Live Blogging The Nationwide Series From Bristol, TN (ESPN2 - 7:30PM)

The "A team" returns to the Nationwide Series on Friday night for ESPN. All hands are on deck as the two Bristol night races hit the ESPN family of TV networks on consecutive nights.

Allen Bestwick will start the coverage with the NASCAR Countdown show from the Infield Pit Studio. He will be joined by Rusty Wallace and Brad Daugherty, both just back from their Wednesday trip to the White House and an audience with the President.

Wallace is deeply involved in the Nationwide Series and has been offering the best information for TV viewers on the series. Bestwick always gets his facts straight and Daugherty is a NASCAR cheerleader, so the pre-race should be solid.

Once the action starts, Jerry Punch will return to call the race after an absence. Last week, ESPN did not use a play-by-play announcer at Michigan. Marty Reid has been calling the races prior to that since ESPN started the Sprint Cup coverage.

Punch will be joined by Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree in the booth. These two have been working well together this season and have become solid at jumping in and trying to add their own excitement to the race telecast when Punch lags behind.

On pit road will be the NASCAR on ESPN foursome that has been taking their lumps from the fans. Dave Burns, Vince Welch, Jamie Little and Shannon Spake are going to be dealing with some very loud conditions and cramped quarters.

As I mentioned last week, tempers are tight this time of the year and sometimes the pit reporters get the wrath of the drivers when they ask a "how do you feel about that" kind of question. ESPN struggled in the pits back in year one. It would be a shame if this weekend gets things pointed right back in the same direction.

At Bristol, TV viewers want to watch cars racing at them and not away from them. It take a lot of work from the director to continually cut the cameras in a pattern that make sense to the viewers. There has also been a tendency to keep the action low and not insert high camera shots to keep a perspective on the track.

Once the sun goes down, the pictures really get good and the action picks up. This track does not lend itself to in-car camera views live, but they are great for replays. The fixed "speed shots" also do not work well because the laps are just so fast. The simple challenge for the TV team in the production truck is to keep ahead of the action on the track.

This post will serve to host your comments about the Nationwide Series coverage on ESPN2. 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 for taking the time to stop by and share your thoughts with other NASCAR fans.

Play-By-Play Announcer Returns For ESPN In Bristol, TN

Last week in Michigan, ESPN experimented with a live NASCAR Nationwide Series telecast that featured four analysts in the booth and no play-by-play announcer. The reviews were mixed, but ESPN was clear that this was a one time experiment. Click here to review the TDP reader comments.

Friday night the NASCAR on ESPN telecast returns to the normal format, but not with the popular Nationwide Series team of Marty Reid, Rusty Wallace and Randy LaJoie. Instead, the network will use Jerry Punch, Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree to call the race.

Wallace will be a member of the pre-race show along with Brad Daugherty and host Allen Bestwick from the Infield Pit Studio. While this has been a good move for Wallace on the Sprint Cup Series races, he has served the network quite well up in the booth for the Nationwide Series events.

Reid and LaJoie just love to give Wallace a hard time as certain events unfold on the track. The vast majority of the time, those events involve Rusty's son Steven or teammate Brendan Gaughan who make up the RWR Nationwide Series teams. Credit goes to Rusty who has been more than tough enough to take the ribbing and keep right on going, no matter how much his wallet had just been dented.

This on-air dynamic has been fun to watch as it is pushed along by the jovial personality of LaJoie. Reid is a professional who keeps the information flowing and lets the analysts do their jobs. This irreverent mix is perfect for the Nationwide Series as it continues to search for its own TV personality.

Reid, Wallace and LaJoie did not cower to the Carl and Kyle show in this series and pointed out the efforts of all the teams on the track as the racing unfolded. Reid was also the first announcer this season to be honest with the fans where the numerous start-and-park cars were concerned.

The challenge for Punch is to ramp-up his excitement level to match the anticipated hard racing on Friday night from the drop of the green flag. The new restart rules are going to be something to see at Bristol. As Mike Joy on the Whelen Modified and Rick Allen on the Camping World Truck Series races proved, this track generates excitement for TV viewers when the play-by-play announcer is on his game.

As usual on so many Fridays, it will be SPEED starting the action with Nationwide Series practice at 10:30AM. Steve Byrnes, Larry McReynolds and Jeff Hammond will then stick around to call both sessions of Sprint Cup practice beginning at noon ET. That trio will top off the day with Nationwide Series qualifying at 4PM.

