Turner Sports hit the track this past Sunday with the first of it’s six 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup Summer Series races on Turner Network Television (TNT) and unveiled RaceBuddy, NASCAR.COM’s live online companion to the network’s televised coverage, with both platforms delivering strong early results. TNT’s coverage of the Pocono 500 earned a 3.9 US rating, up 27% over last year’s coverage on the network. NASCAR.COM’s RaceBuddy shined in its debut, garnering 712,000 live streams to NASCAR’s official site during the race.

“At Turner Sports we pride ourselves on successfully delivering an enjoyable and high-quality multi-platform experience to our audiences for the sporting events we cover; be it NASCAR, NBA, MLB or PGA,” said David Levy, Turner Sports President. “We are thrilled at the early feedback on both our telecast and online offerings and look forward to continuing the momentum this weekend in Michigan.”

Other TNT Ratings and Demo Highlights from the Pocono 500:

The race was also the top-ranked program for the week on cable among total viewers (6,098,000), households (4,393,000), adults 18-49 (2,780,000) and adults 25-54 (3,271,000).

TNT saw tremendous growth in Total Viewers ×22% (6,098,000 vs. 4,987,000), Adults 18-49 ×18% (2,780,000 vs. 2,348,000), Adults 25-54 ×26% (3,271,000 vs. 2,605,000) Men 18-49 ×17% (1,848,000 vs. 1,581,000), Men 25-54 ×24% (2,179,000 vs. 1,756,000).

RaceBuddy, which offered live feeds from the Pit Road Cam, In-Car Cameras, Battle Cam, Race Robo and Mosaic View, also guided fans to online chats, answered poll questions and submitted questions to “Ask the Booth” which were answered during the pre-race coverage and throughout the race telecast by TNT announcers Bill Weber, Kyle Petty and Wally Dallenbach.