Live Blogging Nationwide Series From Chicagoland (ESPN2 - 3PM ET)

The Nationwide Series again has the smell of a Cup-dominated Saturday. The fast Chicagoland Speedway has lent itself to the more experienced drivers in the past.

Rusty Wallace will be on the pre-race show with host Nicole Briscoe and Brad Daugherty. Dave Moody from Sirius Speedway reported that Wallace's current NNS sponsor, 5 Hour Energy, is leaving next season and moving to the Cup Series with Michael Waltrip Racing and driver Clint Bowyer. That topic should be interesting.

Marty Reid, Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree will call the race. There are a handful of NNS regulars still trying hard for the driver's championship. Unfortunately, ESPN is star-struck with the Cup drivers and once again they will be given center stage on TV.

The racing is typical aero track style, with little passing and lots of importance on pit stops under both green and caution flags. TV has no choice but to follow the groups of cars close to each other as passing has been at a premium. Restarts yield the excitement in the race and should once again tell the tale of the race.

It's tough to get excited for this coverage as ESPN squeezes the NNS into a hole between college football games. The network has covered nothing from Chicagoland today, including qualifying for both the NNS and Cup Series.

One good story has emerged, as talented young driver Brian Scott has the pole for the event. This post will serve to host your comments on the ESPN2 coverage of the NNS race from Chicagoland Speedway. Just click the comments button below.

Live Blogging Camping World Trucks From Chicagoland (SPEED - 7:30PM ET)

That is driver Steve Arpin, who is on tonight's pole for the Camping World Truck Series race at Chicagoland Speedway. It looks to be a pretty racy bunch tonight. There are some current Cup drivers, a handful of one-timers and a group of regulars chasing the points. That's been a good combo for this series.

Krista Voda kicks things off at 7:30PM with The Set-up pre-race show. Rick Allen will call the race with Phil Parsons and Micheal Waltrip. Hermie Sadler and Ray Dunlap are the pit reporters.

This track is fast, but not the type of track for which the truck series was intended. Beating and banging here just results in less aero downforce and ultimately lack of a shot to win. Passing is tough and restarts might hold the key to the race.

TV looks to be the familiar package from SPEED. The focus is on the race, nothing from the TV side is designed to take over the telecast and it really works. Look for lots of split-screens tonight to follow two groups racing or green flag pitstops.

This post will serve to host your comments on the Camping World Trucks in Chicago. To add your TV-related opinion, just click on the comments button below.

Sunday TV Showdown Looming

It's that time of the year again for NASCAR. Sunday afternoon, the Sprint Cup Series will go head-to-head with the NFL for TV ratings. It's a moment of choice for fans of both sports.

While the action from the Saturday night race in Richmond was certainly an attention-getter, the NFL also had a memorable opening weekend. This is the time of the season when ESPN is alone in presenting the Sprint Cup Series races.

It's a tad ironic that ESPN just unveiled a massive new NFL TV package. It has already resulted in new programming on multiple ESPN networks and substantial expansion of existing series. ESPN and the NFL have cemented a relationship that will exist for a very long time.

This was also the week that ESPN2's NASCAR Now, the only NASCAR-themed program on any ESPN network, was relegated to the 3PM Eastern timeslot. Even the later airing for West Coast viewers was cancelled. Since 2007 this series has aired on weekdays at 5PM ET.

Last year we had this discussion and found many NASCAR fans to be upset. While the Chase for the Championship format was designed to counter NFL interest, it was not the Chase fans disliked. Instead, it was the way ESPN covered the final ten races of the Sprint Cup Series season.

Fans of drivers outside of the Chase found no TV coverage of those teams, unless the car was leading the race. Literally from the time the green flag fell there would be four hours without a full field recap, any reference to non-Chase teams or even updates on how non-Chase drivers got to where they were running on the track.

Often, drivers would seemingly appear from nowhere to win the races. It was a fundamental disconnect between a TV network covering a Chase and fans who were watching a race. Nothing could shake ESPN from focusing on the top Chasers for the entire telecast.

One basic truth about the NASCAR fan base was seemingly missed by the ESPN production team. Fans do not change driver favorites when the Chase starts. That group of fans wearing Kasey Kahne, Greg Biffle or Mark Martin gear wants to be provided the same amount of information about those teams as they have been all season.

The argument that the Chase drivers deserve the lion's share of the TV coverage has been proven wrong by the disastrous TV ratings and negative fan response over the last four years. Time and time again, it's been suggested that ESPN take the Chase races and simply produce them as events, letting the scoring ticker and the pit reporters handle the Chase point updates.

One new wrinkle brought to the table by ESPN this season is the side-by-side commercial format. Branded as NASCAR Nonstop, the new format will be used for the second half of each Chase race. The first half of each race will feature full-screen commercials as usual.

This is at least a bow to one of the biggest problems TV has with the sport. In order to pay for the races, the Sprint Cup Series networks have to hammer commercial breaks into live events without being able to stop the action. NASCAR Nonstop is at least a first step that will hopefully convince ESPN to use this format full time for 2012.

The other big advantage for ESPN is the presence of Allen Bestwick. Love him or hate him, Bestwick is superb at directing traffic on the air and working to keep fans updated on the information about the race. This will be his first time trying to walk the tricky line of the race vs. the Chase.

It really helps to have someone in the lap-by-lap announcer position who has direct experience in the role. That is something Dr. Jerry Punch and Marty Reid did not. It was a bold move by ESPN just days before the network's Sprint Cup Series coverage began to move Bestwick into the TV booth. We will see on Sunday if it pays off.

What is your mindset as you try to make the decision about Sunday TV viewing? Putting aside the usual complaints about the Chase, Brian France and Junior how about sharing with us what you will be watching on Sunday and why.

To add your opinion on this topic, just click the comments button below. Thanks for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.