It will be an all-Waltrip pre-race show on FOX for the 2012 season.
Michael Waltrip Joining ‘Hollywood Hotel’ For 2012 NASCAR on FOX Broadcast
Former Daytona 500 winner Michael Waltrip will join brother Darrell Waltrip and host Chris Myers in the Hollywood Hotel for next season’s broadcast.
Jeff Hammond will move from the Hollywood Hotel to pit road and the garage during the pre-race show.
FOX Sports Media Group president, co-COO and executive producer Eric Shanks called the younger Waltrip one of the sport’s “most gregarious, genuine personalities” and said the move was made after the brothers had been paired together in the past.
“Michael has also been featured in numerous television commercials over the last decade, which makes him familiar to a much broader audience. I expect a lot of ‘gotta see’ TV coming out of an all-Waltrip Hollywood Hotel next season,” he said.
With Waltrip joining the booth and Hammond making the transition to the garage and pit road, FOX is hoping to provide an insider prospective to the pre-race show. This will mark the first time a network broadcast will have a former crew chief acting as a roving reporter in the garage and on pit road.
“We’re excited about Jeff’s new role,” Shanks said. “It’s a first for televised NASCAR coverage, and no one knows more about cars than Jeff does. Now he’ll be in a much better position to cover and humanize that side of the sport for viewers.”
NASCAR on FOX will begin its portion of the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup season with the season-opening Daytona 500 and end with the May 12 event at Darlington Raceway.
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