Fox Sports broadcaster Steve Byrnes, who battled head-and-neck cancer died Tuesday, Fox Sports officials confirmed. He was 56.
He is survived by his wife of 22 years, Karen Byrnes and son Bryson, 12, a sixth grader at Charlotte Christian School, along with parents Jerry and Claire Byrnes, sister Betsy Byrnes, brother Dan Byrnes and wife Tammy, nephews Tyler and Dylan Byrnes and niece Samantha Byrnes.
Byrnes joined Fox Sports in 2001, hosting and reporting for multiple NASCAR programs and served as a pit road reporter for NASCAR on FOX’s broadcast of Sprint Cup Series races from through the 2014 season. He most recently served as the play-by-play announcer for Fox Sports 1 in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, and was co-host of “NASCAR Race Hub” for the network.
Last weekend, in conjunction with Fox, Speedway Motorsports Inc. and NASCAR, the Cup race at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway was renamed the Food City 500 In Support of Steve Byrnes and Stand Up To Cancer.
Prior to joining Fox, Byrnes also hosted “Darrell Waltrip’s Racers” on TNN, worked as a pit road reporter for CBS, WTBS and TNN, and hosted a variety of NASCAR programs for The History Channel and TNN. A 1981 graduate of the University of Maryland, Byrnes’ first on-air job was at WCIV-TV in Charleston, S.C., in 1982. Byrnes also called play-by-play for a Carolina Panthers/Minnesota Vikings NFL game on Fox and Cup series races for DirecTV’s “Hot Pass.”
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to: Church of Christ at Gold Hill Road, 1055 Gold Hill Road, Fort Mill, SC 29708; Charlotte Christian School, 7301 Sardis Road, Charlotte, NC 28270; or NASCAR Foundation, One Daytona Blvd., 6th Floor, Daytona Beach, FL 32114.
