The young man pictured above might find himself answering the same set of questions many times during the day on Friday. Kasey Kahne and the rest of the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series drivers are on the Texas Motor Speedway track all day long for practice and qualifying. That is, if Mother Nature cooperates.
The complete TV schedule is posted on the right side of the TDP mainpage. The start of the day should be interesting. ESPN2 has delayed the airing of Nationwide practice, so it overlaps with NASCAR Live on SPEED at noon ET. It is a rather unusual situation for NASCAR to have two programs from the same venue on the air at the same time.
The normal channel hopping happens as SPEED and ESPN2 swap between Cup and Nationwide coverage. Once the NASCAR activity is over, both networks go head-to-head once again at 6:30PM. Mike Massaro hosts NASCAR Now on ESPN2 while Steve Byrnes hosts Trackside on SPEED. Scott Speed and Paul Menard are the Trackside guests.
Capping the day is a doubleheader from SPEED. First, Rick Allen and Phil Parsons call the ARCA race from Texas. Then, a brand new series starts with the first NASCAR Hall of Fame Biography show featuring Bill France Sr. That certainly does seem like a logical place to start as SPEED ramps-up for the Hall opening this summer.
Let's use this post to offer comments on the Friday NASCAR and ARCA TV from ESPN2 and SPEED. To add your TV-related opinion, just click on the comments button below. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting. Thanks!
I cannot understand why I have not heard one single time in the media the possibility that Kahne was retained in case Dale Jr. has another bad year.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, if the 88 misses the chase AGAIN, after everything Rick Hendrick has poured into that team in terms of personnel and resources, I think Junebug will be out of a ride. I see Kahne going into the 88 (which will probably go back to being the 25) in 2011.
What I don't understand is with all the crazy speculation, no one will speculate this very possible move. It is less far-fetched than him driving for Tony Stewart for only one year.
Anon 10:17PM,
ReplyDeleteYou have not because Hendrick said Kasey was for the #5 car and that was the bottom line. Hendrick said his other drivers are in contracts and will remain intact with sponsors for next season.
I understand the issue you are raising and hope that maybe SPEED will address this speculation on the SPEED Stage or Cup sessions on Friday.
Thanks for the comment.
JD
Great to see the ARCA coverage today! Need more of it and other
ReplyDeletegrass roots series around the
country, plus we won't have the
Busch Whackers stinking up the show.
This could be an interesting day, or weekend, for that matter. Looks like a rainy weekend in Texas.
ReplyDeleteWeather will be off and on wet for the weekend but good news is it doesn't look to be any severe stuff. Showers won't last long.
ReplyDeleteThey've also suspended construction on 114/121 north of DFW Airport for the weekend for everyone headed to the track from Dallas.
51 yr. fan said...
ReplyDeleteGreat to see the ARCA coverage today! Need more of it and other
grass roots series around the
country, plus we won't have the
Busch Whackers stinking up the show.
April 16, 2010 8:20 AM
Yes...but the CUP owners "Testing Teams" pretty much rule the ARCA shows now on the bigger tracks.
I posted on another section of your blog JD, but I need to add this: Budweiser and Rick Hendrick have a very strained relationship. That is why they did not stay with his team.So I don't see them going with Kahne. I see Stanley Tools attaching themselves to him for the ride.We'll see if the hard-nosed reporting of SPEED gets to the bottom of this. NOT. I will be VERY impressed to see if Kyle Petty is interviewed at all. Side note: If memory serves me right, Richard Petty never has a driver sign a contract. It's all done with a handshake. Interesting to find out if that still holds true.
ReplyDeleteHave any of the reporters interviewed Mark Martin on this new development? If so, I haven't seen/heard it yet. I'm seriously interested in what he has to say about his plans for 2011 & 2012. And where can Harvick go now? Not too many top-tiered teams out there that need a new driver for 2011 and beyond. Hopefully we'll hear something on it this weekend, and let's hope the showers by-pass the track. PS is anyone else having trouble with the password section here? I always have to input it twice to get my comment to publish.
ReplyDeleteYay for the ARCA coverage. I enjoy those races a lot more than CUP these days. funny how things have changed and speed usually does a good job with the broadcast, I wish there were more.
