ESPN begins its coverage of the final 17 races of the 2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series schedule with a live, flag-to-flag telecast of the Brickyard 400 at historic Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Sunday, July 28. ESPNs multimedia platforms will surround the race telecast on television, radio and online. The telecast from Indianapolis is presented by Golden Corral and begins with the NASCAR Countdown pre-race show at 12noon/et from the Speedways iconic Pagoda. The program will set up the race with interviews and features before the races green flag flies at 1:19pm/et. In addition to the race, ESPN will televise NASCAR Sprint Cup qualifying on Saturday, July 27, at 2:00pm/et and ESPN2 will air NASCAR Sprint Cup practice Saturday at 9″³00am/et. Also from Indianapolis, ESPN will televise the NASCAR Nationwide Series race on Saturday, with NASCAR Countdown at 4:00pm/et and the green flag at 4:50pm/et. NASCAR Sprint Cup driver Jimmie Johnson will visit the ESPN telecast booth for part of the race. ESPN will use 72 high definition cameras at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, including four Ultra Hi Motion cameras for replays and unique action shots. One will be mounted on pit wall near the ‘Yard of Bricks” that make up the start/finish line at the Speedway while another robotic Ultra Hi Motion camera will be mounted to provide a low shot in the first turn. Two others will be in the second and fourth turns. Eight cars competing in the race will carry onboard cameras and ESPN also will have a helicopter camera for overhead shots in the Brickyard 400 and for all 17 NASCAR Sprint Cup race telecasts. Four former NASCAR Sprint Cup champions, including two NASCAR Hall of Fame drivers, will be an integral part of ESPNs coverage team for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races, including lead analyst Dale Jarrett, the 1999 driving champion and newly elected to the NASCAR Hall of Fame, who will work with two-time champion crew chief Andy Petree and lap-by-lap announcer Allen Bestwick in the booth. Marty Reid will be the lap-by-lap announcer for the remainder of ESPNs NASCAR Nationwide Series race telecasts this season beginning with Indianapolis. NASCAR Countdown will feature analysis by 1989 champion driver and NASCAR Hall of Famer Rusty Wallace and three-time champion crew chief Ray Evernham, with host Nicole Briscoe and NASCAR team owner Brad Daugherty. The Countdown team will interact with the booth during the telecast of the race. Pit reporters will be Dave Burns, Jamie Little, Dr. Jerry Punch and Vince Welch. For the 10 races in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, ESPN will again utilize NASCAR NonStop, a split-screen commercial format that brings more racing action to viewers. The format, which ESPN used for the first time in 2011, shows the advertisement on the left side of the screen and a continuation of racing action on the right side. ESPNs scoring ticker continues to move across the top of the screen, allowing NASCAR fans to follow the running order of the race during the breaks. NASCAR NonStop takes effect at or near the halfway point of the race, with the first half of the race presented in the traditional commercial break format.(ESPN)
