The theme music is based on the piano interlude from "18th Avenue (Kansas City Nightmare)" by Cat Stevens.

The original commentators were primarily Bob Jenkins and Larry Nuber, who covered many diverse types of competition.

The last of its 265 Cup telecasts (that number includes some on ABC Sports) was the 2000 Atlanta fall race (now the Folds of Honor QuikTrip 500).

After losing the rights to NASCAR Winston Cup (and Busch Series) broadcasts for the 2001 season (as well as Formula One to Speedvision in 1998, although for a while when Speedvision/Speed Channel aired Formula One, ABC were allowed to broadcast selected, mostly North American, Grands Prix), ESPN slowly began losing the remainder of their racing to other networks.

Sister network ABC maintained a package of IndyCar events produced by ESPN (pay television rights are held by NBCSN).