FOX Sports, ARCA Agree to New Multi-Year, Multi-Platform Pact

Officials from the Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) and FOX Sports announced today a new multi-year broadcast rights agreement for the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards under which racing events will be televised on FOX Sports 1 and FOX Sports 2 during the 2015-2017 racing seasons.

Ten races will be telecast on either FOX Sports 1 or FOX Sports 2 in 2015, the first of the three-year agreement. FOX Sports 1 waves the green flag on the 63rd season of ARCA Racing Series competition with the traditional season opener, the 52nd Lucas Oil 200 presented by AutoZone, at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday, February 14. In addition to Daytona, races from Talladega Superspeedway on May 1; Pocono Raceway on June 6; Iowa Speedway July 17; Lucas Oil Raceway July 24 and Kentucky Speedway September 25 will also air on FOX Sports 1.

Both Pocono events (June 6 and August 1 ), plus the races from Michigan International Speedway on June 12; Chicagoland Speedway June 20; and Kansas Speedway October 16 will air on FOX Sports 2, with a re-air scheduled for each on FOX Sports 1. All races included in the deal also will air on FOX Sports GO, the app that delivers streaming video of FOX Sports content.

“FOX Sports continues its long-term commitment to motor sports, securing a multi-year deal with the ARCA Racing Series,” said Patrick Crakes, SVP Programming, Research and Content Strategy for FOX Sports. “FOX Sports and ARCA have a long history together, and we are happy to extend that significant relationship with this new contract.”

According to Nielsen Media Research, FOX Sports 1 is currently available in 85.2 million homes, while FOX Sports 2 is rapidly growing and now available in nearly 50 million U.S. Households.

The 2014 season marked ARCA’s first full year on FOX Sports. NewsCorp, the parent company of FOX Broadcasting Company, rebranded SPEED in September, 2013. ARCA’s relationship with the FOX Sports family of networks reaches back to April 20, 1997, when Speedvision covered the ARCA Racing Series race at Salem Speedway. Cumulatively, Speedvision, Speed Channel, SPEED and FOX Sports 1 and FOX Sports 2 have telecast 218 races encompassing 18 consecutive years of covering the ARCA Racing Series.

“ARCA has a well-established history of investing in long-term relationships, and that certainly holds true in the case of our television network partnership,” said ARCA President Ron Drager. “We’re very pleased that FOX Sports will continue to be the television home for the ARCA Series, a relationship that traces its inception back nearly 20 years. As we build our plan for the future of the series, we’re especially enthused to make this major, multi-year announcement. This mutual commitment between ARCA and FOX provides our series the highest quality television platform available to deliver a tremendous value for viewers, race teams and sponsors.”

The ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards features 20 events at 18 tracks on its 2015 schedule. The series has crowned an ARCA national champion each year since its inaugural season in 1953, and has toured over 200 racetracks in 28 states since its inception. The series tests the abilities of drivers and race teams over the most diverse schedule of stock car racing events in the world, annually visiting tracks ranging from 0.4 mile to 2.66 miles in length, on both paved and dirt surfaces as well as left- and right-turn road courses.

Founded by John and Mildred Marcum in 1953 in Toledo, Ohio, the Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) is recognized among the leading sanctioning bodies in the country. ARCA administers over 100 race events each season in four professional touring series and local weekly events.