Champions Dale Jarrett, Rusty Wallace Headline ESPN’s Season-Long NASCAR Coverage

Allen Bestwick to Host Enhanced NASCAR Countdown; Nicole Manske to Host NASCAR Now

Dale Jarrett, the 1999 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion and one of the founding drivers of the NASCAR Nationwide Series, has expanded his role with ESPN and joined high school friends Dr. Jerry Punch and Andy Petree in the booth for ESPN’s full season of NASCAR coverage in 2008.

Rusty Wallace, NASCAR Cup champion in 1989, is lead analyst for ESPN studio programs in 2008, highlighted by serving as analyst for an enhanced NASCAR Countdown, the program that precedes all NASCAR telecasts. Wallace also is appearing across multiple ESPN platforms, including regularly on NASCAR Now, ESPN’s daily NASCAR news and information show, and will call several race telecasts in place of Jarrett.

Allen Bestwick is in the fulltime role of host of ESPN’s race telecasts and host of NASCAR Countdown. Wallace and Bestwick are appearing with analyst Brad Daugherty on the pre-race program, and the three are integrated with the booth team during race telecasts.

Motorsports veteran Nicole Manske is host of NASCAR Now, which returned to the air for its second season February 4 on ESPN2. Manske, who joined ESPN after two years as co-host of a weekly motorsports news program on the SPEED Channel, shares the NASCAR Now host role with Bestwick and ESPNEWS anchor Ryan Burr.

Three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion crew chief Ray Evernham joined ESPN’s NASCAR coverage team for 2008, working as a studio show analyst and as booth analyst on selected NASCAR Nationwide Series races.

On ESPN’s event coverage, Shannon Spake, a reporter for ESPN’s studio programs and fill-in pit reporter last year, took Bestwick’s position as a fulltime pit reporter, joined by returnees Dave Burns, Jamie Little and Mike Massaro. Two-time NASCAR Cup champion crew chief Tim Brewer is reporting from the ESPN DISH Tech Center.

“We now have the opportunity to provide our viewers with analysis from a pair of former NASCAR Cup champions with Dale Jarrett in the booth and Rusty Wallace on the NASCAR Countdown set as well as on other platforms,” said Norby Williamson, ESPN executive vice president, studio and event production.

“We were pleased to have Dale with us in a limited role last year and welcome his participation on a regular basis,” Williamson said. “Rusty’s enthusiasm, team spirit and knowledge make him an invaluable contributor to our coverage. These champion drivers add tremendously to ESPN’s championship team for our second year back in NASCAR.”

ESPN’s 2008 NASCAR season began with live, flag-to-flag coverage of the NASCAR Nationwide Series opener at Daytona International Speedway on Feb. 16. In addition to coverage of all 35 races in the Nationwide Series, ESPN also will have telecasts of the final 17 races of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

Jarrett, who is retiring from driving after the first five races of the 2008 NASCAR Sprint Cup season, was booth analyst for 10 NASCAR Nationwide Series ESPN race telecasts last year and worked several NASCAR Sprint Cup races as a guest analyst on NASCAR Countdown.

Punch, ESPN’s lead announcer, Petree, booth analyst and a two-time NASCAR Cup champion crew chief, and Jarrett are all natives of Newton, N.C., and attended Newton-Conover High School within a few years of each other in the early 1970s. The three were partners in one of Jarrett’s first race cars in 1979.

“It was exciting to see ESPN return to NASCAR last year and be a part of it when my racing schedule allowed,” said Jarrett, winner of 32 NASCAR Cup Series races and 11 in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. “To have this opportunity to shift from fulltime driver to fulltime analyst for ESPN’s second year back is a great privilege.”

Jarrett followed the footsteps of his father, Ned, a two-time NASCAR champion, into driving and television. Ned Jarrett was a popular analyst on ESPN’s coverage of NASCAR from 1988-2000 and returned to the booth as a guest analyst for one race last year to work alongside his son for the first time.

Wallace joined ESPN after retiring from driving following the 2005 season and spent 2006 as analyst for ESPN’s coverage of the IndyCar Series in preparation for ESPN’s return to NASCAR in 2007. Bestwick served multiple roles for ESPN’s NASCAR coverage last year, including pit reporter, host of NASCAR Countdown for NASCAR Nationwide Series races and play-by-play announcer for several events.

Along with returning NASCAR Insiders Angelique Chengelis and Marty Smith, ESPN.com reporters Ed Hinton, Terry Blount and David Newton and analysts Boris Said, Tim Cowlishaw and D.J. Copp, many members of ESPN’s event coverage team also are contributing to NASCAR Now in 2008.  

Visit www.espnmediazone.com for ESPN's latest releases, schedules and other news, plus photos, video and audio clips and more.

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