Friday, April 11, 2008

In-Progress At Phoenix: Nationwide Series On ESPN2


The Nationwide Series takes to the air on Friday night on ESPN2 immediately after a live NBA Basketball game. Hopefully, things will go smoothly during the transition.

Here is the scoop on the race from ESPN:

"ESPN2 continues its season-long coverage of the NASCAR Nationwide Series with a live, flag-to-flag primetime telecast of the 200-mile race from Phoenix International Raceway Friday, April 5, beginning at 9:30 p.m. ET with NASCAR Countdown. The telecast is presented by Cici�s Pizza. ESPN2 is the home of the NASCAR Nationwide Series all season, with selected races on ESPN and ABC."

"Marty Reid will be the lead announcer for ESPN2�s coverage, joined in the booth for analysis by 1999 NASCAR Cup Series champion Dale Jarrett, one of the founding drivers of the NASCAR Nationwide Series, and two-time Cup Series champion crew chief Andy Petree. Jamie Little, Mike Massaro and Vince Welch will report from the pits, while two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion crew chief Tim Brewer will be in the ESPN DISH Tech Center."

"Allen Bestwick will host NASCAR Countdown with analysis by Jarrett and Brad Daugherty, a former winning team owner in the NASCAR Nationwide Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, in the ESPN pit studio."

There we go, the crew is in place and the changes are Marty Reid in for Jerry Punch and Vince Welch in for Shannon Spake. Reid is a veteran, and it should be interesting once again for him to work with Jarrett and Petree. The downside is that there are lots of brand new faces for Reid to deal with in this series.

This post will serve to host your comments as ESPN2 presents the Nationwide Series race from Phoenix International Raceway. To add your comment, simply click on the COMMENTS button below and then follow the easy instructions. The rules for posting are on the right side of the main page, and thank for stopping by.

In-Progress At Phoenix: "Trackside," Practice and Qualifying Coverage


Friday before the Nationwide Series race on ESPN2, there are several hours of NASCAR action on SPEED.

Things kick-off with Steve Byrnes hosting Trackside at 4PM Eastern Time. Kurt Busch and Elliott Sadler will be the featured guests joining Larry McReynolds, Jeff Hammond and Darrell Waltrip for the hour.

At 5PM, SPEED covers the Nationwide Series qualifying session that is scheduled to last ninety minutes and go directly into the first Friday Sprint Cup practice at 6:30PM.

There are two sessions, and SPEED will carry them both with a flexible version of NASCAR Live with John Roberts in between. That should be around 7:30PM. The final session cranks-up at 8PM and continues for one hour. SPEED then turns-over the NASCAR action to ESPN for the Nationwide Series race.

This post will serve to host your comments about the Friday NASCAR programming on SPEED from Phoenix. To add your TV-related comments, please click on the COMMENTS button below and follow the easy instructions. The rules for posting are on the right side of the main page. Thanks again for stopping by The Daly Planet.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

"NASCAR On ESPN" Features Marty Reid On Friday


The NASCAR Nationwide Series takes to the air on ESPN2 Friday night at 9:30PM Eastern Time.

This week, Jerry Punch is off so Marty Reid will step-in to the play-by-play role with Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree alongside. Vince Welch will also step-over from the IRL coverage to report from pit road along with Jamie Little and Mike Massaro.

Allen Bestwick will anchor the coverage from the Infield Pit Studio. He will be joined by Brad Daugherty and Dale Jarrett for the pre-race show. Something else will be different this week as well.

NBA basketball is on ESPN2 at 7PM with the Cleveland Cavaliers taking on the Chicago Bulls. The live game is scheduled to end at 9:30PM and lead directly into a fifteen minute version of NASCAR Countdown.

The ESPN2 race coverage starts at 9:45PM and with live radio and other broadcast elements in place, the race itself should start as scheduled.

So, should basketball run long, ESPN Classic may again come into play as a network outlet for the Nationwide coverage. For those of you wondering what is on ESPN during that time it is Tiger Woods and friends playing in The Masters.

NASCAR fans should be on their toes and stay informed whenever a live event is scheduled immediately before a race on ESPN2. This season ESPN's NASCAR coverage has been much better, and the changes in both personnel and production have made the difference.

The one area where ESPN is still lacking is the the inability to present NASCAR racing in a protected timeslot on a regular basis. As we saw with the Busch Series last season, other live sports events greatly impacted this series.

Now that ESPN has solved the production and announcer issues, focusing on the on-air operational problems with this series as the season progresses is going to be very important.

The Daly Planet welcomes comments from readers. Simply click on the COMMENTS button below and follow the easy directions. The rules for posting are on the right side of the main page. Thanks again for stopping by.