SPEED Has Friday Covered From Pocono

Things are underway at noon ET from Pocono and all the Friday action is on SPEED.

The trio of Steve Byrnes, Jeff Hammond and Larry McReynolds are in for a long day. They call practice at noon, qualifying at 3:30PM and then handle Trackside Friday night at 7PM. Bob Dillner and Wendy Venturini are the reporters for the practice and qualifying. Elliott Sadler joins Trackside as a panelist.

Darrell Waltrip is back again on SPEED. This campaign to raise Waltrip's profile on the network is assisted by the fact that his brother, Michael, is out of the country. The senior Waltrip will step in for the truck series and ARCA coverage.

He will be joining Rick Allen and Phil Parsons who will call the truck series practice at 5:30PM in advance of the Saturday race. Ray Dunlap and Adam Alexander are reporting for the trucks while Wendy Venturini and Jim Tretow will handle ARCA.

Sandwiched in between the action on the track will be two editions of NASCAR Live at 1:30 and 3:00PM. This is a good little show to keep fans up to date on the happenings at the track. John Roberts and Randy Pemberton will be on the SPEED Stage with Bob Dillner and Hermie Sadler reporting from the garage area.

ESPN2 has lots of golf coverage on Friday, so there is no NASCAR Now and no other coverage of the sport. The 7:00PM Saturday night coverage of the Nationwide Series race is the next time ESPN comes back to NASCAR.

We will use this post to host your comments on the topics above and the Friday coverage on SPEED. 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 taking the time to stop by.

Wednesday TV/Media Notes

First of all, best wishes for a speedy recovery to veteran NASCAR owner Jack Roush. He was involved in an accident while landing his private jet at the airport in Oshkosh, WI.

Arriving for a major airshow, Roush experienced a hard landing and his airplane broke apart. He experienced some cuts and bruises, but walked out of the plane under his own power. He and his female passenger were transported to the hospital and reported in stable condition. The photo is from AVWeb via reporter Bob Margolis.

Sports Media Watch updates the TV ratings for the Brickyard 400 on ESPN:

Sunday's Brickyard 400 drew a 3.6 U.S. rating and 5.709 million viewers on ESPN, down 12% in ratings and viewership from last year (4.1, 6.487 mil), down 16% and 14%, respectively, from 2008 (4.3, 6.668 mil), and down 14% and 13%, respectively, from 2007 (4.2, 6.574 mil).

This marks the lowest rating ever for the Brickyard 400, which debuted in 1994. Only once before had the race ever drawn less than a 4.0 rating -- 2000, when it hit a then-record low 3.7 on ABC.

SPEED's Race Hub continues to develop the new one-hour weekday shows. Wednesday, Marcos Ambrose comes to the studio to talk about his impending departure from JRG/Daugherty Motorsports. Reporter Danielle Trotta is at RCR to speak with Clint Bowyer and Ray Dunlap will update the truck series before the first race at Pocono.

While the Sprint Cup and truck series are in Pocono, the Nationwide Series is at Iowa Speedway and live on ESPN2 Saturday night. This stand-alone race lets ESPN put together an interesting announce team in the booth.

It will be Ray Evernham and Ricky Craven teamed as the analysts with Vince Welch calling the play-by-play. We have consistently urged the network to use a different team of announcers on Nationwide Series races once Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree move over to the ESPN Sprint Cup Series coverage. This Iowa trio should be fun to watch.

Late last week, NASCAR quietly added a new TV partner. VERSUS is the new home of nine NASCAR Modified Series telecasts. Venues include Bowman Gray Stadium, home of the cancelled Madhouse TV series. Click here to read the entire release.

Opening a relationship with VERSUS is a positive step. This Comcast-owned network is growing quickly and stands to become a sports TV powerhouse when Comcast's acquisition of NBC becomes final. We will pass along more information about announcers and air dates when they become available.

There is no NASCAR Now program on Thursday as ESPN2 has live golf coverage. This also played a role in the fact that SPEED will originate the practice and qualifying coverage from Pocono this weekend for the Sprint Cup Series.

The good news is that another extended post-race show will air on ESPN after the Pocono race on Sunday. ESPN's first effort last week at Indy was outstanding. This is exactly what fans have been requesting. ESPN has blocked out 5:30 to 7PM on Sunday for a combination of post-race coverage and SportsCenter highlights.

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Your Turn: Sprint Cup Series From Indy On ESPN

This is the fourth season of ESPN covering the Sprint Cup Series down the stretch.

The network offered a one-hour pre-race show anchored by Allen Bestwick. Joining Bestwick in the Infield Pit Studio were Ray Evernham, Rusty Wallace and Brad Daugherty. They offered several pre-produced features, some interviews and discussions of race strategy. Tim Brewer was in the Tech Garage.

The actual call of the race was being done for the very first time by Marty Reid. He was joined in the TV booth by Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree. Down on pit road were Dr. Jerry Punch, Jamie Little, Dave Burns and Vince Welch.

Reid was thrown a curveball right away with a major incident in turn one that took a while to sort out. From there, the race took quite a while to settle down as cars overheated and needed to pit out of sequence.

ESPN offered good pictures and sound with no technical problems. There were no weather delays and no red flags. The caution periods were limited and the racing was the style we have come to expect from this track.

This post is an opportunity to offer your comments on the ESPN race coverage before you hear mine. Just click on the comments button below and offer a wrap-up of the coverage. This is the most widely-read post on our site. Thanks for stopping by.