ESPN May Not Bid on Entire Nationwide Series Television Package

Rights to the Nationwide Series could be in play this summer when NASCAR opens its negotiations with ESPN, according to several sources.

ESPN and NASCAR have not begun formal talks about renewing a media rights package that includes the Nationwide Series’ entire 33-race season and 17 Sprint Cup races. But ESPN has had internal conversations about bidding only on the Nationwide races that overlap with its Sprint Cup schedule instead of the entire season.

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ESPN, Turner Executives Noticeable Absent at Daytona

ESPN President John Skipper was not in Daytona last week for the biggest race on the NASCAR circuit. Neither was David Levy, Turner’s president of sales, distribution and sports.

Even though ESPN and Turner’s exclusive negotiating windows for NASCAR’s media rights expire in late summer, the networks still are months away from serious talks, according to several sources. The exclusive window formally starts in early summer, but networks and leagues frequently start negotiations well before that time.

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Video: Earnhardt’s Legendary No. 3 Subject of New ESPN Commercial

ESPN will debut a new promotional spot paying homage to the legendary No. 3 of the late NASCAR champion Dale Earnhardt in a new promotional spot that will begin airing in the telecast of Saturday’s season-opening NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Daytona International Speedway.

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ESPN’s Comprehensive Multi-Platform Coverage of Speedweeks

The 2013 NASCAR season gets underway this week at Daytona International Speedway and ESPN’s multimedia platforms will have two weeks of comprehensive coverage of events surrounding the Feb. 24 running of the Daytona 500.

ESPN’s coverage will culminate with a live telecast of the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Daytona on Saturday, Feb. 24. NASCAR will appear across ESPN’s television, digital and print platforms for the two weeks of Daytona Speedweeks.

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NASCAR Now Returns to ESPN2 Friday from NASCAR Hall of Fame

The seventh season of ESPN2’s NASCAR news and information program NASCAR Now will get the green flag on Friday, Feb. 8, at 3 p.m. ET with a program originating from the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, N.C.

The fourth class of five NASCAR legends will be inducted into the Hall that night, including ESPN analyst and 1989 NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Rusty Wallace. Also being inducted are famed mechanic Leonard Wood, the late team owner/mechanic Cotton Owens and the late Buck Baker and Herb Thomas, both former driving champions.

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ESPN rejects commerical, driver loses sponsorship

Per SportingNews.com, ESPN rejected the advertisement from Blake Koch’s sponsor, the Rise Up and Register Campaign, which is designed to educate people about the importance of registering to vote in upcoming elections.

Koch said the network rejected the advertisement, in part, because of his religious activism. A devout Christian, the 26-year-old driver often speaks at churches on race weekends, at numerous religious outreach events and on television shows.

“Their whole campaign was to run that commercial on ESPN, and they wanted to get in front of the NASCAR fans,” Koch said about his sponsor in a phone interview Thursday. “They didn’t care about any other network.

"We found out Friday at Daytona (in February) that they weren’t going to air the commercials due to political and religious overtones, and they said particularly on (my) BlakeKoch.com website.”

While the campaign's website does not promote specific religions, it does include links to Koch's site, which promotes his ministry and other religious programs.

ESPN issued a statement Thursday, saying, “The spot did not meet our guidelines in regard to advocacy messaging. Blake Koch’s personal religious beliefs played no role in our evaluation.”

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