FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, October 1st, 2019
NASCAR’S TOP TWELVE DRIVERS CONTINUE THE HUNT FOR HOMESTEAD AT DOVER INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY THIS WEEKEND
NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series Racing from Dover – Sunday at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN
“I hated this format as a driver – but man, do I love it as a race fan.”
– Dale Earnhardt Jr. on the Playoff Format
“I have to give Alex Bowman credit. He showed me something at the end of the race as a race driver and as a competitor that I wasn’t sure he had in him.” – Dale Jarrett
Dale Jr. Download with SMI President Marcus Smith – Tonight at 5 p.m. ET on NBCSN
NASCAR America Motormouths with Special Guest Clint Bowyer – Thursday at 5:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN
NBC Sports’ Grassroots Racing Documentary, Drivers and Dreams: Grassroots Racing in America, Airs Friday at 4:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN
STAMFORD, Conn. – October 1, 2019 – NBC Sports heads to Dover International Speedway this weekend for the first race of the Round of 12 in the 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs with charged-up live coverage this Sunday at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN. NBC Sports’ race coverage from Dover begins Saturday at 3 p.m. ET on NBCSN with the third race of the Xfinity Series Playoffs.
Chase Elliott, driver of Hendrick Motorsports No. 9 Chevrolet Camaro, earned a hard-fought win at the ROVAL last weekend in Charlotte, surging back through the pack after wrecking from the lead early in the Final Stage. Entering the first race of the Round of 12, Kyle Busch leads the Playoff standings with 3,046 points, followed by Martin Truex Jr., (3,041) and Denny Hamlin (3,030 points). Joey Logano (3,029 points) is in fourth and Kevin Harvick (3,028 points) rounds out the top five.
Tempers flared at the ROVAL on Sunday, punctuated by the post-race altercation between Bubba Wallace and Alex Bowman following their on-track incident. Following are comments from Monday’s episode of NASCAR America with Jeff Burton, Dale Jarrett, and Steve Letarte. Click here to watch the full segment.
Burton: “I get it…(Wallace) should be mad, but you can’t go around the racetrack for three laps flipping somebody off because that guy is behind you, and there’s only so much of that he’s going to take…(Bowman) didn’t mean to do it, he wrecked himself too…I’m not going to give Alex Bowman a pass…both of these guys needed to collect themselves and do a better job in managing their anger.”
Jarrett: “There are faults for both of them. I have to give Alex Bowman credit. He showed me something at the end of the race as a race driver and as a competitor that I wasn’t sure he had in him. For two-thirds of that race, he had done everything as wrong as he could possibly do it to keep himself from moving on in the Playoffs.”
Letarte: “I didn’t see this drive out of Alex Bowman and I was wrong. The drive of Alex Bowman matches the drive of Chase Elliott…it was a gutsy drive (at the end of) a very messy weekend.”
2019 MONSTER ENERGY NASCAR CUP SERIES PLAYOFF DRIVERS & STANDINGS:
| Position | Driver | Points |
| 1 | Kyle Busch | 3,046 |
| 2 | Martin Truex Jr. | 3,041 |
| 3 | Denny Hamlin | 3,030 |
| 4 | Joey Logano | 3,029 |
| 5 | Kevin Harvick | 3,028 |
| 6 | Chase Elliott | 3,024 |
| 7 | Brad Keselowski | 3,024 |
| 8 | Kyle Larson | 3,006 |
| 9 | Alex Bowman | 3,005 |
| 10 | Ryan Blaney | 3,004 |
| 11 | William Byron | 3,001 |
| 12 | Clint Bowyer | 3,000 |
NASCAR CUP SERIES RACING FROM DOVER MOTOR SPEEDWAY – SUNDAY AT 2:30 P.M. ET ON NBC
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series begins coverage of the first race of the Round of 12 this Friday at 1:30 p.m. ET with first practice at Dover International Speedway followed by the final practice at 3:30 p.m. on NBCSN. Cup Series coverage resumes on NBCSN on Saturday with qualifying at 1:30 p.m.
