Kurt Busch, Guenther Steiner

Every week, someone joins Mike Joy and Clint Bowyer in the Fox NASCAR booth for Cup Series races. Usually it’s a former driver or someone involved in NASCAR, but Fox is trying something different for next Sunday’s race.

Fox will have two guest commentators for next week’s Cup race in Austin. One is NASCAR champion Kurt Busch, while the other is Haas F1 technical director, and Drive to Survive star, Guenther Steiner.

It makes sense for Steiner to be a part of the NASCAR on Fox booth. NASCAR is racing at Circuit of the Americas, which is the location for Formula 1’s United States Grand Prix. In addition, the race will have an international flair as F1 champs Kimi Raikkonen and Jenson Button will compete, along with American sports car driver Jordan Taylor.

While Steiner is best known for his Formula 1 work, Steiner has a NASCAR past. When he was with Red Bull Racing, Steiner moved to the United States when Red Bull formed their NASCAR operation in the mid 2000s. Steiner was technical director for the team in the first two years of the project.

I’m not sure how much Steiner knows about the current NASCAR product, but given the race is at COTA and there are some F1 drivers in the field, he should have enough to be able to contribute to the broadcast. Fox might want to make sure to get the bleep button ready if his appearances on Drive to Survive is any indication.

About Phillip Bupp

Producer/editor of the Awful Announcing Podcast and Short and to the Point. News editor for The Comeback and Awful Announcing. Highlight consultant for Major League Soccer as well as a freelance writer for hire. Opinions are my own but feel free to agree with them.

Follow me on Twitter and Instagram @phillipbupp