ReplyDeleteAnon - that's an interesting thought about the 88 car, but I have NO expectations that the hard-hitting reporters covering NASCAR these days would actually ask such a question.
@Garry - I would imagine that things changed a lot when Petty essentially sold just his name to this team. With Gillete running the show, I imagine there is a paper contract, but that's just my guess.
Looks like Dinger's going to be RPM's last hope with kahne leaving -- he's looked pretty racy in that car lately.
vicky -- hmmm, I'd forgotten about Harvick entering the mix -- I don't know that he fits the HMS "mold" so to speak, but then again, Jr doesn't either.
ReplyDeleteYes, I am having the same password issue that you are -- having to enter it twice - has been happening for the last week or so -- maybe it's JD's way of keeping the trolls down! LOL
The weather deal really stinks!
ReplyDeletePetty Enterprises didn't have signed drivers contracts. Once they were scooped up and later dumped by Boston Ventures contracts started coming into play. So Kahne has a contract with RPM for sure.
ReplyDeleteGarry, that may be valid but Richard Petty is merely a figurehead at RPM. He does not run the team in day to day operations, that is all handled by the GEM part of the relationship which is really just Gillette making the decisions. Kasey was under contract to Evernham who was purchased by Gillette so the contract carried over.
ReplyDeleteI did hear Kyle Petty throw out the situation the other day on NN that who knows maybe Jr goes and runs his own team next year, that Rick was vague for a reason because alot can happen between now and next season. Remember when everyone was CONVINCED Jr would be in the 5?
I like Andy Petree in the garage....I wonder if they made him a pit reporter and used DJ/Craven in the booth how that would work....
Just saying
To Joe S @9:42; thanks for the
ReplyDeleteheads up. I'd really never given
that a thought. I would just like
some new faces and series in
the racing coverage. It would be
great if SPEED would cover some
of the Saturday night series around
the country. It would definitely
improve their lineup.
Guess everyone has forgotten Jeff Gordon's bad back already. :)
ReplyDeleteMarty and crew doing a nice job on NW practice so far.
I can't see Harvick joining Gillett currently. If RCR keeps up, he's back. Besides, Gillett's team is in more trouble than you'd see probably. They've become simply a satellite Roush team.
ReplyDeleteHere is how it all plays out:
ReplyDeleteKahne into the 88 team (which will be re-numbered 25).
Martin stays in the 5 until Danica moves to Cup.
Harvick goes to Stewart-Haas as a new third car in 2011.
Dale Jr. goes to the 29, which changes back to the 3 so he can end his career in his dad's number.
Now, how hard is that to figure out?
No, no, no and no.
ReplyDeleteBTW anyone notice our friends at FOX are jumping on the TNT bandwagon and having an "extended" post-race online after the race?
Interesting. It IS post-race coverage which is a plus...
I see ESPN2 is sandwiching a tennis match in between Nationwide practice and qualifying. Hopefully the tennis match gets done in time!
ReplyDeleteAs a side note, there's a rain shower band just to southwest of the track......will have to see if it affects Cup practice.
Watching the Speed practice without sound looks almost like watching the race. Hard to tell the difference. Nice tight shots
ReplyDeleteLooks like we're going to get tape-delayed coverage of Nationwide qualifying on ESPN2. They're running a crawl saying that qualifying will be seen in it's entirety after tennis is over.
ReplyDeleteYep! Tennis strikes again. Seems very familiar.
ReplyDeleteWhat good is that going to do? At 4:30 Cup qual starts, cant watch both at once...
ReplyDeleteI KNEW that there'd be "issues" with N'wide coverage being on Mickey Mouse Deuce ...
ReplyDeleteWHY do they even bother?? Just let SPEED do it ...
Mickey Mouse's coverage is like that song by Lambchop ... "This is the song that never ends ... It goes on and one again ... "
sheesh!! not even moving nw qualifying to classic...:((( maybe I should take a nap!
ReplyDeleteDespite what is offically being said, I think Kahne is being retained for all kinds of possiblities.
Now that the story is broken I'm very surprised that they didn't talk about the KK/MM issue that much on Speed during Sprint practice. That story is being covered big time in print media, via - Jayski. Stewart grearin up for KK for one season does not make good economic sense, unless Stewart has someone lined up for 2012 for KK's car. Their still struggling with the 39, yes even after a win. They should not distract themselves. Silly season has started to early this year. Someone, somewhere dropped the ball and talked to much concerning this deal.
