The Nationwide Series moves over to ABC on Saturday for their live race from the Bristol Motor Speedway.
Allen Bestwick will host the NASCAR Countdown pre-race show from the Infield Pit Studio. Rusty Wallace returns from some time off and joins Bestwick and Brad Daugherty to make up the infield panel. The pre-race show begins at 2PM Eastern Time on ABC Sports.
Jerry Punch will call the Nationwide Series action as the play-by-play announcer as race coverage begins at 2:30PM Eastern Time. Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree will be alongside of Punch in the announce booth. Down on pit road will be Shannon Spake, Vince Welch, Dave Burns and Mike Massaro. Jamie Little has the weekend off.
The race broadcast is scheduled to end at 5:30PM with a college basketball March Madness program that leads East Coast ABC affiliates into the local evening news. The ABC primetime programming begins at 8PM. Rain may be a factor in this coverage.
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223 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 223 of 223Great point by Rusty Wallace on the top 30 in owner's points battle. It's a shame there was no graphic to accompany his point that would have shown us who's in and who's out. I guess we'll have to use in the Internet to find out since TV doesn't care to tell us.
I'm warning Fox right now. You better show us or tell us who's in or out of the top 35 in Cup owner's points during the post-race show after tomorrow's race. This is a MAJOR story and we should not have to wait until we sign onto Jayski on Monday morning to find out this information.
JD, did ESPN have commitments they had to honor? Do you think NASCAR might have called the race just because they knew there wasn't a place to put the telecast? Isn't the Trick Shot series a barter? (Meaning the independent producer contracts to buy the time slot and then goes out and sells the commercials himself.)
Surprised nascar gave up that easy. So much for trying all they can for the guy that bought a ticket.
March 15, 2008 6:31 PM
Erik - please. You know from looking at the radar - since you've referenced it - that the large system over Bristol is only beginning. It's on the leading edge and won't be over for a couple of hours. Would have been futile to attempt to get this race in and finished before 11 or 12 tonight.
JD... Now that you mention it, I think they aired it before, but I'm not sure.
I don't see a problem finishing a race at around midnight. That would be my upper limit though. As previous posters have stated, the 2nd bristol race wouldn't even have started yet and end around that time anyway.
12am finish - about 1.5 hours left to race - 1.5 hours to dry track, if its still raining at 9pm, call the race.
stricklinfan82 - Live (unofficial) points are on NASCAR.com during and immediately after the race, and also on Foxsports.com. So you won't have to wait to find them. In fact you can track (heh) them during the race. It's more fun that way, because you can see who's on the bubble and watch them try to gain a spot during the race.
The weather in Bristol is bad and is about to get worse, y'all. I'm as critical of NASCAR as anyone else, but for those who think it's a conspiracy theory because there was nowhere to televise the race. You need to check the rain in the area on the internet. Until you do that you do NOT have the full story and it's silly of you to speculate that they went off the air because they had an 8 PM deadline. I'll be shocked if the rain is gone by 8.
You say the fans need to be considered, do they want to sit through another prolonged rainstorm?
kenn said...
JD, did ESPN have commitments they had to honor? Do you think NASCAR might have called the race just because they knew there wasn't a place to put the telecast? Isn't the Trick Shot series a barter? (Meaning the independent producer contracts to buy the time slot and then goes out and sells the commercials himself.)
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ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN Classic all have live basketball at 8 PM I do believe.
NASCAR isn't the only sport with such issues, the SEC Championship game in Atlanta tomorrow is being bumped off CBS Sports and put on ESPN 2.
(Really not sure how CBS/Disney corporate synergy will work there)
The fans actually at the race, not those of you warm and comfy in your living room.
If this was lap 125 and they needed 25 more laps to get to halfway they probably wouldn't have been so quick to call it and come back another day to finish it. (We may actually have been sticking this out until midnight) LOL. I'm thinking they were in a situation where the situation was by the time the track got dry and the time it would've taken to run the last 130 laps, there wouldn't be a network available to show it on.
"I don't see a problem finishing a race at around midnight. "
weather.com says 70 percent chance of rain through 1am. 50 to 60 percent chance of showers until 3am.
