The biggest names in NASCAR are on the move.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. is leaving NBC and heading to race newcomers Amazon Prime Video and Warner Bros. Discovery Sports, sources said about his decision. The Athletic.
Earnhardt is expected to retire this season and then resume his broadcasting career in 2025 when WBD Sports and Amazon begin their coverage.
The move gives WBD Sports and Amazon instant credibility when they begin their series. Each will have five races in a season. WBD Sports races will be broadcast on TNT, streamed on Max and have a Bleacher Report segment. NASCAR complements WBD Sports’ excellent NBA, NCAA Tournament, MLB and NHL programming schedule.
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Amazon’s Prime Video subscription service already features exclusive NFL games on Thursday nights and is a leading contender to add the NBA when the league decides on its partners in upcoming negotiations.
Earnhardt informed NBC of his decision last week, according to sources familiar with the talks. While Earnhardt is expected to take the year off, he owns the flexibility to strike another deal with one of its two broadcast partners, Fox and NBC. There is no meaningful conversation at this point either.
“Dale Earnhardt Jr. is beloved in the NASCAR world and has made many contributions to NBC Sports, from his work as an analyst on our NASCAR coverage to his experiences as a correspondent at major events such as the Indianapolis 500, Kentucky Derby, the Super Bowl and the Olympics,” said an NBC Sports spokesperson The Athletic. “We thank Dale and wish him the best in the future.”
Earnhardt said on his podcast in early February that he hopes to stay with NBC, though he admitted he doesn’t have a contract for 2024.
“I really like being in the broadcast booth and I want to continue doing it,” Earnhardt said on his podcast, “Dale Jr. Download.” “We’ve had some great conversations with all of NASCAR’s TV partners. My home and my love is at NBC, and I want to be with them. So we’ll see where it goes.”
Earnhardt, 49, joined NBC in 2018 immediately after retiring from racing.
NASCAR moved to four partners in its latest TV contracts, leaving incumbents NBC and Fox, which will continue to air 14 races through 2025 to join WBD Sports and Amazon’s combined 10. The total NASCAR deals are for seven years and an estimated $7.7 billion dollars in total. The current season remains exclusive to Fox and NBC.
In 2025, Amazon and WBD Sports will join the coverage and each will be built around Earnhardt.
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(Photo: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)
