NASCAR Nationwide Series Live from Nashville on ESPN
The NASCAR Nationwide Series races for 300 miles Saturday afternoon at Nashville Superspeedway and ESPN will have a live, flag-to-flag telecast of the fifth series event of the 2010 season. NASCAR Countdown presented by Hellman’s airs Saturday, April 3, at 3:30 p.m. ET. The race telecast starts at 4 p.m. with the green flag at 4:16 p.m.
Ricky Craven, who won races in all three of NASCAR’s top series during his driving career and has been a studio analyst for ESPN for more than two years, will make his debut in the broadcast booth as an analyst. Craven joins lap-by-lap announcer Marty Reid and 1999 NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Dale Jarrett to call the race. Pit reporters will be Dave Burns, Jamie Little, Dr. Jerry Punch 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.
The Nashville event is the first of four races in the Nationwide Insurance Dash 4 Cash. Created in 2009 and designed to increase the on-track excitement for the drivers and the fans, the bonus program was implemented to develop and support NASCAR Nationwide Series regulars, up-and-comers and those who compete part time in the Series. NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers must also compete full time in the Nationwide Series to be eligible. There is a $25,000 cash bonus awarded to the eligible race winner of the four Dash 4 Cash races but should the winner not be eligible, the prize money will roll over to next Dash 4 Cash race.
There also is a $75,000 year-end bonus awarded at the end of the season to the NASCAR Nationwide Series-only driver with the highest number of cumulative points from the four races. NASCAR drivers who compete in more than seven Sprint Cup races during the season are not eligible for the end of season bonus, even if they run all Nationwide Series races.
NASCAR Now Schedule
ESPN2’s daily NASCAR news and information program NASCAR Now airs a four-day schedule this week due to the open weekend for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Following the Monday, March 29, roundtable program, Shannon Spake hosts half-hour episodes of NASCAR Now airing Tuesday, March 30, and Wednesday, March 31, at 5 p.m. ET, and Friday at 1 a.m. (late Thursday night). The show will take Friday off and there will be no roundtable edition on Monday, April 5. NASCAR Now returns on Tuesday, April 6.
NASCAR Now is hosted by Mike Massaro, Allen Bestwick and Nicole Briscoe 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.
-30-
