 The race , the twenty @-@ third out of a total of thirty @-@ six in the season , began at 1 p.m. EDT and was televised live in the United States on ESPN . Conditions were partly cloudy with a high of 80 ° F ( 27 ° C ) . Pastor Doug Bradshaw began pre @-@ race ceremonies by giving the invocation . Next , Virgin Records recording artists Saving Abel performed the national anthem , and Virginia Craig and Evander Holyfield gave the command for drivers to start their engines . 
