Viewer's Guide: Texas

The Busch Series gets the NASCAR weekend off to an early start with Thursday evening qualifying, but as with the two practice sessions earlier in the day there is no television coverage.

When ESPN2 broadcasts the O'Reilly 300 beginning at 3 p.m. ET Saturday, there will be changes in the booth. Marty Reid will fill in for lead voice Jerry Punch, and Dale Jarrett makes his debut for the network in place of Rusty Wallace and will team with Andy Petree for color commentary.

Jarrett, the 1999 Cup champion and one of the founding drivers of the Busch Series in 1982, will appear on 10 of this season's Busch telecasts while continuing to race full time in the Nextel Cup Series. Jarrett is continuing another family tradition, as his father, Ned, a two-time NASCAR Cup champion, was an analyst on ESPN's NASCAR racing coverage from 1988-2000.

NASCAR Countdown begins ESPN2's coverage from Texas Motor Speedway, starting at 2:30 p.m. ET. The green flag is set to wave at 3:16 p.m. ET.

ESPN2 is scheduled to re-air the race at 8 p.m. ET Saturday and again at 3 a.m. ET Sunday.

Nextel Cup action returns to the track with a practice session at 1:30 p.m. ET Friday. Qualifying for the Samsung 300 begins at 5 p.m. ET Friday. Two more Cup practices follow on Saturday, at 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. ET, respectively. All pre-race track activities can be seen via NASCAR on SPEED.

NASCAR on FOX has the broadcast beginning with its Hollywood Hotel at 1:30 p.m. ET Sunday. The green flag is scheduled to wave at 2:15 p.m. ET.

FOX's broadcast of the Goody's Cool Orange 500 at Martinsville Speedway earned a final Nielsen rating of 5.3 and a 13 market share, according to Street & Smith's SportsBusiness Daily. The rating is 14.5 percent lower than the 6.2/15 the race drew in 2006 but 3.9 percent higher than the 5.1/13 of 2005

This week's featured drivers on DirecTV NASCAR HotPass are Tony Stewart, Jimmie Johnson, Juan Montoya, Clint Bowyer and Dale Earnhardt Jr.