Long Day's Journey To Green Flag

Sunday's NASCAR TV action starts with NASCAR Now on ESPN2. This leads a blitz of 4.5 hours of pre-race programming. That total does not include ESPN's own one-hour NASCAR Countdown show.

Mike Massaro kicks things off with Ricky Craven from the ESPN studios in Bristol, CT at 9AM. Craven has been wonderful this season in a variety of roles, it should be interesting to see what ESPN does with him next year. Marty Smith and Shannon Spake are in Homestead. Smith has been shadowing Tony Stewart while Spake drew Carl Edwards as an assignment.

Adam Alexander and Ray Evernham are next with Speed Center on SPEED at 10:30AM. There will be tons of SPEED personalities joining them via liveshot from Homestead. It seems every on-air talent who could find a reason headed for Florida.

The Big Kahuna is next as SPEED unleashes three hours of mind-numbing RaceDay programming. John Roberts is the ringmaster for a show that has two different sets and nine on-air talent mixing with the many scheduled guests. We don't call it the Super Wal-Mart of NASCAR TV for nothing!

Roberts, Kyle Petty and Kenny Wallace will be on one stage while Mike Joy, Darrell Waltrip and Larry McReynolds will be on another set located in the infield. Wendy Venturini, Hermie Sadler and Rutledge Wood will be the reporters.

The sad news in all of this is that Hermie Sadler is leaving RaceDay after this program. The network will announce on-air changes next week, but Sadler has been a solid addition to the program for the last several years. SPEED has been making some rather strange staffing changes recently, it should be interesting to see who steps into that role.

First Lady Michelle Obama and Ms. Biden will be at the track, so that means increased security and certainly a more hectic time for teams already dealing with the many visitors and headaches that a big season-ending race brings.

It's a bittersweet time for many of the NASCAR teams as well. Two top Sprint Cup Series teams are losing a car for next year and at this moment it appears the two-car Red Bull team is also closing it's doors. It is pretty certain there will be a significant number of folks working on Sunday who may be unemployed on Monday.

This post will serve to host your comments as the pre-race shows zoom by. To add your TV-related opinion, just click on the comments button below. Thanks for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.

Live Blogging Nationwide Series From Homestead (ESPN2 - 4PM ET)

The weather is holding up and the track is fast. Early camera views show the track is amazingly empty of fans. Hopefully, they are out enjoying some food and the scenery around the track and will head for the grandstands shortly.

Nicole Briscoe has been wrestling with Rusty Wallace and Brad Daugherty all season long. Wallace is sometimes brilliant and sometimes embarrassingly off the mark. Daugherty is a NASCAR cheerleader who stays on message and adds very little in terms of opinions about the week to week happenings in the sport. Briscoe has done a very good job keeping both of them in check and focused.

The Nationwide Series race has a diverse group of teams and drivers. There is also a diverse group of goals. Some are simply in for the win, others for the season points and still others for the experience and exposure. It's going to be interesting.

Danica Patrick has faded from view, but she has lots of open wheel experience on this track. It should be interesting to follow just how much TV time ESPN gives her in the pre-race show. The network is banking on Patrick to save the series in 2012 when she runs full time.

Marty Reid is finishing out a bittersweet season for him. Removed from the Sprint Cup Series coverage on ESPN only days before it started, Reid is doing his final NASCAR telecast for the year and perhaps for a lot longer than that. Bestwick has been solid in his role and since ESPN only does Nationwide series telecasts up to July, Reid's future plans may be changing shortly.

Reid will call the race with Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree. ESPN once again this season did not bring in two other analysts for the Nationwide Series races once the Cup coverage began. This leaves Jarrett and Petree to do the vast majority of the prep work for the Cup events, but then still have to handle the live Nationwide Series telecasts.

Imagine if ESPN has brought in Ricky Craven and Randy LaJoie for these races. Something to make the series different from just being a AAA Baseball version of the Cup telecasts. With only three seasons remaining for ESPN, it's doubtful things will change.

Jamie Little had some interesting moments last race with driver interviews. She is back on pit road today along with Dr. Jerry Punch, Vince Welch and Dave Burns. There are sometimes hot tempers in the final race, especially after incidents on the track. Keep an eye on how ESPN uses the pit reporters today.

Homestead was wonderful on TV Friday night as SPEED produced the Camping World Truck Series race. TV viewers saw clumps of trucks, wideshots of the track and kept a perspective of just who was where. That is the challenge today for the ESPN team.

This post will serve to host your comments on the TV coverage of the Nationwide Series race from Homestead-Miami Speedway. To add your opinion, just click the comments button below. Thanks as always for adding your voices to our conversation this season about the NASCAR TV partners.

Live Blogging SPEED In Homestead Saturday

The rain changed a lot of things on Friday and the result was a quick rescheduling of Sprint Cup Series practice. SPEED has added two sessions at 9:30 and 11:30AM ET in addition to the Nationwide and Cup qualifying coverage already scheduled. This means a big day for SPEED leading up to the Nationwide Series race at 4PM on ESPN2.

On this final race weekend, SPEED has a habit of dusting off Darrell Waltrip and returning him to the track. Saturday, he will work both Sprint Cup Series practice sessions with Larry McReynolds and Mike Joy.

There are a lot of stories unfolding and several that may develop into headline news as the series heads into the final race. Crew chief rumors, secret fines and the potential loss of the entire Red Bull organization may slightly overshadow the Chase on Saturday.

Tony Stewart and Carl Edwards have been fun to watch and professional in their approach to almost all of the media this week. It should be an interesting transition for them to go from the familiar faces of the SPEED reporters on Saturday to the over-hyped world of ESPN on Sunday.

Saturday should be all about serious on-track business for most teams as the weather has not allowed them track time to this point. There is a lot on the line not only for this year, but for 2012 when it comes to this final race.

Rick Allen gives the FOX crew a break when he calls Nationwide Series qualifying with Jeff Hammond and Phil Parsons at 1PM. Joy, Waltrip and McReynolds return for Cup qualifying at 2:30PM. It will be interesting to see if Mother Nature allows all this to happen.

This post will serve to host your comments about the Saturday day shift coverage on SPEED. To add your TV-related question, just click on the comments button below. Thanks for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.