Sunday’s race-day coverage begins at 1:30 p.m. ET with NASCAR America pre-race show from Dover and Countdown to Green at 2 p.m. ET on NBCSN. Live coverage of the Drydene 400 follows at 2:30 p.m. ET.
NBC Sports’ lead race announcer Rick Allen will call the action alongside Daytona 500 winning crew chief Steve Letarte. 21-time Cup Series winner Jeff Burton and two-time Daytona 500 Champion Dale Earnhardt Jr. will provide commentary from a second booth. Both Burton and Earnhardt Jr. are past Cup winners at Dover.
NBC Sports’ NASCAR pre-race host Krista Voda, auto racing icon Kyle Petty, and NBC analyst and Hall of Fame driver Dale Jarrett will host Countdown to Green as well as post-race coverage. Kelli Stavast, Dave Burns, and Marty Snider will provide commentary and interviews from pit-road and grandstands. Dillon Welch will also be on hand to provide reports on both Friday and Saturday. Coverage will continue with the post-race show at 6 p.m. ET, followed by Victory Lap at 6:30 p.m. ET hosted by Danielle Trotta with Nate Ryan and Parker Kligerman.
MARCUS SMITH JOINS TONIGHT’S DALE JR. DOWNLOAD ON NBCSN
Today’s episode of the Dale Jr. Download will air tonight at 5 p.m. ET and features president & CEO of Speedway Motorsports Inc., Marcus Smith. Smith, the son of SMI founder and NASCAR Hall-of-Famer Bruton Smith, has helped guide the motorsports industry into the ever-changing world of professional sports. He will discuss the future of motorsports, the rest of this season, and his thought on the ROVAL. Click here to watch a preview of today’s episode.
Produced on-site at Dirty Mo Media Studios in Mooresville, N.C., the Dale Jr. Download on NBCSN takes viewers couch-side for the taping of the motorsports icon’s weekly podcast, featuring unparalleled perspective, candid commentary, and insight that fans have come to expect from Dale Jr.
NBC SPORTS’ GRASSROOTS RACING DOCUMENTARY, DRIVERS AND DREAMS: GRASSROOTS RACING IN AMERICA, AIRS FRIDAY AT 4:30 P.M. ET ON NBCSN
Drivers and Dreams: Grassroots Racing in America, NBC Sports’ new documentary celebrating grassroots racing around America, will air this Friday at 4:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN following Cup Series Final Practice from Dover. The documentary, narrated by Dale Earnhardt Jr. follows a number of drivers, local tracks and track owners across America, including;
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- NASCAR K&N Pro Series driver Hailie Deegan at Evergreen Speedway in Monroe, Wash.;
- Former NASCAR Cup Series driver Ken Schrader at Federated Auto Parts Speedway in Pevely, Mo;
- The Larson Family at Elko Speedway in Elko New Market, Minn.;
- Lee Jeffreys at Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, N.C.;
- Drivers Dan McKeage, Laura McKeage and Travis Buzzell at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway in Scarborough, Maine.;
- Joshua Jackson at Vado Speedway Park in Vado, N.M.
- 10-year-old Aiden Garcia at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C.;
- Track owners Jeremy Burnett and Ashly Burnett at Millbridge Speedway in Salisbury, N.C.
NBC Sports and NASCAR have partnered to launch the #MyTrackMyRoots Grassroots Racing Tour – a grassroots initiative which celebrates and promotes local tracks across America that have launched the dreams and careers of NASCAR drivers and continue to cultivate a passion for racing in their local communities.
Current and former drivers from the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, Xfinity Series and Gander Outdoor Truck Series have joined with NBC Sports and NASCAR to spearhead a nationwide initiative to visit and promote more than 500 local tracks across the country during the 2019 season. Click here for more details.
