NASCAR begins the Chase for the Championship on Sunday with the Sylvania 300 in Loudon, N.H. Meanwhile, the PGA Tour FedEx Cup comes to its climactic finish at the Tour Championship in Atlanta.

The Nextel Cup chase figures to be as exciting as always, but it will have to deal with the absence of Dale Earnhardt Jr., who didn't qualify. The inaugural FedEx Cup has had problems with top golfers competing in the events, but still figures to be a showdown between Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and Steve Stricker.

ESPN's Rusty Wallace says NASCAR won't suffer much with Earnhardt being out of the Cup mix.

"I think the viewership's not going to change a whole lot," said Wallace. "He's going to be out there racing every single week, he's still going to be in the races and he's still a big story. You're not going to turn the TV off just because he's not in the Chase. I think you'll want to keep the TV on because he's your favorite guy. He's still in it, he's just not in the Chase, but there's still a lot of good stories going on."

There's been some confusion about the FedEx Cup format, but NBC's Johnny Miller thinks fans are getting into it now and says the quality of play has been superb.

"The play has been so good under pressure, it's like they're playing for 10 cents, not $10 million," Miller said.

Radio voices: The Los Angeles Clippers have announced Brian Sieman will be their new radio play-by-play announcer on KSPN (710 AM).

Sieman joins the Clippers after one season as the radio voice of the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2006-07.

The Anaheim Ducks have signed radio analyst Brent Severyn to a multiyear extension. Severyn will be in his third season with play-by-play man Steve Carroll.

The Ducks have also extended their arrangement to remain on KLAA (830 AM).

Quiet opening: Only CBS managed to increase its ratings for Week 1 of the NFL season. CBS had a 10.6 rating for its regional games, up 19.1 percent from last year's opening 8.9.

Fox had a 14.2 rating for the Chicago-San Diego national game, down 4.7 percent from last year, and an 8.4 rating for its regional games, down 4.5 percent. NBC's New York Giants-Dallas game pulled in a 13.6 rating, down 7.5 percent from last season's debut.

The Monday night doubleheader on ESPN was down sharply. The Baltimore-Cincinnati game had an 8.6 rating, down 13 percent from the 9.9 in 2006, and the Arizona-San Francisco contest earned a 6.9, down 18.8 from last year's 8.5.

Other notes: ESPN plans to hold one of its "Town Meetings" on Sept. 25 in Atlanta on the Michael Vick dogfighting case. "The Vick Divide" will focus on how Vick's situation has divided Atlanta — in some cases along racial lines — whether he was treated fairly, if his apology was sincere, and his chances of returning to the NFL. Satellite radio notes: Sirius will air Sunday's NASCAR race live and also dedicate 10 channels to individual driver communications. Sirius has also started an all-sports channel, Sirius Sports Central, on Channel 123. XM will add 10 play-by-play channels for expanded college sports programming starting Sept. 24.

It's a strange Saturday for FSN West and FSN Prime Ticket. Neither network has any live baseball or college football. Prime was originally supposed to carry the Dodgers-Diamondbacks game, but it was moved to a 12:55 p.m. start for Fox.

— Jim Carlisle