Before calling the Nationwide race, Punch and company will first handle Sprint Cup Series qualifying at 5:30PM on ESPN2. Nicole Manske will give the ESPN team a breather at 7PM as she hosts an edition of NASCAR Now from the other Bristol.

Bestwick then leads the ESPN2 team onto the air at 7:30PM with the NASCAR Countdown pre-race show and Punch takes over to call the action at 8PM. The actual green flag is scheduled for 8:13PM.

TDP will be live blogging this event and have a post up for your TV-related comments immediately after the race. In the meantime, please feel free to leave your opinion on the topics mentioned above.

This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting. Thanks for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.

Media Spreads President's NASCAR Message

NASCAR needed a little shot in the arm as the sport closes in on the playoffs. What better place to get that than with a rain-delayed visit to the White House.

It may have seemed to some like President Obama made a short speech, worked the rope line and then gave a quick live TV interview before going back to his real job. Nothing could have been further from the truth.

Among the NASCAR group at the White House were some campers from the Victory Junction Gang Camp. Kyle Petty traveled with the group and documented their trip in words and pictures on Twitter.

The kids were brought directly into the White House and met with the President. Petty wrote: The Kids were amazing! The President spent REAL time with each one...don't care where you stand, THAT was cool...

The other participants took tours of the White House with Dale Jarrett remarking on how much he enjoyed his experience. Jimmie Johnson said the atmosphere was more laid back and he appreciated making real conversation with the President.

ESPN2's NASCAR Now pushed Dennis Leary guest hosting on Mike and Mike aside to get to the White House at 4:20PM live. That was about ten minutes earlier than the DVR's and VCR's of most working NASCAR fans were scheduled to begin recording.

The pictures showed the President working the rope line and greeting Darrell Waltrip and Rusty Wallace along the way. That certainly was an interesting dynamic to watch, but all parties seemed to have their priorities in order and Obama moved through the crowd.

Since the original schedule was off a bit, the President joined host Nicole Manske and ESPN NASCAR analyst Brad Daugherty before TV viewers heard his prepared remarks. This actually worked out well, as Daugherty and Manske allowed Obama to make his point very clearly. The following two answers really told the tale of NASCAR as far as the administration was concerned.

"NASCAR is a quintessential American sport," said the President. "I think that its fan base is now worldwide, but when you think about its roots, when you think about all the people who have such an attachment to the drivers, and when you think about the fact that right now the U.S. auto industry is going through a tough time, we wanted to make sure we highlight the fact that this is a great sport, is a great brand for not just NASCAR itself but also for America, and we thought it was a great opportunity to celebrate some champions."

Manske asked if the US automakers should remain committed to the sport. "I think that it’s about as good advertising as you can get," Obama answered. "If somebody’s excited about NASCAR, that means they’re excited about cars. And we want to make sure that people know what great American cars are, and obviously it’s understandable at a time when GM has gone through some tough times, that they may need to cut back sponsorships briefly, but over the long term, if we look 5-10 years out, I think they’re going to come back stronger than ever, and I think their association with NASCAR makes a great difference."

After the President departed, NASCAR Now played-back his prepared remarks. As with most visiting athletes, the President's staff had done a good job on his short speech. Obama asked Chad if he was pronouncing "Knaus" correctly and even took a moment in typical NASCAR style to thank the guys back at the shops who could not attend.

While pointing out Mike Helton and selected dignitaries in the crowd, it appeared that this was almost a relaxing moment away from the domestic and global issues for Obama. There were lots of jokes and laughter, including Carl Edwards refusing to divulge his conversation with the President to ESPN's reporter Marty Smith.

The next step is to get the President to a race. Richmond might be the easiest travel location but Chicagoland Speedway is right near Obama's favorite city and would certainly be a winner with the area fans.

All in all, a big win for ESPN and NASCAR on what is normally a slow day for news. NASCAR Now handled the live portions calmly after having the entire schedule changed at the last moment. The President's remarks were moved onto ESPNEWs and ESPN.com very quickly.

Shortly after the festivities were over, the Internet was filled with hundreds of domestic and international stories carrying the President's simple but effective message. The power of the global media was on display.

Click here for a replay of the video interview and an outstanding article by ESPN's Ed Hinton on the long relationship between NASCAR and the White House.

After you watch the show or see the video, we would welcome your comments on this topic. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting. Thanks for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.