XFINITY SERIES RACING FROM DOVER – SATURDAY AT 3 P.M. ET ON NBCSN
NC Sports’ Xfinity Series coverage of the elimination race from Dover begins Friday with coverage of the first practice at 12:30 p.m. followed by final practice at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN. Race day coverage begins with qualifying at 12 p.m. ET on the NBC Sports app, before switching over to NBCSN at 12:30 p.m. ET. A 30-minute edition of Countdown to Green at 2:30 p.m. ET will lead into live Xfinity Series Playoff racing beginning at 3 p.m. ET on NBCSN. Wrapping up race-day coverage, NBCSN will present a half-hour post-race show at 5 p.m. ET. Christopher Bell (2,143 points, 7 wins) and Cole Custer (2,133 points, 6 wins) have already advanced to the Round of 8 in the Xfinity Series Playoffs. They are followed by Tyler Reddick (2,114 points, 5 wins) and Austin Cindric (2,112 points, 2 wins) in the standings.
NO ‘PICK ‘EM’ WINNER IN CHARLOTTE MEANS THE JACKPOT ROLLS OVER TO $20,000 FOR DOVER
Nearly 70,000 fans competed in NBC Sports’ NASCAR Pick ‘Em game on the NBC Sports Predictor App for last weekend’s race at the ROVAL, but none were able to record a perfect score, so the jackpot swells to $20,000 this weekend in Dover.
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- For each race stage, pick the driver that will have the best finish from a group of four drivers.
- Then, out of the entire field, pick which drivers will finish the race in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place – in exact order.
Following is this week’s NASCAR programming across NBC Sports:
| DATE | COVERAGE | TIME (ET) | NETWORK |
| Tuesday, Oct.1 | Dale Jr. Download w/ Marcus Smith (re-air at 9 p.m. and 12 a.m.) | 5 p.m. | NBCSN |
| Thursday, Oct. 3 | NASCAR America Motormouths w/ Clint Bowyer | 5:30 p.m. | NBCSN |
| Friday, Oct. 4 | NASCAR Xfinity Series First Practice – Dover | 12:30 p.m. | NBCSN |
| NASCAR Cup Series First Practice – Dover | 1:30 p.m. | NBCSN | |
| NASCAR Xfinity Series Final Practice – Dover | 2:30 p.m. | NBCSN | |
| NASCAR Cup Series Final Practice – Dover | 3:30 p.m. | NBCSN | |
| Drivers and Dreams: Grassroots Racing in America | 4:30 p.m. | NBCSN | |
| Saturday, Oct. 5 | NASCAR Xfinity Series Qualifying – Dover | 12 p.m. | Streaming |
| NASCAR Xfinity Series Qualifying – Dover | 12:30 p.m. | NBCSN | |
| NASCAR Cup Series Qualifying – Dover | 1:30 p.m. | NBCSN | |
| NASCAR Xfinity Series Countdown to Green | 2:30 p.m. | NBCSN | |
| NASCAR Xfinity Series Race – Dover | 3 p.m. | NBCSN | |
| NASAR Xfinity Series Post-Race Show | 5 p.m. | NBCSN | |
| Sunday, Oct. 6 | NASCAR America Pre-Race Show | 1:30 p.m. | NBCSN |
| NASCAR Cup Series Countdown to Green | 2 p.m. | NBCSN | |
| NASCAR Cup Series Race – Dover | 2:30 p.m. | NBCSN | |
| NASCAR Cup Series Post-Race Show | 6 p.m. | NBCSN | |
| NASCAR Victory Lap | 6:30 p.m. | NBCSN |
NBC SPORTS’ NASCAR COVERAGE
The official home of the NASCAR Playoffs, NBC Sports will present the final 20 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series races, final 19 NASCAR Xfinity Series races, and select NASCAR Regional & Touring Series events in 2019. NBC Sports’ NASCAR programming also includes NBCSN’s daily motorsports show NASCAR America, coverage of NASCAR’s Awards Ceremonies, the annual NASCAR Hall of Fame induction ceremony, as well as original programming specials.
–NBC SPORTS–
