The IHRA announced today that it will be making a huge return to the main stage of television in 2017 as they will be partnering back up with sports media giant, ESPN. This deal will kick off immediately for the IHRA and will pipe their flavor of sportsman drag racing into millions of homes across the globe.

The IHRA was last seen on a major network back in 1999 when they worked with ESPN on their broadcasting. Since then, the IHRA has been void from television and was mostly shown over the internet. Now, they will have a whopping 200 hours of programming broadcast for their 2017 IHRA Summit Sportsman National Championship on ESPN3. The programming on ESPN3 will feature eight hours of racing from 13 different race weekends this season.

This large amount of coverage will go beyond the on-track racing and include action from the pits, interviews, driver features and much more. This coverage will extend into the 2018 season,as well, when the IHRA intends to bring back their professional divisions and national event tour. Needless to say, this level of coverage is welcome and positive news for the organization that has been radio silent as of late.

“This is a landmark opportunity for the IHRA to further advance its plans for all stakeholders in the Sportsman Racing Division,” said Chris Lencheski, vice chairman and CEO of IRGSE, the parent company of the IHRA. “This agreement highlights our sportsman racers and positions us to move into 2018 with a tremendous partner for our professional racing series with significant momentum behind the IHRA, its teams, tracks and sponsors.”

“We’re always looking for ways to serve sports fans and are very pleased to be able to offer IHRA racing to our viewers through streaming on ESPN3,” said Dan Ochs, ESPN Director Content Strategy & Acquisitions. “IHRA and ESPN have a history dating back to the 90’s, and it’s great to bring them back.”

The first event to be filmed for the ESPN3 coverage will be the season opener at Immokalee Regional Raceway this February 3-5 and will run all the way up to the season-ending championship event at Dragway 42 in West Salem, Ohio this fall.

You can read more about the move to ESPN for the IHRA right here on their website.