Inside TNT’s Strategy To Win NASCAR Fans After Prime

The TNT pre and post race lineup for 2026.

TM & © 2026 Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc.

For NASCAR fans, this summer of 2025 marked the dawn of an entirely new era when it came to the way they watched races.

No longer were races shown only on cable or over the air, but for the very first time several races would be streamed on the world wide web, exclusively. It was a bold new experiment, with no real precedent, and no guarantee of success.

There can be little argument that Amazon Prime video’s first five race experiment last season didn’t succeed. That’s due in large part by proving something many longtime viewers had been asking for: race broadcasts didn’t have to feel like race broadcasts. Less scripted conversation, more authentic personalities and a willingness to let analysts simply talk racing. It all helped Prime earn nearly universal praise from fans and media alike.

But that success also presented an immediate challenge for the next television partner in NASCAR’s seven-year media rights agreement.

2025 also marked the season that TNT Sports returned to NASCAR after a decade away. As part of the new media rights deal, TNT shares the latter half of 10-race summer stretch with Amazon Prime.

TNT Sports wasn’t simply launching another season of coverage. It was following a production that had fundamentally reset expectations.

“Yeah, they set the bar,” Craig Barry, TNT Sports’ Executive Vice President and Chief Content Officer, told Forbes when asked whether Prime’s success increased the pressure on TNT.

Barry quickly points out, however, that comparisons aren’t entirely fair. Amazon’s streaming platform offers technical advantages, including uninterrupted green-flag racing and higher-quality video delivery that traditional cable television simply can’t always match.

But he never shied away from acknowledging that TNT saw room to improve after its own inaugural season.

“I felt like NASCAR was in need of the most attention after the first season,” Barry said. “There was still an opportunity there to build a better product.”

That improvement wasn’t about borrowing ideas from Prime.

Instead, Barry said TNT doubled down on becoming more…TNT.

Rather than reinventing how races are covered, the network focused on how its talent interacted with one another. The pre-race and post-race shows were redesigned with a dedicated set. Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Burton joined the lineup alongside Dale Earnhardt Jr., Steve Letarte and Jamie McMurray.

Another key addition came behind the scenes with a new race director.

“Having a person in that chair who lives and breathes NASCAR, who has a great understanding for the sport and what the fans want to watch, that was a huge upgrade for us,” Barry said. “It gave the booth confidence. It made everybody more comfortable. And ultimately, if everybody’s comfortable and everybody’s having a good time, the fan is as well.”

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But Barry is quick to point out the improvement wasn’t the result of any one change.

“Everybody looked at it and said, ‘We have an opportunity to do better here,'” he said. “…Everybody stepped up to that challenge.”

Barry said the improvements extended beyond the broadcast booth. TNT continued to expand alternate viewing options through Max, in-car cameras, graphics packages and social media integrations designed to reach younger viewers.

“I really like our race order graphics,” Barry said. “Having options, being able to go to in-car on Max… VR is a huge asset for us…creating a more unique experience where fans can engage on different platforms.”

Beyond a new race director, updated graphics or a redesigned studio, perhaps the biggest addition TNT made for its second season was the addition of longtime ESPN storyteller Marty Smith.

Smith first covered NASCAR in the late 1990s, building relationships throughout the garage before becoming one of ESPN’s most recognizable personalities, covering everything from college football and golf to the Masters. Returning to NASCAR this season wasn’t simply another assignment.

“It felt like coming home,” Smith told Forbes. “I knew it would be really fun coming back to the sport because I’ve always paid close attention to it. But there was a little anxious energy walking back in there.”

That feeling didn’t last long.

“I met Dale Jr. in ’98. I met Jimmie Johnson in ’99. I met all of those guys, and we were all young and wild as mountain lions. And really did kind of grow into this together,” Smith said. ” So more than half my life, I’ve known these guys on a personal level.”

Craig Barry believed those relationships would translate naturally to television, creating the kind of unscripted conversations that have become a hallmark of TNT Sport’s broadcasts. That’s why he doesn’t have his on-air talent sit in on production meetings.

“I don’t want them looking at the monitor, seeing the highlights or hearing the sound bites before we go on the air,” Barry said. “I want them reacting honestly and authentically in real time. I don’t want them talking at the fan. I want them talking with the fan. If they can feel like they’re sitting on the couch watching the race with Dale or Marty or Jimmie or Jeff or Jamie, that’s the holy grail.”

For Smith, the assignment wasn’t about being the star of the show.

“All I am is a point guard, you know?” he says with a laugh. ” I’m John Stockton in short shorts feeding Karl Malone.”

The result has been a broadcast where genuine conversations often take the show in unexpected directions.

“There are five-minute conversations that we didn’t even know we were going to have,” Smith said. “That’s where the magic lives…That’s where the person sitting on their couch or sitting around their buddies cracking Busch Lights goes ‘damn, I could hang out with those guys. They’re me, they’re just like us.’”

For Smith, those conversations are fueled by a NASCAR that feels markedly different from the one he left more than a decade ago.

“A lot younger,” he said with a laugh. “I used to be one of the young guys. Now I’m old with gray hair and I have to get my glasses out for the post-race show because I can’t see the damn screen anymore.

“But I’ll tell you, brother, I feel a resurgence. And this isn’t because I’m working for TNT. Ryan McGee and I have done Marty & McGee from the Daytona 500 every year, and the last several years you can feel a difference in the passion and the energy. Steve O’Donnell and his group are working so hard with the drivers to make the best decisions for the sport and the fans.

“We’re going back to (North Wilkesboro Speedway) for a points race. You know it and I know it. If we’d had this conversation 10 years ago, neither one of us would’ve believed that. With the young talent that’s in the garage and the intentional approach to really digging the roots back into the dirt, I feel a difference. I do. And it’s a very positive difference.”

For Barry, this season isn’t a finish line. It’s another step in what he sees as a process of continuous improvement.

“I have no problem saying after last year, ‘We can do better than this,'” he said. “We have, and I’ve been really happy with the results. But anybody who knows me knows that won’t be enough. My idea of success is that you get incrementally better with every broadcast, with every season.”