TV Production Truck And Announce Booth Photos

The folks at ESPN have helped us to fulfill your requests for some basic pictures of the main TV production truck and the announce booth at NASCAR races. Here are some good views of both with brief explanations. Just click on the photos to see them full size. If you have questions or comments, please make them below in the COMMENTS section.

We begin with a great picture of this season and the ESPN crew in the announce booth. The scoring monitor is on the left, the program monitor is in the middle and the monitor used to show replays and other video only to the booth is on the right.


When ESPN is ready for air, the main TV truck is full of production staff. The Technical Director that switches the race is in the white hat, next to him is the Director and to his left is the Producer. Other ESPN folks in this picture are on the management team. The pit producer and associate director (who controls commercials) sit on that second row.


This is the "front bench" of ESPN's main production truck before they are on-the-air. Note the network clock above and the huge amount of video sources. These consist of everything from race, pit and in-car cameras to replay machines and graphic sources. The Producer and Director sit side-by-side at this location.


The ESPN Director (middle) points to his next camera as he calls video commands to the Technical Director seated to his right. In the baseball cap, the ESPN Producer uses the communication system to talk with an on-air announcer. The picture of Brad Daugherty is the "program feed" that is on-the-air and all the other monitors are video sources.


Andy Petree with his laptop, and two monitors alongside. One is used to show him things that the Producer wants him to see. The other is what you see at home.


Trucks are parked in a pre-planned TV compound at every race.


The ESPN TV Compound including a good view of the Tech Center.


I hope you will join me in thanking the Media Relations folks at ESPN for going out of their way to help us with this information. As the season continues, we will try to bring you more behind-the-scenes photos that show the technology used in producing NASCAR racing for TV.

The Daly Planet welcomes comments from readers. Simply click on the COMMENTS button below and follow the directions. Thanks again for taking the time to stop by.

Doug Yates Makes His Case On National TV

The serious struggles of several historic teams in the Sprint Cup Series this season has caught many fans by surprise. The twist in the fortunes of Petty, Yates and the Wood Brothers threatens to affect the face of NASCAR on many levels.

While Kyle Petty has been all over the media about the situation at Petty Enterprises, both the Wood Brothers and Doug Yates have been relatively low-key.

On Tuesday's thirty minute edition of NASCAR Now, host Nicole Manske took time to interview Doug Yates. It was nice to see a professional and well-spoken NASCAR veteran who clearly was motivated to return his company to good standing.

Manske challenged Yates on why the performance had suffered, and he was up-front in his response. Doug and his father had let things stay as they were when times were good, instead of making changes for the future. This is a statement that could probably be applied to all three of the historic teams now in trouble.

ESPN's Andy Petree was the right person to comment on this situation as the NASCAR Now analyst. Petree had been a car owner and run into almost exactly the same type of struggle with both sponsorship and performance. His honest evaluation of Yates issue addressed both the positive and negative elements of the situation from a veteran perspective.

It was nice to see ESPN step-up and insert themselves into a situation like this by offering Yates an opportunity to be seen and heard on national TV. This is using the power of the ESPN Networks as a partner to NASCAR. If sponsorship comes from this appearance, I certainly hope NASCAR Now follows-up on that story as well.

Manske also spoke with the highly-excitable Johnny Sauter who is stepping back into the Sprint Cup Series at Phoenix. Sauter was a great interview, and put his cards on the table in terms of having to show what he can do in Phoenix to continue in this ride. Instead of the angry and impatient Sauter of the past, he sounded like a racer who recognized that opportunities like this one do not come along too often.

Petree then put the issue in candid perspective, calling it a "make or break" situation. Saying it was one of Sauter's "last shots" at Cup racing, Petree was also honest in calling Jeremy Mayfield's release "pretty tough." Petree hinted that Mayfield may find himself turning to another series to keep himself in NASCAR.

At this time last year, fans were in full outrage at the antics and hype of NASCAR Now. This season, viewers can casually tune-in expecting the news of the day, analysis from one of ESPN's own broadcast team and top-flight guests. Manske has also integrated herself seamlessly into this broadcast since day one.

In ESPN's last go-round with NASCAR, it was John Kernan who anchored the coverage on the general racing show RPM2Night. That series quietly became the place to go for race fans of all types. Now, after two months of solid programs and professional analysis, ESPN has once again found the right mix to bring NASCAR fans that same level of comfort.

As the season plays-out and the stories continue to develop, the only challenge remaining for NASCAR Now is to grow that new found level of comfort into a solid bond of trust with the NASCAR fans. The last two months have been a pretty good start.

The Daly Planet welcomes comments from readers. Simply click on the COMMENTS button below and follow the instructions. The rules for posting are on the right side of the main page. Thanks again for taking the time to stop by.

Backwards "TWIN" A Good Show In Reverse

There are a lot of things that SPEED has sorted out on their new Monday night TV series called This Week In NASCAR. There is one very fundamental thing that they have not.

Steve Byrnes hosted an hour with Michael Waltrip and Greg Biffle as the panelists on this week's show. As usual, the conversation at the top of the show was about the big Texas weekend and the many happenings over the past three days.

Regular viewers of the show knew that soon this good conversation would be halted, and it was. For whatever reason, it was time once again to look forward to the next Sprint Cup race before ever starting the review of the one that just took place...yesterday.

No one quite seems to understand what SPEED is trying to accomplish by putting the preview before the review. It certainly is tough to remove the current news and the current highlights and put them on the shelf for thirty minutes. For better or worse, that is exactly what TWIN did again this week.

Once the program got through the Phoenix preview and opened the door to conversation about Texas, things came alive. Waltrip was finally comfortable and outspoken on all kinds of topics, and even began to show his unique sense of humor.

For his part, Biffle was more comfortable on this program than he has been in a long time. The conversation about the COT, the dynamics of tuning the car and the problems the teams have been having was outstanding. Biffle brings a mechanical approach to racing in the same way that Waltrip brings an emotional one.

Steve Byrnes still has to integrate a lot of video and features into this program. Sometimes, they close down a good conversation that is in-progress. While the quality of the edited video is outstanding, this is the reason that the Inside Winston Cup program was once expanded to ninety minutes. Just too much content for an hour.

SPEED took a gamble in starting this franchise over, and TV viewers have watched the changes in this series as it has developed. Suggestions on other changes have included returning Ken Schrader to the panel and having a weekly studio guest.

The one curious item continues to be asking fans to wait thirty minutes to see the panel discuss the recent race weekend. This show was a good example of that, as the panel had a blast talking about Texas. As the series continues to develop, it should be interesting to see how long SPEED can stick with this format.

The Daly Planet welcomes comments from readers. Simply click on the COMMENTS button below and follow the easy instructions. The rules for posting are located on the right side of the main page. Thank you for taking the time to stop by.