Saturday, June 6, 2009

Live Blogging The Nationwide Series Race From Nashville on ESPN2


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What a weekend this has been for ESPN where NASCAR is concerned. Practice coverage on Friday consisted of lots of talking and very little content. Saturday's qualifying was the victim of a live college baseball game running long, so lots of the cars were dropped from the coverage so ESPN2 could hit live golf on time at 5PM.

Now, the NASCAR on ESPN team has to re-group and get things back together for a live race from Nashville. This is one of those unique concrete tracks that is very different from the traditional NASCAR surfaces that this series sees regularly.

Allen Bestwick will lead Rusty Wallace and Brad Daugherty on the air at 7PM with the pre-race show from the Infield Pit Studio. Tim Brewer will also be on-hand from the Tech Garage.

Once the pre-race is over, Wallace will be going up to the booth and joining Dr. Jerry Punch and Andy Petree to call the race. Dale Jarrett has the weekend off. Down on pit road will be Dave Burns, Shannon Spake and Jamie Little.

Both Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch are down from Pocono for this race. Look for the normal struggles of the Nationwide regulars to keep up with the big boys. A consistent story on these stand-alone weekends will be how many teams start the race and then pull directly into the garage before the first pit stop for fuel.

Although the fuel is free, the tires are not. Teams at the back of the pack who have no intention of actually racing are going to save every dollar possible. TDP will be keeping track of the start and park teams in our live blog.

The track is easy to cover for TV, makes great pictures with the light surface and offers good racing. This part of the coverage should be fun to watch.

This post will serve to host your comments about the Nationwide Series on ESPN2 from Nashville. 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.

Thank you for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.

Saturday: Practice, Qualifying And An ARCA Race


Daytime TV on Saturday features three on-track sessions and one race. SPEED begins at 10AM with the Sprint Cup practice from Pocono. Rain washed everything out on Friday, so teams will want to get as much track time as possible.

The second Cup Series practice is called Happy Hour and that will bring the NASCAR on TNT gang to TV for the first time this season. The session will be shown on SPEED at 11:30AM with Bill Weber, Kyle Petty and Wally Dallenbach in the booth.

At 3PM, Jerry Punch will lead the ESPN team on the air with Nationwide qualifying coverage from Nashville, TN. Dale Jarrett has the weekend off, so Rusty Wallace will be joining Punch and Andy Petree to call the session.

SPEED's Rick Allen and Phil Parsons are flying from Texas to Pocono to call the ARCA Series race at 4PM ET. Joey Logano is the only Cup Series driver crossing-over to battle the veterans like Bobby Gerhart and Frank Kimmel. Several drivers like Patrick Sheltra and points leader Justin Lofton also should be fun to watch. The ARCA Series always has some interesting characters, and senior citizen James Hylton is in the race at 74 years young.

TDP will be live blogging the Nationwide Series race on ESPN2 beginning at 7PM ET tonight. This post will serve to host your comments about the daytime racing TV. To add your opinion on these telecasts, just click the comments button below.

This is a family-friendly website, please keep that in mind when posting. Thank you for taking time out of your weekend to stop by The Daly Planet.