Viewer's Guide: Darlington

It's another two-day NASCAR weekend, barring any rain, at Darlington Raceway, with Busch Series action scheduled for Friday night and Nextel Cup racing set for prime-time Saturday.

For the second consecutive week, there will be no television coverage of Busch Series practice. SPEED will broadcast qualifying for the Diamond Hill Plywood 200 at 5 p.m. ET before ESPN2 takes over race coverage at 8 p.m. ET beginning with NASCAR Countdown. Green flag is scheduled for 8:45 p.m. ET.

Both Nextel Cup practice sessions can be seen on SPEED at 10:30 a.m. ET and 6:30 p.m. ET, along with Bud Pole Qualifying (3 p.m. ET) on a busy Friday. FOX has coverage of the Dodge Avenger 500 beginning with Hollywood Hotel at 7 p.m. ET Saturday. Green flag is set for 7:30 p.m. ET.

The week's featured drivers on DirecTV NASCAR HotPass are Jeff Burton, Jamie McMurray, Tony Stewart, David Stremme and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Shortcuts will appear on channel 793 one day after the conclusion of the race for a 24-hour period. NASCAR HotPass Shortcuts condenses each HotPass driver channel broadcast into a 30-minute segment.

Final ratings for Talladega were down 28.9 percent from 2005. Rain postponed the 2006 race to a Monday, and FOX handed off coverage to cable station FX. The Aaron's 499 garnered a Nielsen Media Research rating of 5.4 and a 14 market share, according to Street & Smith's SportsBusiness Daily. However, the race was the most-watched sports event of the weekend.