Bill Weber Was the Thinking Man’s NASCAR Commentator

On Monday afternoon (Jan. 27), the National Motorsports Press Association sent out a press release announcing that NASCAR broadcaster Bill Weber had died.

He passed away back on Dec. 13, six weeks ago, but as he had very much gotten out of the spotlight in recent years, it took that long for the news to get out. A search for an obituary came back empty.

Simply put, it is a very quiet end to a man that was a regular presence on television for NASCAR fans for more than 15 years and involved in motorsports for more than 20.

The National Motorsports Press Association is saddened to learn of the passing of former NASCAR broadcaster and pit reporter Bill Weber.

— National Motorsports Press Association (@NMPAonline) January 27, 2025

Weber’s first foray into motorsports was in unlimited hydroplane racing, where he worked in media relations for Miller Brewing Company. Basically, he was the PR guy for Chip Hanauer prior to Hanauer taking over the Miss Budweiser boat.

In 1990, Weber left Miller and took a job with Sunbelt Video, a Charlotte-based production company. This group was best known for producing NASCAR programming for TNN. Today, what’s left of that company is part of NASCAR Digital Media. He was a regular producer on Inside Winston Cup Racing, the weekly show hosted by Ned Jarrett.

The Wikipedia article on Weber lists the show as Inside NASCAR. While the title of the show did change at least twice over the years, it appears that the show was always known as Inside Winston Cup Racing for the entire time that Weber was at Sunbelt Video. He left before the show expanded to an hour and switched back to Inside NASCAR.

An example of what Weber did while with the show is in the video below where he provides the voiceover for a piece from 1991 on NASCAR photographers. One of the photographers interviewed is a young Cindy Elliott (then Karam), who is now the wife of Bill Elliott and mother of Chase. At the time, she was a photographer for Winston Cup Scene.

In 1994, Weber left Sunbelt Video to join ESPN. There, Weber was primarily a pit reporter for NASCAR races. Later on, he took a bigger role on ESPN’s pre-race show, nascar2day, and also served as a correspondent for both versions of rpm2night (Note: The weeknight version of the show was Charlotte-based, while the weekend version was based in Bristol, Conn.). When the first series-wide TV deals came to NASCAR in 2001, Weber left ESPN to join the combination of NBC and Turner Sports (TNT).

The New Jersey native was originally hired as the lead pit reporter and host of the pre-race show Countdown to Green. Meanwhile, Allen Bestwick, who was retained from Turner Sports’ previous broadcasts, was on play-by-play alongside Benny Parsons and Wally Dallenbach Jr.

In 2004, Weber filled in on play-by-play after Bestwick suffered a broken leg in a hockey game. After 2004, Weber took the play-by-play role full time. In an interview with Frontstretch in 2009, Bestwick characterized the move as the network brass coming to him and pitching him on the switch as something that would benefit the broadcast as a whole.

Weber’s role expanded in subsequent years to include the American Le Mans Series and Champ Car. In 2007, Weber stayed with TNT when the second series-wide TV went into effect, with Kyle Petty replacing Benny Parsons after Parsons died of lung cancer.

Weber held onto this role until 2009, when he was suspended for an altercation at a hotel during the July NASCAR Cup Series weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The full story of what actually happened was never officially released. Ralph Sheheen was called up from pit reporting to take Weber’s place for the remaining three Cup races on TNT that year.

Weber was ultimately dismissed at the end of TNT’s Summer Series that year. He would not return to the network or NASCAR as a whole after that.

After leaving Turner Sports, you didn’t see much of Weber anywhere. He ultimately bookended his TV career by returning to unlimited hydroplane racing, working on H1 Unlimited broadcasts that aired on Versus in 2011.

Otherwise, information on Weber post-2009 is rather sparse. In 2010, USA Today’s Michael Hiestand interviewed Weber, who stated that he was working as a magician at the time. He “hoped to continue sports announcing, but [magic was] something that I’ve wanted to do for a long time.” It is unclear whether he made more of a career of it.

The most recent picture available of Weber comes from a former user on the r/NASCAR subreddit. That person posted a picture of his mother with Weber that had apparently been taken that day in 2019. At the time, he was involved with a hot sauce store near Tampa, Fla.

For many, the best memories of Weber likely come from the days when he was on play-by-play for Cup races. That period of not quite five years had some classic moments, although it is probably best remembered for Jimmie Johnson’s dominance.

In 2006, Weber called Johnson to his first Daytona 500 win in a two-lap duel in misty weather.

Later on that year, Weber was on the call again when Johnson won the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard with a late pass of Dale Earnhardt Jr., who only had two fresh tires.

2007 saw Jamie McMurray claim his first win in nearly five years in the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway, with Weber calling him to the checkered flag. It was the final win for what is now RFK Racing’s No. 26 (NASCAR had implemented the four-team limit a couple of years earlier in the Cup Series and 2007 was the last year that Roush had a waiver to keep its fifth team).

In addition to his work in the booth, Weber was a writer as well. When he was producing for Sunbelt Video, he would have to write his own copy, much like a local news reporter would have to do (he was a reporter before he entered motorsports).

That continued once Weber got to anchor roles on pre-race shows. His idea for previewing a race would be to provide viewers with a bunch of context for what they’re about to see and weave in stories from that weekend with the help of his colleagues. By today’s standards, it was somewhat simplistic, but it got the job done.

Yes, you’d still get features, but you would still get a good idea of what to expect in the race. The idea was that watching pre-race coverage would be good preparation. He’d often quip that if you didn’t watch nascar2day or Countdown to Green, “you’d be starting the race a lap down.”

Due to the way his tenure at Turner Sports ended in 2009, I have written very little about Weber in the past (his suspension came during my first year writing what is now Couch Potato Tuesday, so I only critiqued three broadcasts that he was on). I can tell you that I wasn’t the biggest fan of him in the booth when he got the gig in 2004. I had preferred Bestwick in the role back then in my pre-NASCAR writing, college days.

In the pre-race role, I thought of him as being somewhat similar to the SportsCenter version of Chris Myers (as opposed to the Myers that you’ve seen on NASCAR on FOX broadcasts). Myers was likely best known at ESPN for creating the “Did You Know?” segment that used to air at the end of episodes of SportsCenter (especially the morning repeats). He was effectively trying to use his position to try to educate viewers. I think that’s a good thing.

I think the pre-race shows with ESPN, NBC and Turner Sports, along with pit reporting, is probably what I’m going to remember best about Weber. He wanted viewers to be knowledgeable about the sport, and I don’t think he wanted to talk down to them.

Generally speaking, what you got with Weber was someone that was always going to be prepared and take his job seriously. Maybe he ruffled some feathers from time to time, but he was outwardly all about the final product.

Phil Allaway

Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.

Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.