This year, 14 of those races will be on ESPN, up from six last year. ABC, which had 14 of last year's Sprint Cup races, will have only three in 2010.

In the shift, ESPN will have nine of the 10 season-ending races that comprise NASCAR's playoff-style Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

Which isn't surprising, given how Disney has shown that beefing up ESPN — by giving it Monday night NFL games and, starting next year, all of college football's BCS games — is its priority.

But moving events from broadcast network TV to ESPN, which helps buttress the industry-high fees it charges cable operators, doesn't necessarily mean losing viewers.

About 100 million of the total 115 million U.S. TV households now get satellite or cable. And among avid sports fans, that access is especially high. About 95% of households that watched the recent BCS title game have cable or satellite TV. And ESPN's Sprint Cup races drew a higher rating — 3.6% of U.S. TV households — than ABC's 3.5 average.

The three Cup races remaining on ABC — on Aug. 21, Sept. 11 and Oct. 16 — are meant to combine with 12 college football games to position ABC Saturday prime time as a regular time slot for live sports over 16 consecutive weeks.

The other piece of that puzzle: On Aug. 28, the Little League World Series U.S. title game will, for the first time, move to prime time.

So much for the players' bedtimes.