Longtime NASCAR on Fox TV broadcaster Steve Byrnes dies at age 56

   Longtime NASCAR on Fox Sports TV broadcaster Steven Patrick Byrnes, who has waged a difficult and public battle with cancer over the last two years, died Tuesday. Byrnes, a resident of Fort Mill, S.C., was 56.

   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 2001 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."
    

   Survivors are his wife, Karen; son Bryson; parents, Jerry and Claire Byrnes of Charlotte; sister, Betsy Byrnes of Charlotte; brother, Dan Byrnes and his wife, Tammy, of Charlotte; nephews, Tyler and Dylan Byrnes; and niece, Samantha Byrnes.  

   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., 6^th Floor, Daytona Beach, FL 32114.