This weekend is bound to be crazy. You have the NASCAR Cup Series all over the place due to recent penalties, the NASCAR Xfinity Series entering a wild night and the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series starting their playoff run.
Where to Watch NASCAR This Week
This is the final split weekend of the season. The NASCAR Cup Series will be headlining this weekend in Daytona. Meanwhile, the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series will be in Milwaukee.
For the NASCAR Cup Series, it is a traditional summer trip to Daytona for the Coke Zero Sugar 400. In past years, teams would have been on-track Thursday, but that’s no longer the case.
There will be no practice this weekend. Qualifying is scheduled for 5:05 p.m. ET Friday afternoon. Coverage will air live on USA Network starting at 5 p.m. ET.
Coverage of the Coke Zero Sugar 400 will begin with Countdown to Green at 7 p.m. ET Saturday on NBC and Peacock. Race coverage is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. ET with the green flag around 7:45 p.m. ET.
There are two new elements that will be in play on the Cup broadcast this weekend. First off, Saturday night will mark Leigh Diffey’s first Cup race in the broadcast booth since 2017. He was officially announced as NASCAR on NBC’s new play-by-play commentator for the NASCAR Cup Series for the remainder of the 2024 season Tuesday.
In addition, NBC Sports announced Wednesday that Saturday night’s broadcast will only feature NASCAR NonStop commercial breaks during green flag action. As a result, viewers will see every green flag lap live (the press release underlines this).
The move is explained as a “production enhancement,” much along the lines of the Radio style broadcasts that are used on road and/or street courses. However, this setup will be different than a Radio style broadcast since it doesn’t appear that the broadcast as a whole will be all that different than normal.
The first thing that comes to mind here is the question of how local breaks will be handled. You can’t do those side-by-side and they’re mandated to occur at least once per hour. Will those be placed solely during stage breaks? That remains to be seen.
Then, there is the weather. It’s Daytona Beach in August. The forecast is for a high in the upper 80s with a 50% chance of scattered thunderstorms.
Granted, the temperature will have dropped off a little by race time. However, the forecast could mean anything from nothing unusual happening and the race…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at …