What it takes in broadcasting NASCAR races

Who says covering car races for television such as NASCAR is easy as counting your toes?

Broadcasting NASCAR proves to be a very demanding task for TV station ABC/ESPN. But the cable TV network seems to be unfazed and is up to the challenge.

A case in point was the Nextel Cup Dodge Dealers 400 at Dover International Speedway last September 23, which was telecast live on ABC.

ABC/ESPN senior motorsports producer Neil Goldberg relates his experience in a Delawareonline article, thus: �It's like trying to land 43 planes on the same strip at one time."

So much so that Goldberg is destined to confinement inside his command center, which includes an expensive, custom made flat-bed trailer. This trailer contains over 60 high-definition TV screens, wherein the producer selects the best shots at any given moment to be shown to viewers.

"There are 43 cars to tell stories about," Goldberg said in the same article. "It's exciting. The story always changes. We're producing it on the fly."

Now in its first of an eight-year contract to broadcast NASCAR, ABC/ESPN will broadcast the final 17 races of the Nextel Cup Series. Aside from ABC/ESPN, the Series�s 36 seasons are divided between TNT, FOX, and the Speed Channel. The deal signifies the comeback of NASCAR to the station owned by Disney, which has not broadcast races for six years.

The preparations alone underscore the hard work the TV network has been putting into this just to deliver the latest from NASCAR straight to the audience�s TV sets. According to the ABC/ESPN, it uses approximately 13 huge vehicles in a convoy that contains all the equipment to every race. Some of the vehicles are allocated for audio and a system where the crew can record everything to replay at any given time. For every NASCAR telecast, ABC/ESPN employs over 100 workers working on the 75 cameras, which are more than double of the average used for covering a football game.

The ABC/ESPN crew starts working today with a conference with the team of producers. From that point onwards, everything is ready, according to Goldberg.

"The challenge in coverage is being prepared to react," Goldberg further said. "So much is going on, but it all makes sense.