Broadcast times for the 2008 Sprint Cup Series season have been announced, beginning with FOX’s broadcast of the non-points Budweiser Shootout at 8:30pm/et on Feb. 9 at Daytona International Speedway. The 2008 season marks the second year of an eight-year partnership between NASCAR and FOX, TNT, ABC, ESPN and SPEED. This year, in an effort to standardize the start times and better accommodate the fans, 18 races on the 2008 Sprint Cup Series schedule will have a 2:00pm/et Sunday start time, up from 15 in 2007.

All Sprint Cup Series points events will be seen on FOX, TNT, ABC and ESPN. In addition, two other non-points events – the Gatorade Duel at Daytona (2:00pm/et on Feb. 14) and the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race (7:30pm/et on May 17 at Lowe’s Motor Speedway), will be broadcast by SPEED. FOX will broadcast the first 13 Sprint Cup events, beginning with the 50th running of the Daytona 500 (Feb. 17, 3:20pm/et) and ending with the June 1 event at Dover International Speedway at 2:00pm/et. TNT will broadcast the next six series events, beginning with the Pocono 500 at 2:00pm/et on June 8 at Pocono Raceway and ending with Chicagoland Speedway’s first night race, July 12 at 8:00pm/et. ESPN and ABC will broadcast the final 17 Sprint Cup events. ESPN will broadcast six, beginning with the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard at 2:00pm/et on July 27 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and ending with the Aug. 31 event at California Speedway (8:00pm/et). ABC completes the season with 11 broadcasts, beginning with race No. 26, the cutoff event for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup – at Richmond International Raceway on Sept. 6 at 7:30pm/et. ABC will also air the entire Chase, encompassing the final 10 series events.

The season ends with ABC’s broadcast of the Ford 400 at 3:45:00pm/et on Nov. 16 at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

[NASCAR]