ESPN SpeedWorld

ESPN SpeedWorld
Title card used from 1987 to 1992.
Starring	Bob Jenkins Larry Nuber Marty Reid Dr. Jerry Punch Bob Varsha Paul Page Dave Despain
Country of origin	United States
Production
Running time	1 to 4 hours (depends on Live or Tape Delay event)
Release
Original network	ESPN and ESPN2
Original release	1979 (1979) – 2006 (2006)

ESPN SpeedWorld (formerly Auto Racing '79–'86) is the name of a former television series broadcast on ESPN from 1979–2006. The program that was based primarily based around NASCAR, CART, IMSA, Formula One, NHRA, and IHRA. The theme music is a based on the piano interlude from "18th Avenue (Kansas City Nightmare)" by Cat Stevens.

When ESPN debuted in 1979, one of the first sporting events that they covered was auto racing. Initially the name of the show routinely changed to fit with the corresponding year at the time. Thus, when the program debuted, it was called Auto Racing '79, and then Auto Racing '80, Auto Racing '81 and so forth. This practice was dropped after 1986, when the name of the program was changed to SpeedWorld. The original commentators were primarily Bob Jenkins and Larry Nuber, who covered many diverse types of competition. Ultimately, by 1987, SpeedWorld's coverage encompassed not only Formula One, IndyCar, NASCAR Winston Cup (and its feeder series such as Busch Grand National, ASA, and ARCA), and IMSA Sportscar Racing, but also racing less familiar to the average person, such as NHRA drag racing, USAC sprints and midgets, rallying, motorcycle racing, monster trucks and more. So many types of racing that were vastly different meant that specialisation in broadcasting teams was necessary, so while Bob and Larry continued with Winston Cup coverage, newer faces such as Paul Page and Bob Varsha began to take their places for broadcasts of other racing.