Yes. To both. ESPN News going away means that some of the content over there, the content that actually brought in ratings, needs a home. It will come to ESPN2, thus creating a supply and demand change there. That makes is more expensive to NHRA to do the show.
Frankly, I'd take a good NHRA Race Day show, maybe an hour long, over all the hours of qualifying they show. Do a good recap of qualifying, some of the good off-track interviews they do, set the stage for the main show, and go. Forget the qualifying, just do a setup show and the race and be done with it.