History
Inside NEXTEL Cup has been on SPEED since the network was called SpeedVision, and was called Inside Winston Cup until the title-sponsor change in 2004. The show was also rebroadcast on several Fox Sports Net affiliates when the show was on SpeedVision, but was exclusively on SPEED from 2002 - 2007.
The first episode aired after the 1996 Daytona 500. The original host was Allen Bestwick, who then broadcast races on Motor Racing Network. The original panelists were chosen because they each drove a different make of race car; Michael Waltrip drove a Ford, Ken Schrader drove a Chevrolet, and Johnny Benson drove a Pontiac.
The show has been so popular that when Fox, NBC, and TNT signed a television deal to broadcast NASCAR races starting in 2001, thousands of emails and faxes came in to ask that the show be saved. The show went on hiatus after NASCAR embargoed all race footage from non-NASCAR broadcast partners, meaning that there would be no highlight show on SPEED.
But the death of Dale Earnhardt in the 2001 Daytona 500, plus various changes in NASCAR, prompted SPEED producers to tape a special reunion program. The program, called "One More Time," involved only the regular panelists and frequent substitute Kenny Wallace, shooting on location at Schrader's home on Lake Norman in North Carolina.
But when SPEED became an official broadcast partner of NASCAR, the show began broadcasting again in 2002. It also had a spin-off, as Inside NBS debuted in 2003. The show was mostly devoted to the Busch Series, NASCAR's version of Triple-A baseball. Bestwick was joined by panelists Hank Parker, Jr. and Randy LaJoie. It only lasted one season.
Read more about this topic: NASCAR Inside Nextel Cup
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