Live Blogging Nationwide Series in Charlotte (2PM ET - ABC)

This Memorial Day weekend is busy for motorsports. ABC will televise both the Indy 500 and today's race.

Nicole Briscoe will host the pre-race and anchor from the Infield Pit Center for the NASCAR on ESPN gang in Charlotte. She will be joined by Dale Jarrett and Brad Daugherty. I am told that there may be a special guest as well. The telecast starts at 2PM ET.

Dale Jarrett will be moving up to the broadcast booth where he will be joining Allen Bestwick and Andy Petree. Marty Smith is in Indy working that race on Sunday.

Also in Indy are Jerry Punch, Jamie Little and Vince Welch. That puts Mike Massaro, Shannon Spake and Dave Burns on pit road for the Charlotte Nationwide Series race. Yes, Tim Brewer will also be on-site in the Tech Garage.

ESPN has come along way and this weekend has the potential to be electric. Stories are unfolding in this series as the Sprint Cup drivers are going to be racing in front of the hometown crowd in cars that are intended only to win. No point battles, just racing for the top spot in front of family and friends.

The weather is good, the camera placement is outstanding and SPEED has already shown the Nationwide cars are flying on the track this weekend. This should be fun.

This post will host your comments about the ABC/ESPN coverage of the Nationwide Series from Charlotte. To add your comments, 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 The Daly Planet.

Thursday On SPEED Means All Day TV

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.

Happy to take your comments on these topics below. To add your 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.

Tuesday Media Notes (Updated)

As we approach the holiday weekend, here are some topics and notes that folks have been asking about:

Update #1: SPEED tells us that Casey Mears is going to be the featured guest on Race Hub tonight at 7:30PM. He will update info on the health of his friend Brian Vickers and also talk about his feelings at getting the Red Bull ride because of the Vickers health issue. Steve Byrnes hosts tonight's show.

Update #2: David Caraviello from NASCAR.com passes along an amazing motorsports story. Formula 1 is returning to the United States and this time, it's coming to Texas. Click here to read the entire story. Here is an excerpt:

Formula One World Championship Limited and Formula One Administration Limited (together, the F1 Commercial Rights Holder) and Full Throttle Productions, LP, promoter of the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix™, announce that a historic agreement has been reached for Austin, Texas to serve as the host city of the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix™ for years 2012 through 2021.

Brent Musburger will return to host the Indy 500. Jerry Punch also returns to anchor the pit road coverage for the first time in many years. Marty Reid calls the race with Scott Goodyear and Eddie Cheever alongside. Vince Welch, Rick DeBruhl and Jamie Little round-out the pit road team. 59 cameras, including the cable cam that runs down the frontstretch at 80mph and is great for restarts.

Because Marty Reid is in Indy, Allen Bestwick will step-in and call the Nationwide Series race on Saturday with Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree. Nicole Briscoe will host the pre-race with Jarrett and Brad Daugherty. Dave Burns, Mike Massaro and Shannon Spake will handle the pit road reporting duties.

The popular NASCAR Now program is not on at 5PM this week. French Open tennis coverage pushes the original airing back to 10PM Pacific, 1AM Eastern Time. Mike Massaro is hosting the late night show.

SPEED's Race Hub has returned to thirty minutes in length. The network is still working on a new Monday night line-up as well as deciding if Race Hub should be one hour in length. We should know more shortly.

The Hall of Fame coverage was a huge hit. Controlled and well organized, we have had many emails asking if the same production team will now be involved in the Sprint Cup Series banquet. We will keep you posted.

More updates added throughout the day, open for your comments as always.