FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, September 19th, 2019

2019 NTT INDYCAR SERIES CHAMPIONSHIP TO BE DECIDED ON NBC THIS SUNDAY AT 3 P.M. ET AT WEATHERTECH RACEWAY LAGUNA SECA

NBC Sports Presents Comprehensive Coverage of Practice, Qualifying, and Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey Beginning Friday at 1:30 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Gold

Team Penske’s Josef Newgarden Battles Alexander Rossi, 2019 Indy 500 Champion Simon Pagenaud and Scott Dixon for NTT IndyCar Series Title

NBC Sports Delivers Viewership Gains in First Full Season as Exclusive Home of INDYCAR

2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs Continue from Richmond Raceway this Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN

Six-Time WWE Champion and Richmond Native Mickie James to Participate in Toyota Joy Ride with Jeff Burton Prior to Saturday’s Cup Series Race

STAMFORD, Conn. – September 19, 2019 – The 2019 NTT IndyCar Series Championship will be decided this Sunday at 3 p.m. ET on NBC, as American driver Josef Newgarden battles for his second series title at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey, Calif. Pre-race coverage of the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey begins Sunday at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC.

NBC Sports will present comprehensive coverage of the Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey weekend, beginning this Friday at 1:30 p.m. ET with Practice 1 on NBC Sports Gold.

NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app — NBC Sports Group’s live streaming product for desktops, mobile devices, tablets, and connected TVs — will provide live streaming coverage of all INDYCAR coverage this week from Laguna Seca.

FIRESTONE GRAND PRIX OF MONTEREY FROM WEATHERTECH RACEWAY LAGUNA SECA – SUNDAY AT 2:30 P.M. ET ON NBC

The 2019 NTT IndyCar Series Championship will be awarded for the eighth consecutive year on NBC Sports this Sunday, as the series returns to Laguna Seca for the first time in 15 years. Team Penske’s Newgarden can earn his second series title by finishing 4th or better, no matter what pursuers Alexander Rossi (-41), Simon Pagenaud (-42) and Scott Dixon (-85) do. However, only four current drivers – Dixon, Sebastien Bourdais, Ryan Hunter-Reay and Tony Kanaan – have past INDYCAR race experience at the 11-turn, 2.2-mile road course.

Coverage from Laguna Seca begins Friday at 1:30 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Gold with Practice 1, followed by Practice 2 at 5 p.m. ET. Saturday coverage includes Practice 3 on NBC Sports Gold at 1 p.m. ET and qualifying at 4:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN. Pre-race coverage on Sunday will begin at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC, following Rugby World Cup coverage. Live race coverage begins at 3 p.m. ET on NBC, followed by post-race coverage at 5 p.m. ET. Pre-race coverage on NBC will include features on Josef Newgarden and his second championship run, as well as a piece on what items he would keep with him on a deserted island.

NBC Sports’ lead INDYCAR play-by-play commentator Leigh Diffey will call this weekend’s Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey alongside two-time Laguna Seca Indy-car winner Paul Tracy and Townsend Bell, who competed in last weekend’s IMSA race at Laguna Seca and clinched the Indy Lights title there in 2001.

Marty Snider, Jon Beekhuis, Kevin Lee and Robin Miller will report from the pits. Lead NBCSports.com motorsports writer Nate Ryan will be on-site in Monterey, and Practice 2 coverage on NBC Sports gold will feature a ride around the track with Ryan and Beekhuis, a previous driving instructor at Laguna Seca.

Following is this weekend’s IndyCar coverage schedule across NBC Sports:

Date Coverage Network Time (ET)
Fri., Sept. 20 Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey – Practice 1 NBC Sports Gold 1:30 p.m.
  Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey – Practice 2 NBC Sports Gold 5 p.m.
Sat., Sept. 21 Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey – Practice 3 NBC Sports Gold 1 p.m.
  Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey – Qualifying NBCSN 4:30 p.m.
  Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey – Qualifying NBC Sports Gold 4:30 p.m.
  Indy Lights Grand Prix of Laguna Seca Race 1 NBC Sports Gold 6 p.m.
Sun., Sept. 22 Indy Lights Grand Prix of Laguna Seca Race 2 NBC Sports Gold 12:05 p.m.
  Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey – Pre-Race NBC 2:30 p.m.
  Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey NBC 3 p.m.
  Firestone Grand Prix of Monterey Post-Race NBC 5 p.m.

