NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Season Finale Live on ABC: The 2009 season finale for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series is this weekend at Florida’s Homestead-Miami Speedway as the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup ends with the crowning of the champion. ESPN’s live, flag-to-flag coverage of the Ford 400 airs Sunday, Nov. 22, on ABC and ABC HD beginning with NASCAR Countdown at 2:30pm/et. The race’s green flag is scheduled for 3:30pm/et. Also from Homestead, ESPN2 airs coverage of NASCAR Sprint Cup qualifying on Friday, Nov. 20, at 3:00pm/et, as well as coverage of final practice on Saturday, Nov. 21, at 3:00pm/et.
Dr. Jerry Punch will be lap-by-lap announcer for ESPN’s coverage, with analysis by 1999 NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Dale Jarrett and two-time NASCAR champion crew chief Andy Petree. Reporting from the pits will be Dave Burns, Jamie Little, Shannon Spake and Vince Welch, with two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion crew chief Tim Brewer in the ESPN Craftsman Tech Garage.
Allen Bestwick will host the pre-race NASCAR Countdown program with analysis by 1989 NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Rusty Wallace, Brad Daugherty, co-owner of a winning team in the NASCAR Nationwide Series, and three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion crew chief Ray Evernham in the ESPN pit studio.

SportsCenter Special Originates from Homestead on Championship Day: ESPN’s flagship program SportsCenter will present a 90-minute special from Homestead-Miami Speedway on Sunday, Nov. 22, at 1:00pm/et, following NFL Countdown on ESPN. The telecast will lead up to NASCAR Countdown on ABC at 2:30pm/et. SportsCenter presented by AutoZone at the NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship will be hosted by Allen Bestwick and will give NASCAR fans the opportunity to see things that go on prior to a race that they normally don’t get to see. Mike Rowe, host of Dirty Jobs on the Discovery Channel, will be a special on-site reporter for ESPN and look at some of the dirty jobs of NASCAR. Rowe’s voice has been heard by NASCAR fans as the narrator of segments during ESPN’s coverage of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup this season.
ESPN’s Dave Burns will spend the program shadowing the #48 Lowe’s Chevrolet of Jimmie Johnson, taking viewers behind-the-scenes as the car goes through final race preparation and NASCAR inspection. And ESPN’s Marty Smith will shadow Johnson himself in the hours before he attempts to make history as the first driver to win four consecutive NASCAR Sprint Cup championships.
The program also will include a heartwarming story of how the building of Homestead-Miami Speedway in 1994 and 1995 helped bring the Homestead area back from the devastation wrought by Hurricane Andrew, one of the worst natural disasters in history, on Aug. 24, 1992. Joining Bestwick in the ESPN Pit Studio will be analysts Rusty Wallace, Brad Daugherty and Ray Evernham. Several NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers also are expected to stop by the studio during the course of the program.

ESPN Classic Returns to North Wilkesboro Speedway: With long-dormant North Wilkesboro (NC) Speedway scheduled to re-open late in 2010, ESPN Classic will bring NASCAR fans back to the 0.625-mile short track with a look at the 1989 Holly Farms 400, a NASCAR Winston Cup race. A one-hour highlights program airs Monday, Nov. 23, at 12noon/et.

NASCAR Now Originates from Homestead for Season Finale: NASCAR Now, ESPN2’s daily NASCAR news and information program, will close out its 2009 season with four shows originating from Homestead-Miami Speedway, site of this weekend’s final races of the NASCAR season. Allen Bestwick will host the programs with analysts including Rusty Wallace, Brad Daugherty, Ray Evernham and Dale Jarrett, and reporters Mike Massaro, Nicole Manske and Marty Smith.
The first program from Homestead airs Friday, Nov. 20, at 12:30am/et (late Thursday night), with another airing Saturday, Nov. 21, at 12:30am/et (late Friday night). The one-hour weekend edition airs Sunday, Nov. 22, at 10:am/et with a preview of that day’s NASCAR Sprint Cup finale at Homestead, with the final NASCAR Now of the season airing at 10:00pm/et Sunday. Massaro hosts half-hour editions of NASCAR Now from ESPN’s high definition studios in Bristol, Ct., on Wednesday, Nov. 17, at 1:30am/et (late Tuesday night), and Wednesday at 6:00pm/et. Smith will report from Miami for both programs.

