When the green flag waves over Saturday’s NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Daytona International Speedway, ESPN’s coverage of the sport officially goes into lame duck status. For the final time in the foreseeable future, the ‘Worldwide Leader’ will broadcast 17 races of this year’s Sprint Cup season and the entire Nationwide Series schedule. But as rival network NBC waits in the wings and prepares to fill the void in 2015, the crew at ESPN still intends to give a full-blown effort. ‘Our company has dedicated tremendous resources to us,’ said ESPN lead announcer Allen Bestwick, who will transition into the same role of ESPN’s coverage of the Indy Car Series. ‘Our plans are exactly the same. We’ve been here before we even started the season. We covered live on the air Brian France’s press conference, including the question-and-answer sessions from Charlotte. We had four hours coverage of media day last week. Nothing changes, and we’re here to do our job. We have some great plans and we look forward to a great season.’(RacinToday)(2-21-2014)
