This is a time of the year that Nationwide Series fans know all too well. This is the first weekend of the college football season.
There is a live college game now in-progress before the scheduled start of NASCAR Countdown at 6:30PM. Please go to our comments section for updates as the start time of the NASCAR TV coverage approaches.
Race coverage is scheduled for 7PM. This is ESPN's second attempt at the "Backseat Drivers" concept. Four of the network analysts, Dale Jarrett, Rusty Wallace, Ray Evernham and Andy Petree will be in the broadcast booth making conversation among themselves.
There will be no Marty Reid or Jerry Punch joining the group as the play-by-play announcer. Instead, Allen Bestwick will remain in the Infield Pit Studio after he hosts the pre-race show and help the analysts with information and updates after the commercial breaks.
The idea is that these ESPN analysts will be able to relate stories about their own driving careers and experiences at Atlanta to the viewers during the race. The reality is that ESPN did not carry any of the practice or qualifying sessions for this race and that makes it a perfect target for experimentation.
This is the time of the season when all of the ESPN energy goes into the Sprint Cup Series coverage and the infamous "Race for the Chase." In the blink of an eye, the only NASCAR series that ESPN carries from start-to-finish becomes second rate.
Join us as we watch the live race and see how this experiment unfolds. We will also be discussing the transition between the live college football games and the ESPN2 NASCAR coverage.
To join the party, just click on the comments button below. This is a family-friendly website, so please keep that in mind when posting. All opinions are welcome, we just ask for no profanity, hateful speech or off-topic comments.
As always, you can email me directly with any suggestions, complaints or questions as editor.dp@hotmail.com anytime. Thanks for dropping by on this holiday weekend.
