Live Blogging The Nationwide Series From Kentucky

Jerry Punch is winding-down his Nationwide Series activities for this season. The Saturday night race in Kentucky signals the point where only a handful of events remain on his schedule.

This is a big change from the previous years where Punch did double-duty once ESPN took over the Sprint Cup telecasts in late July. It will be Marty Reid stepping-in on July 25th to handle the rest of the Nationwide Series telecasts. Punch will concentrate solely on the Cup races.

On this day, the Nationwide Series has another opportunity to put on a good show without big brother overshadowing it. Although several Cup drivers flew from Michigan to Kentucky to race, there are some hungry Nationwide drivers looking for exposure on national TV and possibly a win.

Allen Bestwick and Brad Daugherty are working on the pre-race show with Rusty Wallace this week, who will then head upstairs to call the race. Wallace will join Punch and Andy Petree in the booth.

This race is going to be a very good test of just how ready Punch is to lead ESPN into the Sprint Cup Series. It is a stand-alone event in primetime without any other distractions. Punch, Wallace and Petree are "the show."

Shannon Spake is also off, so Jamie Little, Dave Burns and Vince Welch will handle pit road. This may be a busy place for several reasons. After the race begins, the start and park cars will be leaving the track and the real action and strategy will begin. It should be interesting to see if and how ESPN acknowledges the "valet parkers."

ESPN still has the best triple-split in the business for caution flag pit stops. Pictures and sound are normally outstanding and this event should be no exception. The cars under the lights at this facility really put on a show.

The criticism of ESPN is that sometimes there is a script. Tonight should be a bit of a clash as the network promoted a possible Nationwide regular as a winner, but now faces the possibility of another dominant performance by Kyle Busch.

Either way, here we go. This post will serve to host your comments on the ESPN coverage of the Nationwide Series race from Kentucky. To add your opinion, just click on the comments button below. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting.

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