There is a new buzz in the air when it comes to NASCAR on ESPN. Saturday afternoon, the ESPN TV team put together a dynamite Nationwide Series telecast.
Now, it's Sunday and the Sprint Cup Series awaits. It will be Allen Bestwick anchoring the telecast from the Infield Pit Studio. He will be joined by Rusty Wallace and Brad Daugherty. This is a one hour pre-race show and hopefully ESPN will use this opportunity to touch on a wide variety of stories within the sport.
Marty Reid, Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree will be in the TV booth. These three had a blast on the Nationwide Series race Saturday and Jarrett took the lead in speaking his mind and offering opinions.
Dr. Jerry Punch is off this weekend. Mike Massaro, Jamie Little, Dave Burns and Vince Welch are covering pit road. This is the first race back for Welch since being involved in a car accident in the Indy area. He is still playing hurt with some broken ribs.
The best thing about ESPN on Saturday was that the telecast followed the closest racing on the track, regardless of the position in the race. It completely changed the tone of the telecast from the boring follow the leader coverage that fans have suffered through for years.
Watkins Glen has made safety changes that have eliminated the gravel traps and ended the extended caution or red flags of the past. No longer is there a need to take fifteen minutes to tow a car out of the gravel. This resulted in even better racing, especially in the bus stop chicane area.
The pictures from The Glen are always spectacular and this is an opportunity for ESPN to pick up some momentum as the fuel mileage race at MIS looms as the next Sprint Cup Series event. This should be a fun telecast to watch.
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