After announcing that they would end their television contract with ESPN, the NHRA (National Hot Rod Association) reported that they had officially signed a television deal with FOX Sports. If you didn’t know, the NHRA is drag racing, and now, a bigger market will get to see it. It’s super exciting to me.
Fox Sports will televise the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series starting in 2016. The broadcast will include 16 live Sunday races. FOX itself will even show four of the races nationally.
The old NHRA races were broadcast only on ESPN 2, since 2000.
The NHRA president is very excited to have FOX Sports broadcast their product.
“This really is a game-changer for NHRA regarding the presentation of our marquee product, the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series,” said Peter Clifford, NHRA president. “Fox Sports promises to be just the right media partner we’ve been looking for to help give our professional series the stage it deserves and to provide our passionate fans the timely, quality coverage they are craving.”
Under the new agreement Fox Sports 1 will show races on Friday and Saturday qualifying rounds and final eliminations races on Sunday. 16 outta 24 races will be shown live. They will also replay races often.
In short, Fox will have to show more than 450 hours of NHRA programming and races.
Source: Daily News