NASCAR takes ABC to task for 'boring' race: Almost everybody who watches TV sports is an instant critic. One exception: Sports leagues themselves, who almost never publicly criticize the networks that cover them. And when it comes to ESPN, and its various TV platforms including ABC, the last criticism you'd expect is that the worldwide leader in hype wasn't enthusiastic enough about something it had paid to cover. But NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston, in a blog posting on nascar.com, specifically knocked ESPN/ABC's coverage of Sunday's Sprint Cup race in Talladega, Ala. At issue: Whether the race was boring.
Usually, TV sports analysts go to great pains to avoid even hinting what they're showing is boring. But Poston suggested ESPN/ABC analysts, including Dale Jarrett, "certainly weren't happy with the race and felt compelled to remind viewers of that virtually every lap. ... And along the way, ABC missed a lot of very good racing." On Sunday's race on a long track with steep banks, NASCAR cited safety reasons for prohibiting so-called bump-drafting to provide extra room between cars on turns. Although ESPN/ABC let viewers eavesdrop on driver Tony Stewart asking his crew during the race to tell him something interesting "so I don't fall asleep out here," Poston says the event had "seriously intense racing." ESPN, in a statement, said only that it had a "strong telecast" and had no comment on Poston's post.(USA Today)(11-6-2009)

Drivers to appear on Raw: #18-Kyle Busch and #20-Joey Logano are scheduled to serve as special guest hosts of WWE's Raw in Buffalo, N.Y., this Monday night [10/26]. The show airs on the USA Network at 9:00pm/et.(WWE)(10-26-2009)

Danica Patrick Special Airs Sunday on ESPN: A star of the Indianapolis 500 and the IndyCar Series since 2005, Danica Patrick may be making a move to NASCAR in 2010. Racing fans can learn more about the Roscoe, Ill., native in the Peak Performance Fast World of Danica Patrick, a 30-minute special program airing Sunday, Oct. 18, at 3:30pm/et on ESPN. The program is an in-depth look at Patrick during the recently-completed IndyCar Series season, as told by her, and examines her life away from the racetrack.(ESPN)(10-17-2009)

Johnson to be chronicled in HBO show: HBO Sports' groundbreaking "24/7" reality franchise, which has captured seven Sports Emmy Awards, will debut its first non-boxing series with 24/7 Jimmie Johnson: Race to Daytona, an all-new, four-episode, all-access series chronicling the driver and his team as they prepare for the Daytona 500. Debuting Tuesday, Jan. 26th (10:00-10:30pm/et/pt), the four-week series spotlights Jimmie Johnson, and gives viewers an inside look at the driver and his #48 Hendrick Motorsports team as they prepare for the biggest race of the year. Ensuing episodes will debut on subsequent Tuesdays - Feb. 2, 9 and 16 - in prime time. The Feb. 16 series finale will debut two days after the race, with cameras tracking all the drama and excitement surrounding Johnson and his team on race day. All four episodes will have multiple replay dates on HBO, and the series will also be available on HBO On Demand. 24/7 Jimmie Johnson: Race to Daytona will provide exclusive behind-the-scenes access, along with in-depth interviews with Johnson, crew chief Chad Knaus, team owner Rick Hendrick and the #48 Hendrick Motorsports team as they prepare for the 2010 Daytona 500. Johnson says that getting his wife Chandra on board with the idea of cameras following them around was not difficult, since they had seen earlier "24/7" shows. "Chandra and I were big fans of the '24/7' series with Ricky Hatton and Floyd Mayweather, and that's kind of how this all came about," says Johnson, who along with his wife founded the Jimmie Johnson Foundation, which has raised more than $2 million for various charities since its inception in 2006. The executive producers of 24/7 Jimmie Johnson: Race to Daytona are Ross Greenburg and Rick Bernstein; coordinating producer, Dave Harmon; Liev Schreiber narrates. NASCAR Media Group, the leading producer of NASCAR on television, will provide production support for HBO Sports.(HBO)(10-15-2009)

