After rave reviews and heaps of praise during its debut season of NASCAR broadcasts in 2025, Prime Video is preparing for its five-race sophomore campaign this weekend as the streaming service carries the Coca-Cola 600 on Sunday at Charlotte Motor Speedway (6 p.m. ET, Prime Video, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Prime Video will largely stick with what worked last year with Adam Alexander, Steve Letarte and Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the broadcast booth, while host Danielle Trotta and analyst Corey LaJoie will lead pre- and post-race coverage at Charlotte, Nashville Superspeedway, Michigan International Speedway, Pocono Raceway and Naval Base Coronado.
With high expectations after a strong first year, Dale Jr. did not temper his excitement to return to announcing duties.
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“We have an incredible team around us. Everybody has an incredible attitude and personality and everybody has this want to succeed,” Earnhardt Jr. said on a Wednesday Zoom teleconference. “I guess also there’s this excitement and anticipation from all of us to get back to it. We had so much fun together last year, and we’ve had to wait so long to do it again. So while that’s not always fun, having to wait for a good thing to come back around, you go into five weeks knowing you want to get it right, you want to do it well.”
A new wrinkle in Prime’s coverage plans is a rotation of guests on the desk before and after each race.
Hall of Famer Carl Edwards, who was part of Prime’s coverage last year, will kick things off at Charlotte. Fellow Hall of Famer Mark Martin will join Trotta and LaJoie at Nashville, Martin Truex Jr. will be at Michigan, Brad Keselowski will preview Pocono before jumping into the No. 6 RFK Racing Ford, and Jeff Gordon will close guest duties in San Diego during pre-race coverage at the naval base.
Prime Video Senior Coordinating Producer Alex Strand discussed the importance of diverse voices across races and getting the likes of Edwards and Truex to return to the track, despite each enjoying time away from the grid.
“I think one thing we’re really excited about is bringing voices to fans that they want to hear, and one thing we knew about Martin Truex Jr. was that he’s somebody that fans really want to hear from,” Strand said. “If you look at our slate of five races, we’re bringing a new voice each time that’s just going to bring a unique perspective. We love what we’re bringing to fans this year as well. It’ll give us something different each week to chomp onto, and creatively, as we’ve been thinking about the shows, just, you know, how do we approach Martin joining us for Michigan? What’s our unique way to do that and lean in there? How are we going to handle Mark Martin, Nashville? What do we want to bring to fans there? It’s been something we’re really excited about, and it’s got our creative juices flowing.”
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LaJoie became a fan favorite as a desk analyst last year and really found his footing as a key component of what made Prime Video’s coverage stand out.
After navigating the Cup Series for a handful of years, LaJoie said Prime changed his perspective on what success meant.
“I thought a lot of things because my life, my ups and downs, my high highs and low lows have been on national television, and then I go turn around the next day and talk about it. I feel like I was defensive. I felt like I had almost reached the top where I was trying to go, and then felt like I got the rug ripped out from underneath of me. Prime changed my whole perspective on my whole entire career of what it meant to be successful as a race-car driver based off your relationships in the garage and not just solely your accomplishments behind the wheel because that’s all that I’ve been chasing. It’s all I’ve been hardwired to do my entire life.
“The fans’ receptiveness there, I think their positivity towards the job I did behind the desk really, really gave me a confidence booster. Really helped quiet that imposter syndrome that you just kind of always battle as a competitor to just kind of own it, and that took a lot of weight off my shoulders.”
From capturing the atmosphere and excitement before the green flag with fans behind the desk to the high-end cameras and microphones that will capture the roar of 40 Cup Series cars racing on track, Prime is once again set to bring fans what they enjoy, which is, simply, racing.
“We learned that fans want to sit back and enjoy the sport and celebrate what they’re seeing,” Strand said. “I think we’ve got a group that really has a great time at the races, and we want fans to be able to think that they’re there with us each and every week. Let’s deliver on the core race. Let’s give people everything that they want.”