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USA Sports picks up the baton on NASCAR Cup Series coverage this weekend at Iowa Speedway, the official start of the new era between the auto racing series and Versant. NASCAR has four media companies airing its premier series races from 2025 through 2031, and USA runs the final leg of the relay with the season’s last 14 races, including the 10 that comprise the Chase for the championship. This is the first year that NASCAR has reverted to the Chase format since 2014 after trying a system more akin to stick-and-ball playoffs from 2015-25. That means all sorts of vernacular changes for the on-air talent to practice heading into Sunday’s Iowa Corn 350. The first 11 races for USA Sports will air on USA Network with the final three on NBC, but the on-air team will be referred to as USA Sports for the duration, according to Jeff Behnke, USA Sports’ executive producer and SVP/Sports Production. The on-air talent and behind-the-scenes production group remains the same despite the change in ownership. USA has a three-man booth with Leigh Diffey on play-by-play, Jeff Burton with driver analysis and Steve Letarte with crew chief analysis. This will be the third straight year that Iowa has sold out its NASCAR Cup race. “It is the same team that everybody is used to seeing in front of the camera, and it’s the same team behind the camera. Literally, nothing has changed outside of the branding and the business side of things with new parent companies being a part of it,” Behnke said. “It’s the teamwork, and when you keep a team together and they can build and grow, amazing things will happen.” One new element USA Sports worked on with NASCAR is the addition of a pace car analyst. Former driver Trevor Bayne, who will also report from pit road, will get in the pace car before the race and, when cautions happen, provide analysis from the vehicle leading the cars to the green flag. USA will also have its customized pit box placed on pit road, where its studio talent can broadcast before, during and after the race. Following Sunday’s race, USA Sports will debut the first of a three-part documentary called “NASCAR Americana,” which is executive-produced by Pro Football HOFer Peyton Manning and is described as examining the sport’s standing in American culture amid the 250th anniversary of the country. Versant has been getting ready for this weekend for a while; about a dozen execs from the newly formed company traveled to Richmond Raceway last summer to ingratiate themselves.