Tom Cruise Narrates Hendrick Motorsports Documentary Sunday on ABC: TOGETHER: The Hendrick Motorsports Story, NASCAR Media Group's documentary-style film chronicling the history of the eight-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship team, will air Sunday, Oct. 11, at 1:30pm/et on ABC, prior to the network's live Pepsi 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup race coverage from Fontana, Calif. Narrated by three-time Academy Award nominee Tom Cruise and presented by Pepsi, TOGETHER employs exclusive interviews, never-before-seen archival footage, thrilling racing sequences and rare family photography to detail the personal relationships and emotional events that have shaped one of NASCAR's most decorated organizations. Cruise, an auto racing enthusiast, starred in the 1990 NASCAR-themed motion picture Days of Thunder. The script was co-written by Shawn Truax and Ray Didinger and directed by Rory Karpf.(10-6-2009)

Are NASCAR Drivers smarter than a 5th grader?: Comedian Jeff Foxworthy hosts the all-new half-hour version of "Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?" The fast-paced game show, where knowledge of grade-school level questions is tested, welcomes NASCAR drivers #55-Michael Waltrip, #6-David Ragan, #99-Carl Edwards, #2-Kurt Busch and #11-Denny Hamlin. On October 6, Michael Waltrip will be in the classroom to play the game to raise money for the Victory Junction Gang Camp. He’ll also be joined by Roush Racing’s David Ragan. The special back-to-back episodes will premiere on MyNetworkTV (8:00pm/et/pt). On October 26, NASCAR week kicks off on the new nationally-syndicated edition of "Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader?" Michael Waltrip, Carl Edwards, Kurt Busch, and Denny Hamlin are among the contestants playing the game for their charities. Check your local listings for exact air time.(10-5-2009)

Robin Miller to sub for Dave Despain: Wind Tunnel original episode #435 will be highlighted by a couple of “firsts” for SPEED’s definitive motor sports talk show. SPEEDtv.com columnist and longtime motor sports journalist Robin Miller hosts the one-hour adventure as Dave Despain takes his last scheduled vacation of the year, and racing legend A.J. Foyt makes his first appearance ever on the long-running popular melting pot of news, rumors and discussion “I am being allowed to host Wind Tunnel on Sunday night (9:00pm/etfor the first time without Despain or any other parental supervision,” Miller said. Expect the unexpected when Miller and Foyt get together early in the show. “The first segment will be dedicated to the first four-time Indy 500 winner and I intend to ask him":
* Why he and George Bignotti could win but couldn't get along?
* How brave you had to be in the '60s?
* Why he didn't have any drivers as close friends?
* Whether it worse being stung by bees or burned at Milwaukee?
* Why today's momma's boys couldn't cut it in the old days?
* … and whether he enjoyed smacking me as much as he did Arie Luyendyk?”
Miller’s other guest will be former motorcycle flat track champion Gene Romero, a 1998 inductee in the AMA Motorcycle Hall of Fame. Romero, one of the stars of the 1971 cult classic motorcycle documentary On Any Sunday, now promotes dirt track events around the country.(SPEED)(10-4-2009)

Latest on standard times for races: Word is that NASCAR is eyeing two future schedule changes which would affect television viewers and would affect viewers in the grandstands. Grant Lynch, chairman of Talladega Superspeedway and International Speedway Corporation’s vice president of strategic operations, has heard about both and talked about both on Saturday. The first is standardization of the starting times of Sprint Cup races. “From what we’ve been hearing from fans, that move would be real positive,” Lynch said. Currently starting times vary. This year, there have been 16 races starting at 2:00pm, five at 3:25-3:30pm, six from 7:20-7:30pm, two at 8:00pm, as well as other races starting at 1:00pm, 1:30pm, 4:30pm, 5:00pm, 5:45pm, 6:00pm and 8:30pm. The standardized starting time being talked about most for Sunday races is 1 p.m. Eastern.
Also getting attention are reports that NASCAR may try to insert more two-day shows onto the schedule [like was used at Atlanta in Sept]. That is, cut out action on the tracks on Fridays and have the Cup cars qualify on Saturday and race on Sunday.(Racin' Today)(10-4-2009)

