Five live elimination broadcasts highlight more than 100 hours of television programming of the 2015 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series on ESPN and ESPN2.
The five races that will showcase live coverage of eliminations are the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at zMAX Dragway in Charlotte, N.C. (March 29, 2-5 p.m. ET), the O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA SpringNationals at Royal Purple Raceway near Houston (April 26, 2-5 p.m. ET), the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol (Tenn.) Dragway (June 21, 3-6 p.m. ET), the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals at Norwalk, Ohio’s Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park (July 5, 1-4 p.m. ET) and Chicago’s NHRA Route 66 Nationals at Route 66 Raceway (July 12, 2-5 p.m. ET).
Three of those live races – Charlotte, Bristol and Norwalk – will air on ESPN.
The 2015 season will open with ESPN2’s coverage of the tradition-rich Circle K NHRA Winternationals at historic Auto Club Raceway at Pomona in Southern California with a 90-minute qualifying show on Saturday, Feb. 7 at 10 p.m. (ET) and a three-hour eliminations show on Sunday, Feb. 8 at 7:30 p.m. (ET). ESPN’s full schedule of NHRA races is below.
The Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis, the world’s most-prestigious drag race, will once again be showcased via 10 hours of coverage over Labor Day weekend on both ESPN and ESPN2.
Each stop in the six-race NHRA Mello Yello Countdown to the Championship, NHRA’s playoffs, will once again be highlighted by a three-hour eliminations show in primetime on ESPN2. Qualifying show times for the Countdown to the Championship races will be announced at a later date.
Host Dave Rieff and analyst Mike Dunn return to the broadcast booth and will be joined by pit reporters Gary Gerould and John Kernan as ESPN begins its 15th season of NHRA telecasts. ESPN veteran Rieff begins his third season as the show anchor and Dunn, a former Top Fuel and Funny Car driver with 22 career NHRA victories, will start his 14th season providing color commentary.
All telecasts will air in high definition on ESPN or ESPN2 and are available in some 95 million households nationwide. The telecasts will feature competition from each of the four classes in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series. In addition, ESPN will provide Sunday re-airs of most late qualifying shows that originate in the early morning hours on the East Coast.
About Me: Adam has been a race fan since the first time he went through the tunnel under the Daytona International Speedway almost 30 years ago. He has had the privilege of travelling to races all across the state of Florida (as well as one race in Ohio), watching nearly everything with a motor compete for fame and glory, as well as participating in various racing schools to get the feel of what racecar drivers go through every week. Adam has spent the last three years covering motorsports for Examiner.com., where he had the opportunity to see the racing world from behind the scenes as well as the grandstands. He invites everyone to follow him on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus, and looks forward to sharing his enthusiasm for all things racing with the readers of SpeedwayDigest.com.Be sure to tune in for his weekly sports talk program, Thursday Night Thunder, where he discusses the latest in motorsports news with drivers, crew members, and fans. The show takes place every Thursday at 8:00 pm EST on the Speedway Digest Radio Network.
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