They're done. Live with it. We who are living under drought conditions know how those folks there are happy for the rain.
Did the have any sort of post race coverage on Classic? Highlights please I got nothing here
They did a nice conversation with DJ again about his last race tomorrow, but the drivers were all gone except for good old Clint.
Thanks JD now I don't feel left out. As a fan who got rained on last year and spent 2 days (driving back and forth for each day) at the track I would be ok with them calling the race based on the very dark green all over the radar for the next several hours. Not to mention alot of the track/nascar people need to be back tomorrow and staying there til all hours would not be fun.
Did anyone else find fault in ESPN cutting away from Bowyer getting the news that the race was over and the beginning of the team celebration to start the Tim Brewer video piece? The timing wasn't convenient for ESPN but I think the abort button should have been pushed, the call to switch to the video should have been reversed, and Allen should have stepped in right then and told the fans the race was over instead of waiting for the Brewer piece to finish. I didn't even notice that happened until I just rewound the DVR and I don't agree with that decision making.
The first priority during a rain delay, in my opinion, should be to tell the world the race has been called. That was wrong of ESPN to stick to the original plan of going to the Tim Brewer video when they knew the race had been called, in my opinion.
weather.com says 70 percent chance of rain through 1am. 50 to 60 percent chance of showers until 3am.
They're done. Live with it. We who are living under drought conditions know how those folks there are happy for the rain.
Thank you!!! I'm appalled by the people here complaining that they only called the race for TV reasons, obviously none of you live in the Southeastern United States. Nonstop rain IS coming through this area and other areas of the south through the evening hours and that's a good thing. (I could live without the tornadoes.) WE ARE IN A DROUGHT, like a "restaurants using paper plates so they can save water" drought. Some things are more important than a Nationwide race which HAS reached the halfway point. Geez.
Given where Bristol is, I expect NASCAR probably was concerned about the distance some fans might have to travel for hotel accomodations, the number of fans to get out of the track, and their being no guarantee that a wait until after darkness would result in completion of the race.
Our local ESPN Broadcast Network affiliate aired ACC basketball (and oh how much do I hate those hated rivals! It's so bad that they are so good and my alma mater is so bad I told my voice teacher I want to get on the Ponte Vecchio and dive off the Arno -- a reference to Lauretta's signature aria in Gianni Schicchi (almost had me thinking a DW quip at an NNS Daytona race in 2004 that Mike Joy countered with a great one too) -- for not wearing that team's colours and not paying the booster club fees, something that's required in this area, I felt like I needed to be in jail) that the race didn't air at all until it got on ESPN Classic after the rain ended the affair.
This meant we got zip, zero, nada, and Thursday's rerun on Speed is the official "original broadcast" for this area since the race did not air the race at all live.
This affiliate has played dirty tricks to NASCAR fans in the past and here we go again after 15 years.
And the ESPN Cable Network was blacked out because of the ESPN Broadcast Network affiliate's Syndex requests.
The deal with the SEC basketball tournament is strictly with the SEC only.
CBS didn't have the time with the rescheduled tournament because they would have to rewire everything on a day's notice, and ESPN2 will be in all but the Raycom syndicated markets. In SEC markets the Raycom affiliates will air the championship game.
This means in our market ESPN Cable Network and ESPN2 will be blocked out.
I cant believe people are blameing the race being called on ESPN. Are you not the same people who were upset back at California when NASCAR waited until the wee hours of the morning to call the race? Thats what we were look at tonight and NASCAR made the right choice.
TV had nothing to do with it! FACE THE FACTS! It rained and there was no use in restarting since it was past half-way
anonymous...calm down. These are just opinions given by individuals. It isn't a big deal. Given ESPN's disappointing track record last season it isn't surprising that some would think that. Even if it isn't true, there are going to be those that see it that way. It's ok.
There is a new column up about the Nationwide Series race.
JD
No coverage in central South Carolina. ABC affiliate WOLO-25 opted for basketball. Local affiliates of other networks interrupted their scheduled programs for weather coverage. I can understand putting the type of tornado-generating weather we had ahead of any sporting event. WOLO apparently felt that basketball wasn't just more important than NASCAR, it was more important than saving lives.
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