When NASCAR on NBC kicks into gear in 2017 it will be without a familiar face and a familiar voice. Longtime NASCAR personality Mike Masarro announced this weekend that he will no longer be with NBC Sports or their NASCAR coverage come 2017.
Mike Masarro has been a mainstay in NASCAR since 1996, whether it was calling NASCAR races on TV or on the radio. For the last 20 years Masarro has brought the sport to fans in one way or another and he has done it well.
Come the 2017 NASCAR season it doesn’t look like that will be happening anymore. Masarro took to his Facebook page this weekend to announce that he was leaving NBC Sports and their NASCAR coverage.
With a new year comes new challenges…. Since 1996, Broadcasting NASCAR Races, whether it be radio or TV, has been my life. I fear, however, 2016 may have been my final season. With great sadness I concluded recently, for a wide ranging variety of reasons, my role with NBC Sports was not a good fit and consequently will not return this coming season. My contract will officially expire at midnight tonight. It was a gut wrenching decision. Not one I ‘wanted’ to make but felt necessary.
The reasoning will remain personal. The sadness however is real. Not only because I’m walking away from my dream job, that I worked incredibly hard to achieve (remember the helipads? LOL) but because I can’t stand the thought of drifting from a group who’ve become nothing short of family. Over the course of 20 seasons and over 500 races, relationships have grown. Television pros, drivers, crew chiefs, crew members, PR reps and fellow media members have all become a very real part of my life. I hope one day to see all of you again, but realize there are no guarantees and although I’m exploring other opportunities in the sport, there’s a legitimate chance that might not happen.
Masarro was good at what he did, plain and simple. Not having him on the call in 2017 for NBC’s NASCAR coverage is sure to leave somewhat of a void for them and fans alike.
Hopefully Masarro will land on his feet and that landing spot will be somewhere else in the Motorsports world this upcoming season.
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