TNT Sports is once again leaning on the NASCAR alumni pool to staff its biggest broadcast window of the year.
Jimmie Johnson will join TNT Sports as a studio analyst for three races during the network’s second annual In-Season Challenge. He starts at the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway on June 28, then works North Wilkesboro Speedway on July 19 and the championship round at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 26.
Johnson worked NBC’s Indy 500 coverage in 2021, then did it again in 2024, calling the race that morning before flying to Charlotte to race in the Coca-Cola 600 that night for Legacy Motor Club, the team he co-owns. He filled in as an NBC analyst at Daytona and Talladega that same year, too.
“Joining TNT Sports is an opportunity that truly energizes me,” Johnson said in a statement. “NASCAR has given me so much throughout my career, and getting the chance to share that passion from a new perspective alongside a fantastic team of NASCAR legends is something I’m really looking forward to.”
TNT is also handing its pre- and post-race hosting duties to Marty Smith, who has spent nearly two decades at ESPN. Smith will anchor the five-week tournament alongside Dale Earnhardt Jr., Steve Letarte, and Jamie McMurray. The arrangement traces back to a side deal tied to the cooperation between ESPN and TNT since their 2024 Inside the NBA licensing deal, the same relationship that lets the networks sublicense College Football Playoff games to each other. Smith began his career covering NASCAR full-time for ESPN from 2007 until the network lost the rights in 2014, and he re-signed a long-term ESPN extension just two months ago that keeps him on College GameDay, at major golf events, and on Marty & McGee.
Last year, Shannon Spake hosted that pre- and post-race show by herself. She’s back this summer, just in a different chair, working pit road alongside Marty Snider and Danielle Trotta while Smith takes over hosting. Jeff Burton fills in as studio analyst for the two races Johnson isn’t working, Chicagoland Speedway on July 5 and EchoPark Speedway in Atlanta on July 12. Dylan “Mamba” Smith, who helped build out Bleacher Report’s NASCAR presence during the network’s first season back, returns as a B/R Racing correspondent.
The booth itself isn’t changing. Earnhardt, Letarte, and Adam Alexander will call all five races again, the same trio that had a rough go of it at points last summer, particularly during the Chicago street course race, which Earnhardt admitted afterward the broadcast had underestimated.
“This year, we’re expanding our studio show and adding some of racing’s most recognizable and respected voices to our talented NASCAR broadcasting team,” said Craig Barry, TNT Sports’ EVP and chief content officer. “We’re always looking for new ways to create access and bring fans closer to the sport they love.”
TNT is betting the bigger crew can build on a first season that saw viewership climb 52 percent by the time the In-Season Challenge reached Indianapolis.
About Sam Neumann
Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.