Jon Beekhuis returns to ESPN as well as sticking with the NBC Sports Network

Jon Beekhuis is one of the more knowledgeable on-air personalities covering Indy Car races for over two decades. Credit: ESPN photo.)

Jon Beekhuis is one of the more knowledgeable on-air personalities covering Indy Car races for over two decades. Credit: ESPN photo.)

By Lou Modestino

NASCAR’s move to NBC from ABC/ESPN triggered a lot of musical chairs of the various on-air personalities during the off-season. It even continued into the early season. We are sure that could be a few more as the dust settles and the networks continue to jockey for position. As the sanctions make changes in TV rights networks, It keeps those sports agents for those on-air personalities busy drawing up contracts and negotiating compensation for their clients.

Veteran motorsports broadcaster Jon Beekhuis has joined ESPN’s team as a pit reporter for telecasts of the Verizon IndyCar Series on ABC in 2015.

Beekhuis, Dr. Jerry Punch and Rick DeBruhl will be pit reporters for ABC’s telecasts of the Indianapolis 500 and four other Verizon IndyCar Series races as well as two days of Indianapolis 500 qualifying. Other members of the telecast team will be lap-by-lap announcer Allen Bestwick and analysts Scott Goodyear and Eddie Cheever.

ABC will televise the opening race of the season in St. Petersburg, Fla., on Sunday, March 29, at 3 p.m. ET and will air the Indianapolis 500 for the 51st consecutive year on May 24.

During more than 25 years of motorsports broadcasting, Beekhuis has often appeared on ESPN and ABC motorsports coverage, including working two IndyCar races as a pit reporter in 2008 and as analyst during telecasts of the former Champ Car World Series in 2007. His first television work was in 1989, while he was still an active racer, as analyst on ESPN’s telecasts of races in the Indy Lights series and from 1991-2001 he was a pit reporter for ABC and ESPN telecasts of CART races. During that period, he also worked on select telecasts of IndyCar races as well as other forms of racing and ESPN’s X Games.

Beekhuis raced for more than 20 years in various open wheel series, including four seasons (1989-1992) in CART. He was the first American to win the American Racing Series (ARS) title, the forerunner to today’s Indy Lights, in 1988.

In addition to his work with ESPN, Beekhuis will continue as pit reporter for many of the NBC Sports Network telecasts of the Verizon IndyCar Series this season. He has been with the network since 2009.

Source: ESPN/Personal Notes