some sad news to report in the world of Motorsports broadcasting, the former voice of NASCAR on NBC & TNT Bill Weber has died, he called the action of NASCAR racing for NBC Sports from 2004-2006 (When NBC's 2001-2006 NASCAR broadcast rights expired) and TNT from 2004-2009, when he was fired by Turner Sports for a incident at a New England hotel in New Hampshire for the New Hampshire race weekend (TNT shared NASCAR rights for the second half of the season with NBC from 2001-2006 but retained rights to a potion of the season when ESPN/ABC took over from NBC in 2007 and TNT's rights for NASCAR expired in 2014 along with ESPN's rights while Fox retained rights from their original 2001-2006 deal in 2007 and maintain it for the 2015-2025 deals and again for the 2025-present deals, TNT Will gain rights along with Amazon in 2025 and NBC regained NASCAR in 2015 and maintained it in the 2025 deal).
before he called races for NBC & TNT, he hosted Inside NASCAR for The Nashville Network (now Paramount Network, FKA TNN & Spike TV), and RPM 2Night on ESPN 2 as well as pit reporter for ESPN's NASCAR coverage, he joined NBC & TNT in 2001 as the host of "Countdown To Green" prerace show, then he took over as the play by play announcer for NASCAR on NBC & TNT late in the 2004 NASCAR season after then Play by Play announcer Alan Bestwick was demoted to pit road reporter after Bestwick got injured while playing hockey in a charity hockey game, it was originally a temporary deal, but in 2005, he was fully promoted to that role full time.
Weber called the 2006 Daytona 500 which Jimmie Johnson won his first of 2 Daytona 500s (the other Daytona 500 win was in 2013, the year he won his 6h championship) in the season that would be where Jimmie won his first of 7 Cup Series Championships (as well as the first season of his historic 5peat that saw him win 5 championships in a row from 2006-20010, then winning 2 more in 2013 and 2016) he called Jimmie's first championship win too, the first NASCAR win for former F1 driver and 2000 & 2015 Indy 500 winner Juan Pablo Montoya in 2007.
Weber also had a cameo in Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, calling NBC's coverage of the Talladega Speedway race in the Talladega scenes of the move where during the "Long One" he tossed it to a Applebee's ad (a callback to a scene earlier in the movie where Ricky's dad Reese Bobby get tossed out of a Applebee's while the Bobby Family went to eat dinner there).
Weber's passing actually occurred last month on December 13, 2024, he was 67 years old
The story of his passing:
https://www.tennessean.com/story/sports/motor/2025/01/28/bill-weber-death-nascar-broadcaster-espn-tnt/77994011007/
before he called races for NBC & TNT, he hosted Inside NASCAR for The Nashville Network (now Paramount Network, FKA TNN & Spike TV), and RPM 2Night on ESPN 2 as well as pit reporter for ESPN's NASCAR coverage, he joined NBC & TNT in 2001 as the host of "Countdown To Green" prerace show, then he took over as the play by play announcer for NASCAR on NBC & TNT late in the 2004 NASCAR season after then Play by Play announcer Alan Bestwick was demoted to pit road reporter after Bestwick got injured while playing hockey in a charity hockey game, it was originally a temporary deal, but in 2005, he was fully promoted to that role full time.
Weber called the 2006 Daytona 500 which Jimmie Johnson won his first of 2 Daytona 500s (the other Daytona 500 win was in 2013, the year he won his 6h championship) in the season that would be where Jimmie won his first of 7 Cup Series Championships (as well as the first season of his historic 5peat that saw him win 5 championships in a row from 2006-20010, then winning 2 more in 2013 and 2016) he called Jimmie's first championship win too, the first NASCAR win for former F1 driver and 2000 & 2015 Indy 500 winner Juan Pablo Montoya in 2007.
Weber also had a cameo in Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, calling NBC's coverage of the Talladega Speedway race in the Talladega scenes of the move where during the "Long One" he tossed it to a Applebee's ad (a callback to a scene earlier in the movie where Ricky's dad Reese Bobby get tossed out of a Applebee's while the Bobby Family went to eat dinner there).
Weber's passing actually occurred last month on December 13, 2024, he was 67 years old
The story of his passing:
https://www.tennessean.com/story/sports/motor/2025/01/28/bill-weber-death-nascar-broadcaster-espn-tnt/77994011007/