• by June 5, 2001

NASCAR auto races have racked up such accelerated ratings on the Fox network so far this year that major advertisers are signing up for July-November coverage on competing NBC and TNT at a record pace.

In a joint announcement, NBC and TNT said they have lined up 11 of the 13 title sponsorships for the five months, beginning with the Pepsi 400 qualifier on TNT on July 5 and the primetime Pepsi 400 main event on NBC July 7.

NBC and TNT raised eyebrows last year when they ponied up a six-year license fee of $1.2 billion in a joint venture for the second half of the season. Fox agreed to pay $1.6 billion for an eight-year license term for February through June, sharing the races with sister companies FX and Fox Sports Net.

These license fees represented an increase of more than 400% per year over the scattered previous contracts from a crazy quilt of six networks: ABC, CBS, ESPN, NBC, TBS and TNN.

But no one is complaining about the price hikes. For the first 12 races this year, the Fox network has averaged a strapping 6.5 rating, up 20% from last year's broadcast network coverage on ABC and CBS. The NASCAR increase is even higher for Fox among the hard to reach demographic of men 18 to 49 -- the 6.6 rating is up 29% over last year's comparable 5.1 rating.

NBC and TNT will share in the production of the events, employing the same announcers (Alen Bestwick, Benny Parsons and Bill Weber), producer (Sam Flood) and director (Mike Wells), all veterans of NASCAR coverage.

In addition to Pepsi, the title sponsors include Tropicana, NAPA auto care, Mountain Dew, Sharpie, Chevrolet Monte Carlo, UAW General Motors, Pop Secret and Pennzoil.

These advertisers join Pep Boys under the umbrella Winston Cup. Two other title sponsors -- Carquest and Outback Steakhouse -- will attach themselves to the Busch Series races; Applebee's will be a Busch Series presenting sponsor.