Motorsports This Week on ESPN and ABC
NASCAR Nationwide Series Live from Dover on ABC
The NASCAR Nationwide Series races at Dover (Del.) International Speedway on Saturday, May 15, and ABC will have a live, flag-to-flag telecast. NASCAR Countdown presented by Hellman’s airs at 2 p.m. ET, while the race telecast starts at 2:30 p.m. with the green flag at 2:45 p.m. ESPN2 is the home of the series all season, with selected races airing on ESPN and ABC.
Also from Dover, ESPN2 airs coverage of NASCAR Nationwide Series qualifying on race day at 10 a.m. as well as final practice on Friday, May 14, at 1 p.m.
Marty Reid will be the lap-by-lap announcer, joined in the booth for analysis by 1999 NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Dale Jarrett and two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion crew chief Andy Petree. Pit reporters will be Dave Burns, Jamie Little and Vince Welch. Two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion crew chief Tim Brewer will report from the ESPN Craftsman Tech Garage.
Allen Bestwick will host NASCAR Countdown from the ESPN pit studio, with analysis by Jarrett and Brad Daugherty, a team owner in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
Big Week for NASCAR Now with Exclusive Pearson Interview, Hall of Fame Opening
NASCAR Now, ESPN2’s daily NASCAR news and information program, airs at 5 p.m. ET Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday of this week, with a special one-hour program from the new NASCAR Hall of Fame as well as an exclusive interview with an injured former NASCAR champion.
On Tuesday, May 11, NASCAR Now expands to an hour and originates from the Grand Opening of the new NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, N.C. Host Mike Massaro and other reporters will speak with many of the special guests attending the historic day for the much-anticipated opening of the 150,000-square foot facility.
On Wednesday, NASCAR Now airs an exclusive interview with two-time NASCAR Nationwide Series champion Larry Pearson, who is recovering from serious injuries suffered in a crash during a race for retired NASCAR stars at Bristol Motor Speedway on March 20. In his first interview since the crash, an emotional Pearson speaks with ESPN’s Dr. Jerry Punch about what happened in the crash, the long and difficult road to recovery he faces and how the crash has changed his outlook on life.
NASCAR Now continues its month-long series on NASCAR fans in the one-hour weekend edition airing Sunday, May 16 at 9 a.m. The program also will preview that day’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Dover International Speedway. The segments on fans will air in the weekend edition each week during May.
Featured in the May 16 show will be Patrick Hickey, a nursing professor at the University of South Carolina who also is an accomplished mountain climber. Hickey has scaled the seven summits of the world, an eight-year quest that included the highest mountain on each of the seven continents. His task was completed when he took a NASCAR flag to the top of Mt. Everest and managed to time it for May 24, matching the number of his favorite NASCAR driver, Jeff Gordon. Hickey and other fans featured in the NASCAR Now series are subjects in the recently-released book “The Weekend Starts on Wednesday" by Andrew Giangola.
NASCAR on ESPN analyst Ricky Craven and NASCAR Now reporter Angelique Chengelis will be joined by NASCAR driver Mike Wallace as panelists on NASCAR Now’s weekly roundtable discussion program on Monday, May 17, at 5 p.m. on ESPN2 with host Allen Bestwick.
Massaro hosts the program all week. On Sunday’s edition, Chengelis and Nicole Briscoe will report from Dover, joined by analyst Dale Jarrett.
NASCAR Now is hosted by Massaro, Briscoe and Bestwick and originates from ESPN’s high definition studios in Bristol, Conn. Contributors include reporters Marty Smith, Shannon Spake and Angelique Chengelis, analysts Ray Evernham, Tim Brewer, Brad Daugherty, Ricky Craven and Randy LaJoie, and ESPN.com reporters Ed Hinton, Terry Blount and David Newton. The NASCAR on ESPN team event coverage team of Rusty Wallace, Dale Jarrett, Marty Reid, Dr. Jerry Punch, Andy Petree, Dave Burns, Jamie Little, and Vince Welch also make frequent contributions to NASCAR Now.
NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series in Atlanta
The NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series races this weekend in the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway and ESPN2 will air highlights of qualifying and eliminations. Qualifying action airs Saturday, May 15, at 8 p.m. ET, and coverage of eliminations airs Sunday at 7 p.m.
One of NHRA’s long-established events — the race celebrates its 30th anniversary this season — this belle of the South has gained a reputation as one of the tougher events on the tour to win. With summer approaching, warm temperatures can turn the event into “Hotlanta" and throw crew chiefs a curve as they try to glue their charges to the facility’s 660-foot concrete launchpad. The event is the fifth on the schedule to feature the high-revving 190-mph Pro Stock Motorcycles.
Paul Page anchors ESPN2’s coverage with analysis by 22-time NHRA winner Mike Dunn. Gary Gerould and Dave Rieff report from the pits. Rieff and Dunn host NHRA RaceDay presented by Lucas Oil on Sunday at 10 a.m. to set the stage for that day’s eliminations action.
ESPN Classic Airing Past Indianapolis 500 Races All Month
To help race fans gear up for the Indianapolis 500 on May 30, which will air live on ABC, ESPN Classic is airing highlights of past editions of the Greatest Spectacle in Racing each Monday in May prior to the big event. In addition, the network will air six past races on Saturday, May 29, the day before the race.
The Indianapolis 500 is airing on ABC for the 46th consecutive year in 2010. ABC also is televising four other races in the IZOD IndyCar Series this season.
The remaining schedule (all times Eastern):
|
Monday, May 10 |
3 p.m. | 1987 Indianapolis 500 |
| Monday, May 17 | 3 p.m. | 1990 Indianapolis 500 |
| Monday, May 17 | 5 p.m. | 1992 Indianapolis 500 |
| Monday, May 24 | 1 p.m. | 1991 Indianapolis 500 |
| Monday, May 24 | 3 p.m. | 2008 Indianapolis 500 |
| Saturday, May 29 | Noon | 1971 Indianapolis 500 |
| Saturday, May 29 | 2 p.m. | 1981 Indianapolis 500 |
| Saturday, May 29 | 4 p.m. | 2001 Indianapolis 500 |
| Saturday, May 29 | 6 p.m. | 2002 Indianapolis 500 |
| Saturday, May 29 | 8 p.m. | 2009 Indianapolis 500 |
| Saturday, May 29 | 10 p.m. | 2005 Indianapolis 500 |