*delayed coverage

NBC SPORTS DELIVERS VIEWERSHIP GAINS IN FIRST FULL SEASON AS EXCLUSIVE HOME OF INDYCAR

Heading into the season finale at Laguna Seca, NBC Sports is set to wrap up its first season as the exclusive home of INDYCAR with viewership gains across the board on NBC and NBCSN. The NTT IndyCar Series is average a Total Audience Delivery (TAD) of 1.128 million viewers across 15 races on NBC and NBCSN, up 9% from last year’s viewership on ABC and NBCSN. Gains are highlighted by this year’s inaugural Indy 500 on NBCN, which produced a TAD of 5.446 million viewers, up 11% vs. last year on ABC.

Excluding the Indy 500, races on NBC are averaging a TAD of 962,000 viewers, up 6% vs. ABC’s four non-Indy 500 races (906,000 viewers). The penultimate race of the season from Portland on NBC averaged a Total Audience Delivery of 1.078 million viewers, up 101% vs. last year’s race on NBCSN and up 19% vs. ABC’s four-race average in 2018 excluding the Indy 500.

2019 MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES PLAYOFFS CONTINUE FROM RICHMOND RACEWAY THIS SATURDAY AT 7:30 P.M. ET ON NBCSN

NBC Sports surrounds the second race of the 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoff Round of 16 with more than 12 hours of trackside coverage this week from Richmond Raceway. NBC Sports’ race-day coverage begins Friday at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN with the first race of the Xfinity Series Playoffs, and culminates Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN with NASCAR Cup Series Playoff racing.

Following his fifth victory of the 2019 season this past Sunday at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Martin Truex Jr., driver of Joe Gibbs Racing’s No. 19 Toyota, officially clinched a spot in the Round of 12. Of the remaining 15 Playoff drivers, Kevin Harvick (2,079 points) is in second, followed by Joey Logano (2,075 points) in third, Kyle Busch (2,063 points) in fourth, and Brad Keselowski (2,058 points) rounding out the top five.

Prior to the green flag of the race, six-time WWE champion, country music artist and Richmond native Mickie James will join Jeff Burton for a ride around Richmond Raceway as the latest celebrity to take part in the Toyota Joyride with Jeff on NBCSN. Vegas Golden Knights star Mark Stone participated in the program last weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Click here to watch.

For more information and a full broadcast schedule, click here.

NBC SPORTS PRESENTS MORE THAN 12 HOURS OF MECUM AUCTIONS: LOUISVILLE COVERAGE THIS WEEK ON NBCSN

NBCSN’s coverage of the 2019 Mecum Auctions season rolls into Louisville, Ky., this weekend with more than 12 hours of coverage from the Kentucky Exposition Center beginning Friday at 12:30 p.m. ET. An eclectic array of 600 vehicles, from 1930s street rods to 1960s muscle cars, will hit the auction block in Louisville. But perhaps the most striking of the lot is the 1973 DeTomaso Pantera – a wedge-shaped Italian sports car that boasts American horsepower from Ford’s 351 cubic-inch Cleveland V-8 engine.

Scott Hoke will host NBCSN’s Mecum Auctions coverage on-site in Louisville alongside analysts John Kraman, Stephen Cox, Bill Stephens and Katie Osborne.

Following is this week’s Mecum Auctions: Louisville coverage on NBCSN:

Date Coverage Network Time (ET)
Fri., Sept. 20 Mecum Auctions: Louisville NBCSN 12:30 p.m.
  Mecum Auctions: Louisville* NBCSN 10 p.m.
Sat., Sept. 21 Mecum Auctions: Louisville* NBCSN 1:30 p.m.
  Mecum Auctions: Louisville (encore) NBCSN 1 a.m.
  Mecum Auctions: Louisville (encore) NBCSN 2 a.m.
Sun., Sept. 22 Mecum Auctions: Louisville* NBCSN 8:30 p.m.
  Mecum Auctions: Louisville (encore) NBCSN 11 p.m.
  Mecum Auctions: Louisville (encore) NBCSN 1:30 a.m.

*delayed coverage

2019 NTT INDYCAR SERIES ON NBCSPORTS.COM AND THE NBC SPORTS APP: NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app — NBC Sports Group’s live streaming product for desktops, mobile devices, tablets, and connected TVs — will provide live streaming coverage of the 2019 NTT IndyCar Series via “TV Everywhere,” giving consumers additional value to their subscription service, and making high quality content available to MVPD customers both in and out of the home and on multiple platforms.

NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app are powered by Playmaker Media and available on the iTunes App Store, Google Play, Windows Store, Roku Channel Store, Apple TV and Amazon Fire.

–NBC SPORTS–