Gentlemen, Start Your TV Remotes

After several weeks of SPEED handling the practice and qualifying TV duties, the familiar pattern of switching back and forth between SPEED and ESPN2 will begin again on Friday.

SPEED kicks off the day at 11AM ET with NASCAR Live. Following Nationwide Series practice at 11:30AM, the first click of the remote is to ESPN2 at 2PM for Sprint Cup Series practice. Click again to come back to SPEED at 3:30PM for Nationwide and Camping World Truck Series practice.

NASCAR Now on ESPN2 starts at 5PM, while CWTS practice is still underway. ESPN2 ends PIR coverage for Friday with Sprint Cup qualifying at 5:30PM. That leaves SPEED to host the only race of the day beginning with the CWTS pre-race show at 7:30PM. When the truck race is over, Trackside will then end the day for SPEED.

ESPN will use Jerry Punch on the Friday coverage with Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree alongside. Shannon Spake, Jamie Little, Dave Burns and Vince Welch are the pit reporters. Tim Brewer is in the Tech Garage.

Over on SPEED it will be John Roberts at the SPEED Stage with Hermie Sadler and Randy Pemberton as the roving reporters. For the on-track daytime activity it will be Steve Byrnes, Jeff Hammond and Larry McReynolds up in the TV booth. Handling the interviews in the garage will be Wendy Venturini and Bob Dillner.

Krista Voda leads the CWTS team with Ray Dunlap and Adam Alexander as her pit reporters helping with The Setup pre-race show. Rick Allen, Phil Parsons and Michael Waltrip will be calling the race.

It should be interesting to see ESPN get back in the swing of televising practice and qualifying for the Cup Series. The two guests for Trackside on SPEED will be Ryan Newman and David Reutimann. The weather looks good for Friday as NASCAR starts the next to last racing weekend of the season for 2009.

Put a fresh battery in your remote or add some additional time to the DVR as NASCAR schedules are sometimes known to be a bit off at PIR. Normally, this is not a big problem for TV viewers, but with two networks piecing together coverage of one continuous day, fans trying to record coverage might find things a bit disjointed.

One final note, there has been no announcement about NASCAR adding a celebrity host to the Sprint Cup Series banquet. Currently, Krista Voda and Mike Joy are slated to handle the awards and introductions on the stage while Steve Byrnes and Jeff Hammond will handle the TV duties for SPEED.

We passed along on Thursday a Twitter note from Sirius Radio's Pete Pistone suggesting that comedian George Lopez was being mentioned as a possible celebrity host. Fans have been voicing various opinions about whether a person without a NASCAR background should be involved. TDP will keep everyone posted on Friday.

In the meantime, please feel free to add your comments about the daytime TV activities from PIR on both SPEED and ESPN2. We will live blog the CWTS event, so please feel free to join us later in the evening. The complete TV schedule for the weekend is on the right side of out main page.

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