ReplyDeleteOh, to the full time readers here, guess what? I opened a tweeter account today.
TNT: It's bad news for Nascar and fans if your "plucking talent" from FOX. There isn't much there this year.
Tape delayed NN quals after tennis.
ReplyDeleteThats sad. Tennis beats Nascar for importance. No point watching. I'll already know where everyone ended up.
ReplyDeleteAlways interesting with live programming. Tennis and NASCAR are the two toughest sports to judge in terms of lenth.
ReplyDeleteNeither has a clock involved!
Tennis is soooo boooorinnnggggg!!
ReplyDeletezzzzzzzzzz
ESPN makes me want to spit who cares about tennis - guess I'll just go and watch General Hospital - thank goodness for Live Leaderboard.
ReplyDeleteI don't expect, nor do I want them to take the tennis coverage off....as I wouldn't want that if the roles were reversed. However, the problem with this today, is, as has been mentioned, we're almost assured ESPN2's Nationwide qualifying broadcast will start to overlap SPEED's Cup qualifying coverage.
ReplyDeleteAlthough, something ESPN has done in the past to meet the broadcast window, is they'll start editing some of the qualifying attempts. For example, we're liable to go from 15 cars qualified going into a commercial break to 21 cars have qualified coming out of the commercial break....as if 6 cars qualified during the 2 minute commercial break.
Go Woznikia!! Break her serve and win this match and get this show over with!!
ReplyDeleteEverybody chant:
Wozzie!! Wozzie!! Wozzie!!!
Mike, that's why I wondered about ESPN saying they would show it start to finish. Going to be interesting.
ReplyDeleteI do not understand if tennis was going to be on why Speed could not have covered this or at least taken it to ESPN Classic until tennis finished, as usual we are being subjected to not being taken seriously by the four letter network.
ReplyDeleteAw Wozzie, you let me down!!
ReplyDeleteHold serve girl and end this thing!!
Pretty please with sugar cream and a cherry on top!!
(maybe I jinxed it by going in the other room and watching!)
and oh yea, sometimes if you take a while writing your comment it makes you do the word verification twice. It's got some sort of timeout set.
What's interesting is they're no longer running the crawl that said they'd be showing qualifying "in its entirety". Getting the feeling they've changed their minds on the "in it's entirety" part.
ReplyDeleteOk....they have 72 minutes before SPEED comes with their Cup qualifying coverage. 72 minutes to show 47 qualifying attempts.
ReplyDeleteI quit watching and now I am hearing Rusty in the other room.... Yea Wozzie for winning and getting NASCAR on!!
ReplyDeleteNow they are on, and they go straight to commercial??
ReplyDeleteCripes X 3!
MikeC, ESPN usually runs live all the way through unlike SPEED which tape delays. qualifying on SPEED is usually 20 minutes behind what actually happened by the time the session is over. ESPN should be able to catch up just fine and update as well
ReplyDeleteNow ESPN is on qualifying, and they go straight to commercial...
ReplyDeleteCripes X 3!
Hey, I really like that new TV pit reporter. What's his name? Oh, yea...Jerry Punch!
ReplyDeleteWhere is your story or update concerning Fox expanding post race coverage? This is great for us but no story from you. If they said they were cutting back, you would be all over it in a heartbeat
ReplyDeleteJD, that Punch dude seems like a natural pit reporter don't he?
ReplyDeleteBlue (nice nick),
ReplyDeleteMy column talking about the FOX post-race topic will be online tonight at 8PM. Still one person to speak with prior to putting the information online.
Thanks for asking in your own unique way. Don't you ever get tired of being like that all the time?
JD
JohnP - congrats on joining the twitterers! LOL I have found that I use it to follow a lot more than I actually "tweet" simply because I can't see that anyone would be terribly interested in my every day life -- e.g, Got up, had breakfast, drove to work, worked until lunch, ate lunch, worked the afternoon, drove home, went to the gym. You see what I mean! (but that's just me - maybe you have a more interesting life).
ReplyDeletebut for following the daly planet and other interesting sites, it's a great tool.
Well, I won't get home to see N'wide qualifying.
Did Sirius quit doing the qualifying completely? I thought I read that here, but was hoping I didn't read it correctly.
The last time I tried to pick it up on the radio in the car going home and it was Claire B Lang doing her show and telling us about the qualifying in between whatever she was blathering about. Honestly I didn't last long and if that's the case, it's another reason for me not to renew my subscription next year. Oh well, their NASCAR shows had gotten so pro-NASCAR and anti-fan that I found myself only listening to qualifying and races.
@DPE,
ReplyDeleteI know humor and facitiousness is hard to construe in an internet post. I guess I should have said "tongue in cheek" at the end. Glad to hear you will have a post on this. Im not always that way. Also you dont have to (nick nick) my name, I just really love Kubusch. Why do you think it is that Texas gets so much more fanfare on TV than other races. I live here and know the race is awesome, but it seems to me that Texas get the extra good treatment on TV. Is it b/c all the racers hated it in its early years or do the TV guys just love this track so much they fawn over it all the time
Vicky / Gina - Is there a main Blogger page that you can sign in on?? I finally had to go to TypeKey's main page & sign in everytime I come here for the OpenID to work properly (Well, that & they finally fixed it) ...
ReplyDeleteRe: KK and HMS ... I'm soooo NOT happy about the whole thing ... I've been a fan since his Busch days, but I'm giving him up at the end of the year ...
2 to 1 odds ... Kasey does NOT make the Chase this year ... and 5 to 1 odds that he doesn't win this year ... Lame Ducks do NOT make crews happy, esp when there's still 29 races left ...
How about ole DW and Hammond going at it on Trackside? Whew!
ReplyDeleteGinaV.. I'll never tweet outgoing that's for sure. I'm right there with you on everyday activities. Just a normal everyday life that I love. Got Twitter just for racing news incoming.. Kinda was feeling left behind.. The good folks posting here finally convinced me to try it..
ReplyDelete@Tia: ""Lame Ducks do NOT make crews happy, esp when there's still 29 races left ...""
Exactly Tia, I concure totally. That report killed KK's team for the rest of this year. Sponsors should also be Totally and Completly Pi$$ed off.. I would be.. Either as a company worker for the advertiser (Budwieser), or a stockholder after making that investment..
Hammond is after DW on Trackside. Good for Hammond.
ReplyDeleteDW just said "he's never had one negetive comment toward him via Twitter." That's pretty close to an exact quote. I can't speak to that fact, as I don't know. Maybe he is just not listening though.
Night folks, off to watch the ACRA race.
I like that Speed isn't totally ignoring the ARCA races that happened between Daytona and Texas.
ReplyDeleteDidn't really care for Scott Speed for quite a while. But lately, I've grown to like him, odd as he is. Twitter convo with DW funny.
ReplyDeleteJD, Do you remember what I was saying the other week about wishing CBS would get back in the NASCAR fray? Well it intrigues me to learn CBS is teaming with Turner to bid on the NCAA tourney.
ReplyDeleteI wonder....
This girl is better than most all the "professionals" that sing the anthem....
I like that gal's voice doing the anthem. Plus she knows the words!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed her too! She seemed to be "careful" in the singing. A good thing wish the "professionals" would do that instead of trying to get all fancy!
ReplyDeleteAny guess on when / what network the Nationwide race will be on Monday with a highly likely rain out tomorrow? ESPN2 has EPL live in the afternoon.
ReplyDeleteIt sure is nice to hear a broadcast without a Waltrip "jacking their jaws".
ReplyDeleteSo much speed difference in this ARCA race. Good broadcast so far - Lots of different drivers that Allen & Parsons has to get used to. Like Wendy's reports from pit road.
ReplyDeletetight shots. must not be any racing on the track. Announcers talk about a certain group of cars and camera goes else where.
ReplyDeleteI as a fan am able to watch more then two cars at a time. Try me Speed/FOX. Put 4 cars in one shot and go nuts sometimes and do more.
Charlie, it's the "bag guy" director with his only move for cameras being to zoom-in!
ReplyDeleteThink how much racing we have missed tonight.
Wonder if NASCAR would run the NNS on Monday in the AM?
ReplyDeleteWhat a choppy mess of camera work.
ReplyDeleteZoom, wideshot, zoom, wideshot, zoom, wideshot...OK, we get it!
ReplyDelete