The Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup begins its final five races this weekend as the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races on NASCAR’s smallest track, the half-mile Martinsville Speedway, for 500 laps on Sunday, Oct. 25. ESPN’s live, flag-to-flag coverage of the race is presented by Goodyear and will air on ABC. The telecast begins with NASCAR Countdown at 1:00pm/et and the race’s green flag is scheduled for 1:43pm/et. ESPN’s coverage of the final 11 races of the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup schedule airs on ABC, including all 10 races in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. ESPN’s coverage from Martinsville also includes NASCAR Sprint Cup qualifying on Friday, Oct. 23, at 3:00pm/et, practice on Saturday, Oct. 24, at 10:00am/et and same-day coverage of final practice on Saturday at 6:30pm/et, all on ESPN2.
Dr. Jerry Punch will be lap-by-lap announcer for ESPN’s coverage, with analysis by Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree. Reporting from the pits will be Dave Burns, Jamie Little, Shannon Spake and Vince Welch, with Tim Brewer in the ESPN Craftsman Tech Garage. Allen Bestwick will host the pre-race NASCAR Countdown program with analysis by Rusty Wallace and Brad Daugherty in the ESPN pit studio. Also this week, ESPN Classic airs an episode of the signature series SportsCentury featuring NASCAR star Tony Stewart on Monday, Oct. 26, at 8:00am/et.
