Live Blogging Happy Hour And Nationwide Series Race on ESPN2

This Saturday is very different from most because SPEED has stepped out of the NASCAR TV scene with a Grand Am race and the Barrett-Jackson auto auction from Las Vegas, NV.

That leaves the Nationwide qualifying without TV, puts the Cup Series Happy Hour on at 3PM and the the Nationwide race coverage begins at 4PM ET.

The first TV transition on ESPN2 will be at 3PM. There is once again a live football game at noon ET. NASCAR has not had good luck with the football games as most have run well over three hours. It will be Jerry Punch, Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree featured on the Happy Hour coverage.

Allen Bestwick is next at 4PM with the NASCAR Countdown show for the Nationwide Series. He is joined by Rusty Wallace and Brad Daugherty. This is a thirty minute show that should review the untelevised qualifying and review the championship standings.

The emerging story of Saturday is that Kyle Busch continues to have flu-like symptoms. This may result in him starting, but not finishing, the Nationwide Series race. Denny Hamlin is said to be standing by in relief.

It will be Marty Reid teaming with Jarrett and Petree for the live Nationwide Series race coverage at 4:30PM. Tim Brewer will be in the Tech Garage. Down on pit road will be Shannon Spake, Jamie Little, Vince Welch and Dave Burns.

This is a big and fast track where the Nationwide Series will be quickly divided into the "haves" and the "have nots." Look for the start-and-park cars to get off the track early to avoid being run over.

The big teams should be lapping quickly and the size of this track does not induce many caution flags. Hopefully, there will be more than a handful of cars who can hang with the leaders.

As far as ESPN, this track allows for lots of in-car camera shots with the long laps and big back straight. Low angle cams show the speed while high shots scrub it off for the viewers at home.

There is a tempation to allow the high cameras to follow cars around for the entire lap. As we have spoken about all season, TV viewers are looking for cars to race toward them and not away from them. Staying ahead of the pack at Fontana yields much better TV coverage.

This post will serve to host your comments as we watch Happy Hour and then the Nationwide Series race from Fontana 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 stopping by.

Saturday Off To A Foggy Start In California

Opening a live blog early because fog has pushed back the Nationwide Series qualifying from Fontana, CA. At this time, NASCAR is going to try for 12:30PM but that depends on the weather.

Update: Nationwide quals are now underway in Fontana despite spotty fog. That is a pic above from 12:45PM with cars qualifying in the foggy conditions.

Click here for a direct link to live Nationwide Series qualifying coverage. Thanks to NASCAR.com for the info.

Update #2: Cup practice is now being delayed because of the fog and Nationwide quals.

This is only the first of several issues today for NASCAR. A college football game starting at noon ET is before the Happy Hour coverage scheduled for 3PM. As most games run over three hours, the first TV transition is going to be at that time.

We are going to update the weather delay on this post. It is also open for your comments. Thanks.

Bad Timing Strikes France Family Again

Wednesday afternoon I was one of the media members on a conference call with NASCAR Chairman Brian France. He was joined by David Hill from Fox, David Levy from Turner and John Skipper from ESPN.

France was happy to announce that the NASCAR TV partners and the tracks had come to an agreement that the 2010 Sprint Cup Series races would be returning to more traditional start times. The vast majority of the races would now start at 1PM Eastern Time.

France reinforced that this was NASCAR being responsive to the fans. His TV partners agreed. Something had to change and this was a logical first step.

While answering questions from the media, France explained that he was proud of the Chase this season and the racing it had produced. He sounded happy and relieved that positive change had come to NASCAR after a couple of tough weeks in the TV ratings.

Now, he has yet another challenge to face. This time, it is not within the NASCAR family but within the France family itself. Click here to read the very descriptive story offered on Thursday in the Daytona Beach News Journal.

The Internet reprints and various off-shoots of this story continued to grow as this TDP column was composed on Thursday night. The France name once again was tied to driving under the influence. Complicating matters this time was the fact that crack cocaine was found on JC France himself.

There should be some interesting decisions made in production meetings for various TV shows over the next several days. JC France is a well-known driver in the Grand Am Series which airs on SPEED. JC's father is essentially the owner of the Grand Am Series and also has his hands in both the NASCAR and ISC sides of the family business.

Thursday's NASCAR Now with Mike Massaro did not mention the story. This TV series has focused on NASCAR for three seasons now. ESPN also has the ESPNEWS Network and SportsCenter. Both were all stick-and-ball on Thursday. However, the JC France arrest story was on ESPN.com on Thursday evening in the NASCAR section.

SPEED has NASCAR Live offering news updates from the track in Fontana, CA on Friday. The network also offers Trackside later that night. This has traditionally not been a very "newsy" show. As with ESPN, the France arrest story was posted on the SPEEDtv.com website.

Click here to have a quick listen to JC talk about his Grand Am participation and hopes for the future. All of that is now in doubt as he has quickly been suspended by the sanctioning body after this incident. The final Grand Am race of the season is set for Homestead, FL this weekend with the IRL Series also racing.

In terms of other notable France family-related websites, the France arrest was not posted on Grand-Am.com as of late Thursday night. The NASCAR.com site contained the France arrest as an AP story in the newswire section. The RacingOne.com site did not mention the item in the Grand Am news section.

What are your thoughts on how this story should be treated in the racing media? Do the recent outspoken Jeremy Mayfield comments by Brian France now come into play for this family issue? Is this a topic that should be dragged over into the NASCAR TV news for the weekend?

We ran a Twitter comment poll Thursday evening and got very diverse responses. We are not interested in opinions about JC or Brian France. Our interest is how you see this story playing out in the NASCAR, racing and mainstream TV programs over the next several days.

To add your opinion on this topic, just click the comments button below. This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting. Thanks for taking the time to help us with this topic.