROC events; alternates with Eli Gold for Busch events)
- Vince Welch (2015-present; reserve broadcaster)
Color Commentators
- Belle Armstrong (2014-present, 2014 Coke Zero 400 and all Tokyo Cup events as Momoka Nishizawa; Craftsman Truck and Busch events at Tokyo and 2021 Daytona 500 and all Convertible Series events as herself)
- Buddy Baker (2014-2015, Cup and Busch events; deceased)
- Wally Dallenbach, Jr. (2015-present, all events except Convertible, IROC, Whelen Modified Tour, Elite, ARCA, Nintendo, and ARCA Series East and WesF; replaced Buddy Baker)
- Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (2017-present, IROC, Nintendo, and Ultimate events)
- David Hobbs (1969; 2014-present, Cup, Busch, Truck, and IROC events)
- Dale Jarrett (2016-present, IROC and Elite Division events)
- Ned Jarrett (1969; 2014-present, all events except Convertible, IROC, Whelen Modified Tour, Elite, ARCA, Nintendo, and ARCA Series East and Wes)
- Chloe Johnson (2014-present, 2014 Coke Zero 400 and all Tokyo Cup events as Natsumi Hinata; Craftsman Truck and Busch events at Tokyo, 2021 Daytona 500, and all Convertible Series events as herself)
- Dave Marcis (2014-present; Busch and ARCA Series East and West events)
- Jerry Nadeau (2017-present, Convertible Series and Ultimate events)
- Rusty Wallace (2016-present, Elite Division events)
- Darrell Waltrip (2017-present, Whelen Modified Tour, ARCA Series East and West, and Nintendo events)
- Michael Waltrip (2019-present, ARCA and Nintendo events)
Pit Reporters
- Dick Berggren (2014-present, Cup, Busch, Craftsman Truck, and IROC events)
- Dave Burns (2017-present, Dash Series and Elite Division events)
- Dan Castellaneta (2016-present Tokyo Cup events as Tamama)
- Dave Despain (2015-present, IROC events)
- Melissa Fahn (2018 Tokyo Cup events as Neptune)
- Erin Fitzgerald (2018 Neptunia 400 as Noire)
- Mike Joy (2014-present, all races except Cartoon Network broadcasts, Whelen Modified Tour, ARCA Series East and West, and ARCA events)
- Wendee Lee (2016-2017 Tokyo Cup events as Konata Izumi; 2018 Neptunia 400 as Blanc)
- Jamie Little (2014-present, all events)
- Rick Mast (2018-present, Cup, Busch, Craftsman Truck, and IROC events)
- David Matranga (2016 Tokyo Cup events as Tomoya Okazaki)
- Danica Patrick (2018-present, Cup, Busch, Craftsman Truck, and IROC events)
- Tara Platt (2018 Neptunia 400 as Vert)
- Dr. Jerry Punch (2014-present, Cup, Busch, Craftsman Truck, SUV Series, Whelen Modified Tour, and ARCA Series East and West events)
- Dorsey Schroeder (2018-present, Cup, Busch, Craftsman Truck, Dash Series, and IROC events)
- Stephanie Sheh (2017 Tokyo Cup events as Yui Hirasawa)
- Ralph Sheheen (2014-present, all events)
- Jenny Smith (2014-present; 2014 Coke Zero 400 and all Cup Tokyo races as Koyuki Azumaya, Truck and Busch events at Tokyo, 2021 Daytona 500, and all Convertible Series events as herself)
- Marty Snider (2014-present, all events)
- Spike Spencer (2017-present, Tokyo Cup events as Shinji Ikari)
- Bill Stephens (2014-present, Cup, Busch, and Craftsman Truck events)
- Michael Waltrip (2018-present, Grid Walks for all events except Nintendo and ARCA)
- Bill Weber (2014-present, Cup, Busch, Craftsman Truck, and Convertible Series events)
- Brock Yates (1969; 2014-2016, Cup, Busch, Craftsman Truck, and IROC events, deceased)
Studio (WBC Race Control)
WBC Race Control is WBC's portable studio. A separate virtual studio based in Mooresville, North Carolina is used by analysts.
- Allen Bestwick (2014-present, post-race host, replaced Ken Squier as the pre-race host in the final two races of the 2020 season)
- Dave Despain (2014, rules and technical analyst)
- Jeff Gordon (2018-2021, analyst)
- Dale Jarrett (2014-present, analyst, all events except Dash Series events)
- Larry MacReynolds (2018-present, rules and technical analyst)
- Dave Marcis (2015-present, analyst and WBC car driver)
- Andy Petree (2015-2017, rules and technical analyst)
- Kyle Petty (2014-present, analyst and WBC car driver)
- Ken Squier (2014-present, pre-race host)
- Tom Stephenson (1969; 2014-present, host, WBC events)
- Ally Tyson (2014-present, host, WBCSN events, pre-race host)
Reception
WBC's coverage was critically acclaimed, with much praise going to how "CBS-style" its broadcasting was, as many of its broadcasters had previously worked for CBS themselves; its broadcasting team was dubbed by fans and the media as "the Dream Team", in reference to the 1992 American men's basketball Olympic team of the same name.
Opening sequence
The opening sequences from 2014 to 2016 were inspired by the NASCAR on CBS intro from 1998 to 2000. Since 2017, it has featured a combination of CGI and real-life race footage from various series with a brief shot of the broadcasters (all of which vary depending on the series or race). The opening also changes from year to year.
Videos
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