‘Speed’ Revving Up for 100 Hours of NASCAR HD

Speed, the one-word cable channel dedicated to all motor sports, said this week it will transition into HD in early 2008, starting with more than 100 hours of live coverage of NASCAR racing in early February.

Most of the events to be covered in HD will lead up to the 50th anniversary of the Daytona 500 race, according to Speed.

The cable outlet said it will add HD transmission to its non-racing sports fare over the course of the 2008 motoring season, and plans to design and develop remote HD facilities for on-air use sometime in the next year.

The sports channel said it now passes about 77 million U.S. cable households. Speed has been fully owned by Fox Cable Networks since 2001.