With the Big Apple as the backdrop, NASCAR will honor the top drivers in NASCAR NEXTEL Cup racing at the series’ annual awards banquet Friday night, live from the Waldorf-Astoria at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN Classic and ESPN360.com. The event will be re-aired at midnight on ESPN2.

In addition, ESPN Classic will air highlights from the NASCAR NMPA Myers Brothers Awards Luncheon at 8:30 p.m. Friday prior to the start of the banquet coverage. Held on the day before the banquet, the luncheon highlights NASCAR awards such as rookie of the year and ends with the presentation of the Myers Brothers Award by the National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) to the individual or group making the greatest contribution to NASCAR racing in the past year.

Jimmie Johnson and members of the Hendrick Motorsports organization will be toasted as the NASCAR NEXTEL Cup championship team for the second consecutive year during Friday night’s awards banquet. The rest of the drivers who finished in the top 10 of the series point standings also will receive awards onstage.

Comedian/actor David Spade will be the featured performer at the banquet. Spade is a long-time fan of NASCAR, having served as Grand Marshal in 2006 at Atlanta Motor Speedway and as the Honorary Mayor at Darlington Raceway in 2003.

Spade, who currently stars in the hit CBS comedy “Rules of Engagement,” was nominated for an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award and an American Comedy Award in 1999 for his role on the series “Just Shoot Me.” He also was nominated three times for an Emmy Award as a writer on the long-running series “Saturday Night Live,” which he appeared on from 1990-1995. His feature film credits include “Benchwarmers,” “Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star,” “Joe Dirt” and “Tommy Boy.”

Multi-platinum, Grammy-winning recording artist Kelly Clarkson also will perform during the banquet. Clarkson, whose collaboration with NASCAR this year included a live performance before the Daytona 500 and a television spot for the “NASCAR, How bad have you got it?” campaign, will perform her songs “One Minute” and “Since U Been Gone.”

Clarkson’s album “Breakaway” earned two Grammys, spawned five No. 1 singles and sold more than 10 million records worldwide and more than 6 million in the US. With hits such as “Since U Been Gone,” “Behind These Hazel Eyes” and “Because Of You,” the Texas native’s music has become a staple of pop radio over the past five years, and in 2006, Clarkson was declared the most successful artist in Top 40 history, with at least one single on the chart for 111 consecutive weeks.

Dr. Jerry Punch, the lead announcer for NASCAR coverage on ESPN, will serve as the onstage master of ceremonies for the banquet.

ESPN Classic, which has televised live coverage of other awards ceremonies such as the Baseball Hall of Fame, is a 24-hour, all-sports network devoted to connecting today’s sports fan to the timeless elements of sports by airing the greatest games, moments, stories and personalities in sports history. ESPN Classic brings a current perspective and creates bridges between two generations of athletes and fans by illustrating the connections between the past and present.

ESPN360.com, ESPN’s signature live sports broadband network, is delivering more than 2,500 live, global sports events over the next 12 months (more than ESPN and ESPN2 combined). The service is available at no additional charge to fans who receive their high-speed Internet connection from an affiliated service provider. It has more than doubled its distribution since Oct. 2006, and is available in more than 17 million households nationwide via more than 25 Internet service providers around the country including AT&T, Verizon, RCN, Frontier, Cavalier, Charter, Mediacom, Conway, Grande Communications and more. Since the Sept. 4 re-launch of the service, sports fans have logged more than 200,000 hours viewing sports events on ESPN360.com.

Bookmark to: