Iowa Corn Indy 300 highlights 25 hours of motorsports coverage on NBCSN, NBC Sports Live Extra this weekend - MotorSportsTalk

* Qualifying Airs Friday at 4 p.m. ET on NBCSN, Followed by Live Race Coverage Saturday at 8 p.m. ET

* NBCSN & NBC Sports Live Extra Present Six Hours of Live Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Budds Creek National Coverage on Saturday

NBCSN’s coverage of the 2014 Verizon IndyCar Series continues this weekend from Iowa Speedway with the Iowa Corn Indy 300 on Saturday night at 8 p.m. ET. NBCSN’s motorsports slate also features live Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Budds Creek National coverage on Saturday at 3 p.m. ET.

NBC Sports Live Extra – NBC Sports Group’s live streaming product for desktops, mobile devices, and tablets – will stream both the Iowa Corn Indy 300 and Budds Creek National.

IOWA CORN INDY 300 – SATURDAY AT 8 P.M. ET ON NBCSN

NBCSN’s coverage of the Iowa Corn Indy 300 begins Friday at 4 p.m. ET with qualifying, followed by IndyCar Countdown at 5 p.m. ET, hosted by Leigh Diffey. NBCSN’s live presentation of the Iowa Corn Indy 300 begins Saturday night at 8 p.m. ET.

Last week, Juan Pablo Montoya (Team Penske) earned his first IndyCar victory since 2000 with a win at the Pocono IndyCar 500, followed by teammate Helio Castroneves, who now sits even with teammate Will Power atop the IndyCar points standings (446 points). Last year, James Hinchcliffe (Andretti Autosport) led 226 of 250 laps to take the victory at Iowa Speedway.

Diffey will call the Iowa Corn Indy 300 alongside veteran motorsports analyst David Hobbs and former driver and analyst Paul Tracy. Reporters Jon Beekhuis, Kelli Stavast, Kevin Lee and Robin Miller will report from the pits.

LUCAS OIL PRO MOTOCROSS BUDDS CREEK NATIONAL – SATURDAY

NBCSN and NBC Sports Live Extra will combine to present live coverage of the Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Budds Creek National from Mechanicsville, Md. Coverage starts on Live Extra at 10:30 a.m. ET with practice, followed by the pre-race show at 12:15 p.m. ET. Race coverage begins at 1 p.m. ET on Live Extra with 1st Motos, followed by NBCSN’s live presentation of Motos 2 at 3 p.m. ET.

Last weekend, Ken Roczen continued his dominant start to the 2014 season with a sweep in the 450 class at the RedBud National, his fourth win in six starts, while Jeremy Martin won in the 250 Class for his third victory of the season.

Veteran play-by-play voice Jason Weigandt, analyst and two-time AMA Pro Motocross Champion Grant Langston, and pit reporter Georgia Lindsay will call the action from Budds Creek National in Mechanicsville, Md.

Motorsports Coverage This Week on NBCSN and NBC Sports Live Extra:

Date	Program	Time (ET)	Network
Thu., July 10	NASCAR America	5 p.m.	NBCSN
	KURT BUSCH: 36	5:30 p.m.	NBCSN
	NASCAR: The List	6 p.m.	NBCSN
	Motocross Highlight Series	11 p.m.	NBCSN
Fri., July 11	Mecum Auctions (Encore)	2:30 p.m.	NBCSN
	Iowa Corn Indy 300 – Qualifying	4 p.m.	NBCSN
	IndyCar Countdown	5 p.m.	NBCSN
	Lucas Oil Motorsports Hour	6 p.m.	NBCSN
	/DRIVE on NBC Sports (Encore)	7 p.m.	NBCSN
	Off The Grid: Barcelona (Encore)	7:30 p.m.	NBCSN
Sat., July 12	Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Budds Creek – Practice	10:30 a.m.	NBC Sports Live Extra
	Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Budds Creek – Pre-Show	12:15 p.m.	NBC Sports Live Extra
	Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Budds Creek – 1stMotos	1 p.m.	NBC Sports Live Extra
	Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Budds Creek – 2nd Motos	3 p.m.	NBCSN
	TORC: Bark River	5 p.m.	NBCSN
	Iowa Corn Indy 300	8 p.m.	NBCSN
Sun., July 13	RACER TV	5 p.m.	NBCSN
	TORC: Crandon Cup	6:30 p.m.	NBCSN

MOTORSPORTS ON NBC SPORTS LIVE EXTRA: NBC Sports Live Extra — NBC Sports Group’s live streaming product for desktops, mobile devices, and tablets — will provide live streaming coverage of this week’s Iowa Corn Indy 300 and Lucas Oil Pro Motocross Budds Creek National. The majority of coverage will be provided via “TV Everywhere,” the media industry’s effort to make quality content available to authenticated customers both in and out of the home and on multiple platforms.

For desktops, NBC Sports Live Extra can be accessed at NBCSports.com/liveextra. The NBC Sports Live Extra app for mobile devices and tablets is available at the App Store for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch, and on select Android handset and tablet devices within Google Play.

Coverage airing on NBCSN will live stream to PCs, mobile devices and tablets through NBC Sports Live Extra, and to the digital platforms of participating cable, satellite, and telco services, via “TV Everywhere,” which is available on an authenticated basis to subscribers of participating MVPDs.

MOTORSPORTSTALK: MotorSportsTalk (@MotorSportsTalk) on NBCSports.com brings racing fans up-to-the-minute news, video and information on the Formula One, Verizon IndyCar Series, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, and all other motorsports racing from around the world. The site also serves as the destination for all news, analysis and video from NBC and NBCSN productions of IndyCar and F1, including contributions from on-air commentators.

MotorSportsTalk’s content is provided by top racing journalists and expert analysts, including:

Luke Smith is creator and editor at Richland F1, which begins its second season this year. He’s on Twitter at @LukeSmithF1, primarily handling the F1 scene from Europe in great detail.
Tony DiZinno has most recently served as web editor for RACER Magazine and has more than seven years of experience in the industry. Follow him on Twitter at @TonyDiZinno.
Chris Estrada has written for NBCSports.com’s MotorsportsTalk since its inception in 2013, and has been a contributor for various outlets, including the Boston Globe, IndyCar Nation and FoxSports.com. Follow him at @estradawriting.
Jerry Bonkowski is a veteran NASCAR reporter with more than 30 years of experience. He has contributed to USA Today, Yahoo! Sports and other websites over the course of his career. Follow him on Twitter @JerryBonkowski.

To explore the site, please visit MotorSportsTalk.com.nbcsports.com or www.NBCSports.com.

SOCIAL: Follow @MotorsportsTalk, @F1onNBCSports and @NBCSN on Twitter and “like” Facebook.com/NBC Sports for the most up-to-date news, videos and commentary about Formula One on NBC Sports and NBCSN.

Follow me @JerryBonkowski

Media and fan attention focused on a controversial run-in between Haiden Deegan and his Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing teammate Jordon Smith during Round 10 of the Monster Energy Supercross race at Detroit, after which the 250 East points’ Hunter Lawrence defends the young rider in the postrace news conference.

Deegan took the early lead in Heat 1 of the round, but the mood swiftly changed when he became embroiled in a spirited battle with teammate Smith.

On Lap 3, Smith caught Deegan with a fast pass through the whoops. Smith briefly held the lead heading into a bowl turn but Deegan had the inside line and threw a block pass. In the next few turns, the action heated up until Smith eventually ran into the back of Deegan’s Yamaha and crashed.

One of the highlights of the battle seemed to include a moment when Deegan waited on Smith in order to throw a second block pass, adding fuel to the controversy.

After his initial crash, Smith fell to seventh on the next lap. He would crash twice more during the event, ultimately finishing four laps off the pace in 20th.

The topic was inevitably part of the postrace news conference.

“It was good racing; it was fun,” Deegan said at about the 27-minute mark in the video above. “I just had some fun doing it.”

Smith had more trouble in the Last Chance Qualifier. He stalled his bike in heavy traffic, worked his way into a battle for fourth with the checkers in sight, but crashed a few yards shy of the finish line and was credited with seventh. Smith earned zero points and fell to sixth in the standings.

Lawrence defends Deegan — *Jordon Smith failed to make the Detroit Supercross Main and fell to sixth in the points. – Feld Motor Sports*

“I think he’s like fifth in points,” Deegan said. “He’s a little out of it. Beside that it was good, I don’t know. I wasn’t really paying attention.”

Deegan jokingly deflected an earlier question with the response that he wasn’t paying attention during the incident.

“He’s my teammate, but he’s a veteran, he’s been in this sport for a while,” Deegan said. “I was up there just battling. I want to win as much as everybody else. It doesn’t matter if it’s a heat race or a main; I just want to win. I was just trying to push that.”

As Deegan and Smith battled, Jeremy Martin took the lead. Deegan finished second in the heat and backed up his performance with a solid third-place showing in the main, which was his second podium finish in a short six-race career. Deegan’s first podium was earned at Daytona, just two rounds ago.

But as Deegan struggled to find something meaningful to say, unsurprisingly for a 17-year-old rider who was not scheduled to run the full 250 schedule this year, it was the championship leader Lawrence who came to his defense.

“I just want to point something out, which kind of amazes me,” Lawrence said during the conference. “So many of the people on social media, where everyone puts their expertise in, are saying the racing back in the ’80s, the early 90s, when me were men. They’re always talking about how gnarly it was and then anytime a block pass or something happens now, everyone cries about it.

“That’s just a little bit interesting. Pick one. You want the gnarly block passes from 10 years ago and then you get it, everyone makes a big song and dance about it.”

Pressed further, Lawrence defended not only the pass but the decision-making process that gets employed lap after lap in a Supercross race.

“It’s easy to point the finger,” Lawrence said. “We’re out there making decisions in a split millisecond. People have all month to pay their phone bill and they still can’t do that on time.

“We’re making decisions at such a fast reaction [time with] adrenaline. … I’m not just saying it for me or Haiden. I speak for all the guys. No one is perfect and we’re under a microscope out there. The media is really quick to point a finger when someone makes a mistake.”

The media is required to hold athletes accountable for their actions. They are also required to tell the complete story.

Read more about SuperMotocross