This is the week where the action on the track starts Thursday. The Charlotte Motor Speedway is quiet on Friday while the World of Outlaws races Sprint Cars across the street at the dirt track.
SPEED starts Thursday day at 2PM with Mike Joy and Nationwide Series practice. The duo of Hermie Sadler and Jeff Hammond has been fun to listen to this this season as they called these sessions. Sadler has come a long way since he first began his part-time TV career and Hammond did a stellar job on the Hall of Fame show in a reporter category.
3:30PM brings the NASCAR on FOX team as they enter the final weekend of coverage for that network in 2010. This season, it will only be Mike Joy who takes a break after the Charlotte weekend. Darrell Waltrip is replacing Kyle Petty for the six RaceDay shows on SPEED this summer while Petty works for TNT.
As most NASCAR fans know, Larry McReynolds is one of the hardest working guys on TV. He continues with SPEED hosting NASCAR Performance and appearing on the Trackside program. McReynolds will once again be with the TNT team from the infield appearing on the pre-race show and providing race strategy and a crew chief perspective.
Sadler and Hammond are back at 5PM for final Nationwide Series practice before Joy and his team return with the featured TV of the night. Sprint Cup Series qualifying from under the lights at CMS begins at 7PM ET.
There is no Race Hub on SPEED Thursday, but there is a late night version of NASCAR Now airing at 1:30AM Eastern, 10:30PM Pacific time.
Here are some other TV/media notes:
Eric Shanks, a 38 year-old TV veteran and current VP at DirecTV has been named the new president of FOX Sports. Ed Goren, the 65 year-old former president, will move up to the Vice Chairman role and help Chairman David Hill with larger projects. Many remember Shanks as being the originator of the NFL Red Zone on DirecTV. He also worked at FOX and CBS in sports production roles.
Driver Tim Brown was on Sirius Wednesday and said that SPEED was going to be airing the Madhouse TV series that was seen on The History Channel. SPEED responded to TDP with the information that some talks have been ongoing with History, but at this time there has been no agreement reached and there is nothing to report.
TNT recently announced a new million dollar challenge that will take place over the network's six races. Coordinated through the NASCAR.com website, viewers can take a guess at the top ten finishing drivers in each race and if anyone matches all ten there is a million dollar prize waiting for them. Not a bad contest for the slow and traditionally rather sleepy TNT races.
Friday's TV will feature the big Speed Street celebration in downtown Charlotte. This is where Trackside has visited for years. That show airs at 7PM and leads into the big World of Outlaws race also on SPEED. The downtown Charlotte venue is memorable for Elliott Sadler's stage dive and for the panel getting rather tongue-tied with the appearance of singer Kellie Pickler.
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