After almost nine months of chasing NASCAR around the TV dial, this weekend fans will truly enter the NASCAR Twilight Zone.
Coverage of all three NASCAR series will skip across four TV networks and include a live race simulcast. There will be well over 30 hours of NASCAR programming from Friday to Sunday.
This one is going to take a little advance planning. There are DVR's and TiVo's to coordinate, viewing schedules to adjust and TV networks to even find on the dial. We are here to help.
On the right side of The Daly Planet main page is the complete layout of the Friday through Sunday NASCAR TV schedule. The networks to know are ESPN2, SPEED, ESPN Classic and ABC.
All three of NASCAR's national touring series are in action. The Craftsman Trucks will be in Atlanta sharing the track with the Sprint Cup Series. Meanwhile, the Nationwide Series travels to Memphis Motorsports Park for a big Saturday afternoon race.
Friday is the first day of on-track activity and SPEED starts the day with long block of coverage from Atlanta. The Craftsman Trucks practice at 11:30AM and 1:30PM with John Roberts and NASCAR Live covering the lunch break at 1:00PM. Rick Allen, Phil Parsons and Michael Waltrip will be handling the Truck action.
At 3PM, stick with SPEED as that network switches gears and covers the Sprint Cup Series practice session. Steve Byrnes, Jeff Hammond and Larry McReynolds will be along as the action will be fast and wild on this high-speed track with a whole lot on the line.
Marty Reid and his Memphis Nationwide Series crew will be next at 4:30PM. Fans have to spin the dial to ESPN Classic for this coverage. ESPN is just flat out of channel space and this is the unofficial NASCAR overflow network. That does not help fans who do not have it on the cable dial.
Back to SPEED at 6PM for Trackside. Thankfully, this program has stepped-up and invited Truck Series driver Johnny Benson on as a guest. Carl Edwards will also be on the program. Byrnes, Hammond and McReynolds are joined by Elliott Sadler as the panelists on this show.
The feature event of the evening will be live Sprint Cup Series qualifying on ESPN2 at 7PM Eastern Time. This will be the first time that the ESPN crew of Dr. Jerry Punch, Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree will be on-the-air. Jamie Little and Dave Burns will be handling the interviews.
Over the following two days, there will be more than 20 hours of NASCAR coverage on the four TV networks mentioned above. We will preview the coverage completely the day prior, so that fans can sort through this mess of a weekend on the cable TV dial.
The weather forecast for Atlanta on Friday calls for a high of 55 degrees with rain and thunderstorms. The chance of precipitation is listed as 80% by The Weather Channel. Over in Memphis, Friday looks much better with only a 20% chance of rain and a high near 70.
Stay with us over the weekend and we will walk you through the TV maze day-by-day. We welcome your comments on these topics. To add your opinion, just click on the COMMENTS button below and follow the easy instructions. The rules for posting are located on the right side of the main page. Thanks for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.
20 comments:
I find it interesting that ESPN still hasn't mentioned the Speed simulcast of the race yet.
The Weather Channel is more hopeful than some of the local weatherpeople here. Local TV listed the chance of rain for Friday at 100% on one of the newscasts today.
Don't tell me there might be a chance of rain in Memphis on Saturday. That would mess my TIVO recording since I won't be home. I'll hope for a nice sunny day.
I guess I should clarify. Here for me is Atlanta. Friday is the day that looks bad right now, the rest of the weekend looks good. The forecast looks good Memphis all weekend.
Thanks for keeping us up to date JD :)
DVR is updated :). Talk about working OT! PTL for my DVR I'd never keep track of all the times and when I need to be on what channel!
JD- Am I mistaken or somehow is Shannon S. always the pit reporter assigned to run Dale, Jr. down after the race for a comment?
richard,
Just by chance. The reporters get pit stall assignments by the race, so they really never have all the same drivers all the time.
JD
Richard, I always thought I noticed a sparkle in SS's eyes when she interviews Jr. but I guess that's only dust in the air!
Richard just the way Jr.'s luck has been lately. Hope the weather holds out looking forward to Friday night qualifying.No more ran outs. Keep good spare remote batteries on hand.
JD-
Are you going to add that the NW series race can also be seen on SPEED at 3:30 on Saturday, not just ESPN Classic?
Thank you JD for all the schedule updates, keeping that straightened out is a full time job in itself. This weekend Should show NASCAR PTBs just how far down espns priority list the sport is.
Anon 10:23AM,
That Nationwide Series airing is listed as being after the Truck Series race on SPEED in the front page listings. Thanks!
JD
Sheesh! Memphis and Atlanta are NOT that far apart, couldn't AB shoot over and call the NN race and be back in time to do countdown? Just once this last part of the season before it goes dark I'd like to see on nasCAR race with good play by play!
ri88girl said...
Sheesh! Memphis and Atlanta are NOT that far apart, couldn't AB shoot over and call the NN race and be back in time to do countdown? Just once this last part of the season before it goes dark I'd like to see on nasCAR race with good play by play!
October 23, 2008 11:45 AM
But that's just it, ESPN DOESN'T want you to see good race PxP!!!
It would actually show the world how bad they are with their current booth staff.
more garbage from ESPN, no wonder the tv ratings are on a downward slide, not every one has espn classic, just another reason why espn shouldn't get as contract with nascar. If NASCAR has another rain out on qualifying they might just as well hand the championship to JJ. I think NASCAR is going to have to rethink qualifying on race day like the nationwide cars do it.
Be aware that my local listings (even on the internet) show the Nationwide race on ESPN2, so don't be fooled by that. Go by what you see here.
I don't find it strange that ESPN isn't pointing out the fact that you can also watch the race on a non-disney network, why would they?
Just like they ignore the Craftsman (soon to Camping World) Truck Series.
Thanks for all the updates JD. Been out of the loop and hope to catch the guys on SPEED tv Friday. Will watch the Truck race...not sure about the others on ESPN but highly doubtful.
Depends on weather here and at the tracks. Great to have all the info I need here though. Thanks for the extra work you do here.
Soph
Ironic that prior to the first big TV contract back in 2001, the complaint was that you had to have a TV guide to know where NASCAR was on TV that weekend. Now, it seems like you need that even more.
alex, you hit the nail on the head! And imho, we've been doing that for yrs! The networks have just been trying to hide this a looong time.
JD- I guess it must be me, or maybe her interviews are just more memorable, but in recent weeks it seems that Shannon S. is always the pit reporter interviewing Dale, Jr. at his hauler. I wondered whether she might have been assigned to chase Dale, Jr. because of the unique phrasing of her questions.
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