New NASCAR themed show: coming to the History Channel is "Madhouse." Previously announced as in development, the reality series revolves around rivalries at a North Carolina NASCAR track, where local families race to continue a 61-year feuding tradition. The show is produced by Triage Entertainment, with Stephen Kroopnick, Stu Schreiberg, Jym Buss, Grant Kahler, Aengus James, Tim Tracy, David McKillop and Carl Lindahl executive producing; 13 episodes have been ordered, and a first-quarter premiere is planned.(Hollywood Reporter)(10-1-2009)

New NASCAR Show: Versus has signed a multiyear deal with NASCAR to air a fast-paced, up-close HD look at the 12 drivers competing in the 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup. The weekly, half-hour series, Quest for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, will air at 11:00pm/et Tuesdays, beginning Sept. 22. The program will air each week until the conclusion of the 2009 season.(NASCAR)(9-19-2009)

Start times for races could be more consistent in 2010: NASCAR is expected to have more consistent start times by the 2010 season. Officials confirmed they are working with the networks to standardize starting times that fans have criticized for years. Atlanta Motor Speedway president Ed Clark told reporters on Saturday that the plan is to run most afternoon races at 1:00pm/et and most night races at 7:30pm/et. This may vary for West Coast races.(more at ESPN Insider)(9-11-2009)

Jimmie Johnson To Be Honored By President Obama UPDATE, ESPN2 to cover: NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Champion Jimmie Johnson will be honored at the White House on Wednesday, August 19. The South Lawn event will include 2008 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers and several past champions and special guests. "NASCAR is once again honored to have its drivers recognized by the President of the United States," said NASCAR Chairman and CEO Brian France. "NASCAR is rooted deep in America's fabric and represents the best of sports and side-by-side competition." Joining Johnson for the celebration will be members of the 2008 Chase field: Greg Biffle, Clint Bowyer, Jeff Burton, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Carl Edwards, Jeff Gordon, Denny Hamlin and Tony Stewart. (Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and Matt Kenseth cannot attend due to schedule conflicts). Past champions and special guests in attendance will be: Dale Jarrett, Bobby Labonte, Terry Labonte, Juan Pablo Montoya, Richard Petty, Rusty Wallace and Darrell Waltrip. This will be the ninth time the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion has been honored at the White House since 2000. NASCAR's first official visit to the White House was in 1978 during the Carter administration.(NASCAR)(8-17-2009)
On ESPN2 NASCAR Now, ESPN2's daily NASCAR news and information program, will originate from the White House in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday as President Barack Obama honors three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson and other NASCAR stars of past and present. The one-hour program airs at 4:30pm/et on Wednesday, Aug. 19, and will mark the first time in ESPN's 30-year history that a regularly-scheduled ESPN program will originate and air in its entirety from the White House. ESPN analysts Dale Jarrett and Rusty Wallace, both former NASCAR Sprint Cup champions, will be among the drivers participating in afternoon ceremonies that will include a tour of the White House and photo opportunities. In addition to other former champions, the group of drivers also will include many of the 12 who qualified for the 2008 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. Nicole Manske will host NASCAR Now from the White House, with analysis by Brad Daugherty. Jarrett, Wallace and NASCAR Now lead reporter Marty Smith also will participate in the telecast.(ESPN)(8-18-2009)
UPDATE: President Barack Obama will be interviewed live during ESPN2’s NASCAR Now program originating from the White House in Washington, D.C., today. The one-hour program airs at 4:30 p.m. ET. The President is honoring three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson as well as other current NASCAR drivers and some past champions of the sport in a ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House. NASCAR Now, ESPN2’s daily NASCAR news and information program, will cover the festivities live, marking the first time in ESPN’s 30-year history that a regularly-scheduled ESPN program will originate and air in its entirety from the White House. Following the ceremony, the President will join NASCAR Now host Nicole Manske and ESPN NASCAR analyst Brad Daugherty for a live interview.(ESPN)(8-19-2009)

Fox - 13 races [plus the Budwesier Shootout] in the 2009 season - starting at Daytona thru Dover in June, then off until the 2010 Daytona 500