NASCAR on television in the 1970s

One of the earliest telecasts of a NASCAR race was the 1960 Daytona 500, parts of which was presented as part of CBS Sports Spectacular, with announcer Bud Palmer.^[1]

In the ensuing years, but before 1979, there were three main sources of NASCAR telecasts:^{[citation needed]}

ABC's Wide World of Sports, the sports anthology program, provided coverage of select NASCAR Winston Cup races in the 1970s. In 1971, it presented a 200-lap race at Greenville-Pickens Speedway in its entirety, the first such broadcast of a NASCAR race. Throughout the 1970s, ABC presented portions of the Daytona 500, Southern 500, and other important races.
In the late 1970s, CBS Sports Spectacular aired some races; like Wide World of Sports, they were taped and edited.
Car and Track, a weekly auto racing show hosted by Bud Lindemann, recapped all of NASCAR's top-series races in the 1960s and 1970s in a weekly 30-minute syndicated show.

CBS Sports President Neal Pilson and motor-sports editor Ken Squier believed that America would watch an entire stock car race live on television. On February 18, 1979, CBS presented the first flag-to-flag coverage of the Daytona 500.^[2] Richard Petty won NASCAR's crown-jewel race for the sixth time, but the big story was the post-race fight on the track's infield between Cale Yarborough and Donnie Allison, who crashed together on the final lap while leading.^[2] The race drew incredible ratings, in part due to the compelling action both on and off the track, and in part because a major snowstorm on the East Coast kept millions of viewers indoors.^[3]

1970-1971

More information Year, Date ...

Year	Date	Event	Track	Network	Coverage	Lap-by-lap	Color commentator(s)	Reporters
1970	February 22	Daytona 500^[4]	Daytona	ABC	Highlights	Keith Jackson	Chris Economaki
	April 22	Alabama 500^[5]	Talladega	ABC^[6]^[7]^[8]	Live	Bill Flemming^[9]	Keith Jackson	Bob Montgomery
	April 18	Gwyn Staley 400^[10]	North Wilkesboro	ABC^[11]	Live	Jim McKay	Chris Economaki	Bob Montgomery
	May 9	Rebel 400^[12]	Darlington	ABC^[13]	Live	Jim McKay	Ned Jarrett	Bob Montgomery
	May 24	World 600	Charlotte	ABC	Live	Keith Jackson	Chris Economaki	Bob Montgomery
	July 4	Firecracker 400^[14]	Daytona	ABC	Highlights	Jim McKay	Chris Economaki	Bob Montgomery
	July 25	Nashville 420^[15]	Fairgrounds	ABC^[16]^[17]	Live	Jim McKay	Chris Economaki	Bob Montgomery
	September 7	Southern 500^[18]	Darlington	ABC	Highlights	Bill Flemming	Chris Economaki
	October 4	Wilkes 400	North Wilkesboro	ABC	Highlights	Jim McKay	Chris Economaki
	October 11	National 500^[19]	Charlotte	ABC	Highlights	Jim McKay	Chris Economaki
1971	February 11	Twin 125's	Daytona	ABC	Highlights	Keith Jackson	Chris Economaki
	February 14	Daytona 500^[20]	Daytona	ABC^[21]	Highlights	Keith Jackson^[22]	Chris Economaki
	April 4	Atlanta 500	Atlanta	ABC^[23]^[24]	Live	Bill Flemming	Chris Economaki
	April 10	Greenville 200^[25]	Greenville-Pickens	ABC^[26]^[27]	Live	Jim McKay^[28]	Chris Economaki	Ken Squier
	May 2	Rebel 400	Darlington	ABC	Highlights	Keith Jackson	Chris Economaki
	May 16	Winston 500	Talladega	ABC^[29]	Highlights	Bill Flemming	Chris Economaki
	July 4	Firecracker 400	Daytona	ABC	Highlights	Keith Jackson	Chris Economaki^[30]
	August 6	Myers Brothers 250	Bowman Gray	ABC	Highlights	Jim McKay	Chris Economaki
	September 6	Southern 500	Darlington	ABC	Highlights	Bill Flemming	Chris Economaki
	October 10	National 500	Charlotte	ABC	Highlights	Keith Jackson	Chris Economaki

Close

From 1962 to 1978, the Daytona 500 was shown on ABC's Wide World of Sports.^{[citation needed]} During the 1960s and early 1970s, the race was filmed and an edited highlight package aired the following weekend.

During the period on Wide World of Sports, the booth announcers typically served as roving pit reporters during the running of the race, as well as interviewing in victory lane. In the event of a three person team only the pit reporter would be reporting while commentary was separately recording. The booth commentary was recorded in post-production.