According to Nascar.com, Turner Network Television has joined forces with Grammy-nominated rockers BUCKCHERRY to feature the band's version of DEEP PURPLE's hit single 'Highway Star' as the network's theme song for its 2009 Sprint Cup Series coverage. The song will serve as the primary musical bed for all six of TNT's races, as well as for the network's multiplatform marketing campaign surrounding its exclusive race coverage.

The network is producing a full-length music video of Highway Star that will debut exclusively on the Turner-operated Web site Nascar.com on Wednesday. The video will make its television debut the same day during TNT's exclusive coverage of Game 1 of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals on the Emmy-award winning Inside the NBA postgame show.

Additionally, the track will be available for purchase as part of Buckcherry's Black Butterfly on iTunes, beginning June 16. As part of the initiative, Buckcherry also will perform live at Daytona International Speedway, appearing on TNT's prerace coverage of the Coke Zero 400 on July 4.

For a sneak preview of the spot, click here.

In addition to the full-length video available on Nascar.com, Turner will produce several shorter spots in 30-, 60- and/or 90-second lengths, as well as a three-minute version cut with NASCAR action highlights to serve as the feature NASCAR on TNT on-air promo. It will also be used in 60-second radio spots in select markets and the full version will air in more than 400 Cinedigm movie theatres across the country. The video will be hosted on the Nascar on TNT microsite on Nascar.com, which will feature a section on the band including their behind-the-scenes photos, tour schedule and bios, along with extensive Nascar on TNT content such as announcer bios, schedule, and photos. Content will also be featured on the band's online assets.

Buckcherry experienced great commercial success with its first Billboard Hot 100 and Pop 100 top-ten hit Sorry from the Grammy-nominated album 15. In 2008, Buckcherry released Black Butterfly which features the single Rescue Me, a current top-20 hit on the Billboard Rock and Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks.

To gear up for its next single, 'Talk To Me', Buckcherry is inviting fans to submit videos of themselves lip-synching to the song. The footage will be compiled and edited together into the official music video to debut in June (for more details, visit www.buckcherry.com).

Beginning on June 7 at Pocono, TNT revs up for six consecutive races of exclusive Cup Series coverage including races in Michigan (June 14), Sonoma (June 21), Loudon (June 28), and primetime Saturday night races in Daytona (July 4) and Chicago (July 11).