Motorsports This Week on ESPN
The NASCAR Nationwide Series races under the lights in prime time at Darlington (SC) Raceway on Friday night, May 7, and ESPN2 will have a live, flag-to-flag telecast. NASCAR Countdown presented by Hellman’s airs at 7 p.m. ET, while the race telecast starts at 7:30 p.m. with the green flag at 7:45 p.m. ESPN2 is the home of the series all season, with selected races airing on ESPN and ABC.
Marty Reid will be the lap-by-lap announcer, joined in the booth for analysis by 1989 NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Rusty Wallace and two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion crew chief Andy Petree. Pit reporters will be Dave Burns, Jamie Little and Dr. Jerry Punch. 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 Wallace and Brad Daugherty, a team owner in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
NASCAR Now Fans Series Continues Saturday
NASCAR Now, ESPN2’s daily NASCAR news and information program, continues its month-long series on NASCAR fans in the one-hour weekend edition airing Saturday, May 8, at 10 a.m. ET. The program also will preview that night’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Darlington Raceway. The segments on fans will air in the weekend edition each week during May.
Featured in the May 8 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 analysts Ricky Craven and Randy LaJoie and ESPN The Magazine senior writer Ryan McGee will be panelists on NASCAR Now’s weekly roundtable discussion program on Monday, May 10, at 5 p.m. on ESPN2 with host Allen Bestwick.
Nicole Briscoe hosts half-hour episodes of NASCAR Now airing Tuesday and Thursday of this week at 5 p.m., Wednesday at 6 p.m. and Friday at 6:30 p.m., as well as the weekend edition. Marty Smith and Shannon Spake will report from Darlington, joined by analyst Rusty Wallace.
NASCAR Now is hosted by Mike 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.
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 month-long schedule (all times Eastern):
Monday, May 3
3 p.m.
1985 Indianapolis 500
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
NHRA Modified Action on ESPN2
Drag racing fans can watch 30 minutes of action featuring the NHRA’s new Get Screened America Pro Mod Series on Sunday, May 9, at 10 a.m. ET on ESPN2. The programs will include highlights of the Modified cars and drivers from the recent event at Gateway International Raceway near St. Louis.
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