Sometimes, things just happen right out of the blue in NASCAR TV/media land. While on a conference call listening to ESPN preview their Sprint Cup Series coverage Tuesday afternoon, some information arrived from Turner Sports.
This season, fans of the Nationwide Series have been able to listen to free team scanners on select races provided by Nationwide through the NASCAR.com website. Turner is now expanding its services for the series with the introduction of the TrackPass RaceView feature.
Shown in the picture above, this NASCAR.com offering has been a paid service for Sprint Cup Series fans for several years. Now, NASCAR.com is offering a Nationwide Series version for free during three events this season.
Saturday night at Indy, August 13 at Watkins Glen and September 9 in Richmond there will be lots of free online bells and whistles. RaceView offers virtual video on every entry in the field, including six camera angles on each car.
There is also in-car audio, position tracker, live telemetry and real-time race statistics for the entire event. RaceView has always offered a ton of information and this Nationwide Series version is no exception.
"Research has shown that RaceView complements the television viewing experience," said NASCAR's Director of Digital Media John Martin. "We’re excited to support ESPN’s broadcast of the NASCAR Nationwide Series. We continually look for ways to provide fans with the content they want to see, where they want to see it."
Also good news for online NASCAR veterans is that this Nationwide Series version is designed to operate on all current editions of Safari, Firefox and Internet Explorer running Adobe Flash Player.
Hopefully, a positive response to this may allow for it to expand next season. Perhaps, we may even see a RaceBuddy-style live video application like fans enjoy currently for the Camping World trucks. It's been a big boost for that series.
We all know that the Nationwide Series is in the middle of an identity change with new rules for the driver championship and Sprint Cup Series cross-over drivers. Carl Edwards has already announced he is going to scale back his Nationwide Series efforts for 2012.
Supporting this series with additional online components will just help with the exposure and interactivity for fans who desire more interaction with live sports. ESPN's television production will be unaffected as that network continues to telecast the remaining races.
If you have any questions or comments about this topic, just click the comments button below to add them. We appreciate the interaction with Turner Sports and can probably answer questions about RaceView in a timely fashion. Thanks for taking the time to stop by The Daly Planet.
After I read your article and saw that Track Pass will be available for the Nationwide race I went to Nascar.com and clicked on the main tab TRACKPASS and came to a page where you can Preview Track Pass. I tried the Preview feature and it worked. Do you happen to know that if the Preview works for me now, it means the real Track Pass will work on Saturday with the setup I tried it on. My main operating system is Firefox 3.6.18 and it worked fine for the Preview.
ReplyDeleteI am looking forward to trying out Track Pass Race View.
Thanks Turner/Nascar.com
Cartoon cars? No thanks. Call me when they get some video. I like what they've done with the trucks, I will admit that. But the rest of it is a joke.
ReplyDeleteJust because NASCAR can't sort out smart use of the internet with it's TV partners doesn't mean that I'm going to waste my life watching Trackpass.
I'll check it out when they have it for N'wide.
ReplyDeleteI use to have a subscription but they recently started charging for it. Eons ago, they had it free for cable internet subscribers but they've stopped it. I think it went to $9 a month & don't have the money right now to do the yearly thing. I might look into getting it later when I have a few extra bucks especially if they add to it. But had to pass on the increase right now.
It was nice to be able to access PRN/MRN especially the Dover races since they're delayed for the Pick 'em Ups. As well as the driver radios.
I use regular trackpass with pit command but not raceview. I'm not into the cartoon cars either. But it does allow me to listen to the scanners and follow drivers positions on the track better than the ticker on the screen and I can listen during the commercials.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to hear that they are offering this as a trial for the Nationwide series and hopefully for the trucks for those folks who follow the series more closely than I do.
I happen to be "into" the cartoon cars because I enjoy following my favorite driver on the track. So I guess I am a bit strange that I am "into" the cartoon cars.
ReplyDeleteLet me get this straight. I watched all the TNT races with the NASCAR.COM feeding, how many, 8 in-car cameras as well as the racing from a couple angles. We get that same thing but with fewer cameras with the Speed Truck races and even when Speed televised a Nationwide race last year. But if any of this is on FOX or ESPN we get a cartoon? Not working for me when I know what they can do if they want to.
ReplyDeleteNot watching a cartoon.
Yeah just not into the cartoon cars either. Seems pretty lame. All I need is the scanner, and more often than not its available for the Nationwide race.
ReplyDeleteTrack pass will be great when they allow you to control one of the cartoon cars with your mouse and virtually race the real cars on the track.
ReplyDeleteTo me, it's just a total waste of bandwidth.
ReplyDeleteWilliam, slot cars!
ReplyDeleteWish it would have been RaceBuddy instead of TrackPass. But I will give it a shot.
ReplyDeleteDid the NFL NBA or MLB ever consider cartoon renditions of their live games for viewing online?
ReplyDeleteHere is a serious suggestion. If NASCAR wants to improve the sport, find some way of letting the viewers listen to their driver through the tv instead of the broadcasts, like direct tv did a few years ago. I would be more willing to put up with commercials and seeing the front runners so much if I was thrown a bone and allowed to listen to my driver. As of now I am paying $60+ a year to do just that.
Another suggestion for the broadcasters networks, taken from my kids Mario racing video game, show the car numbers going around the edge of the screen in the order they are racing and in relative distance from each other, let me be able to see where my driver is at a glance, not stare at the slow ticker for 60 seconds only to have the restart it or take it away for an in car or commercial.
A few years back I watched the cartoon cars on the computer. One of them went off the track and right through a building in the infield. I can't believe after offering Race Buddy, nascar.com/BSPN would even show animation when the real thing is available. They need to get out of Pong age.
ReplyDeleteInteresting to learn that Nationwide scanners have been available to Trackpass subscribers. It would have been nice if they'd used some of those subscription fees to send an announcement.
ReplyDeleteMy high speed internet isn't really all that high, so RaceBuddy's video feed doesn't work all that well. The RaceView "cartoon cars" that some complain about are just fine for me. If my connection is real bad, sometimes they drive through the infield and mix it up with the fans in the stands. I laugh a bit and then switch to scanner only, which is what I like the best anyway.
I'm happy to have TrackPass for Nationwide as long as it's included in the price and they don't charge separately. I'll be really pleased if they follow that by bringing it to the truck races.