From a press release issued by Speed TV:

SPEED CHANNEL SCHEDULE CHANGE BRINGS WIND TUNNEL, AUTO PROGRAMMING TO PRIME TIME

FASTEST GROWING SPORTS NETWORK DEBUTS NEW SCHEDULE AUG. 4

Closing in on 60 million U.S. cable households, SPEED Channel will shift its Monday-Thursday Prime Time lineup beginning Aug. 4.

“This is something we have been working on for some time,” said SPEED Channel President Jim Liberatore. “Much of our first year was spent developing relationships with multiple race series and accumulating additional programming. The new schedule is the next step in SPEED’s natural evolution. We think this new lineup is a more attractive mix of some of our stronger programs and better defines the network moving forward.”

As part of the new schedule, SPEED Channel will create a one-hour, Prime Time block of auto enthusiast programming Mondays through Thursdays beginning at 8 p.m. ET, including Car Crazy, American Muscle Car, AutoWeek, Dream Car Garage, Hot Rod TV, MotorWeek, My Classic Car and Two Guys Garage.

In addition, SPEED Channel’s Friday night viewer call-in program, Wind Tunnel with Dave Despain, will now go live four nights a week in Prime Time, running Monday through Thursdays beginning at 9 p.m.

“The auto programs have performed well for us in the weekend morning time slot and we want to be more aggressive in serving that section of our viewing audience,” Liberatore said. “Wind Tunnel is a program that we believe in and want to profile as one of our signature shows. Dave does a great job of engaging our passionate viewers in discussions on everything from their favorite race series to their favorite muscle car.”

NASCAR TV, which includes the popular Inside Winston Cup and Trackside, will anchor the Prime Time lineup, airing from 6 to 8 p.m. ET Monday through Thursday and all night on Friday. The 10 p.m. to midnight block will be dedicated to racing.

“Our new lineup is a reorganization of our existing programming with more emphasis on our highest rated programs,” Liberatore said. “We also have created a lineup that facilitates more effective promotion of those programs. We have not dropped any racing series, as racing remains a critical component of SPEED Channel. To make room, we removed several race replays that simply weren’t performing well enough to be part of SPEED’s Prime Time lineup.”

In 2003, SPEED Channel is the exclusive U.S. cable home for many of the top motor sports series in the world, including Formula One, The Champ Car World Series, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, USAC, World Rally, ASA, IHRA, ALMS, Grand American Road Racing, F3000 and live coverage of AMA and FIM motorcycle road racing events. Now available in more the 62 million homes in North America, SPEED Channel is the fastest growing sports cable network in the country and the home to NASCAR TV.