TNT Sports Heads Into Year 2 of NASCAR Return With New NEP Truck, Expanded In-Car Experience

PX1 will debut at Sonoma as TNT leans into super-slo-mo, drones, SMT data integrations, and HBO Max Driver Cam workflows

After getting back into the rhythm of producing NASCAR last summer, TNT Sports enters the second year of its NASCAR In-Season Challenge coverage with a more refined operation, a new mobile-unit backbone, and an expanded set of viewing experiences across TNT, truTV, HBO Max, and Bleacher Report.

Exclusive live race coverage begins Sunday at California's Sonoma Raceway with the Toyota/Save Mart 350, the first of five NASCAR Cup Series races making up the 2026 In-Season Challenge. For TNT Sports, the second season is about building on what was learned in last year's return to the sport.

It was just about getting our sea legs back and getting back to the groove of racing and what it takes to pull that production together, says Chris Brown, VP, technology and operation, Warner Bros. Discovery. NASCAR is a very large production, and sometimes it's easy to forget just how big that production is.

TNT Sports returns to NASCAR this weekend in Sonoma, CA, where the new production truck, NEP PX1, will make its debut. (Photo: TNT Sports)The most significant operational change this year is a move to NEP as mobile-facilities provider for TNT Sports' NASCAR coverage. NEP has built the broadcaster a new truck, PX1, which will serve as the production frontend for the races and will debut this weekend at Sonoma.

PX1 is built upon NEP's new TFC broadcast control system for an ST-2110 infrastructure and will serve as home to TNT Sports' core production team. Supershooter 12 will support the operation's backend, housing the main audio mix, lead video, and a production room for tape release.

We're excited to be part of Turner's return to NASCAR, says Mike Werteen, President of NEP Americas. We've worked together for a long time, and what makes this project special is how closely we collaborated to build the right production solution for what they wanted to accomplish. Supported by our TFC broadcast control system, this compound gives Turner the flexibility to produce these races the way they want while maintaining the production quality fans expect.

The shift in facilities comes as TNT Sports looks to sharpen its overall NASCAR operation. Brown notes that it's less a wholesale change in production philosophy and more the benefit of a year of experience.

With each year, it just becomes refinement, he says. A lot of it sits not even as much on the technology side as around the operation and production side of it. Is everybody getting back into the groove of producing races?

A look at the main control room area inside NEP's new PX1 truck. (Photo: NEP Group)From a technology and storytelling standpoint, TNT Sports' NASCAR coverage will feature up to 40 cameras per race, including eight super-slo-mo cameras. Among the key specialty cameras will be a Phantom robotic camera positioned at the finish line.

One of the things we're trying to do, highlighting a lot of our coverage, is going to be in the super-slo-mo space, says Brown. There will be a Phantom robo at the finish line for those really, really tight finishes.

TNT Sports will also deploy drones, working with Kaze Aerial Productions and Beverly Hills Aerials, while continuing to integrate SMT virtual advertising and in-car telemetry. The production will use optical-tracking pointers as part of the in-car telemetry workflow.

We're going to take advantage of that, Brown notes. It's something that I've seen a lot of folks are using now, the optical pointers for optical tracking. But it was something that we didn't necessarily use.

Another key piece of the coverage plan is how TNT Sports will leverage the in-car-camera feeds produced for HBO Max. Those feeds will continue to serve the direct-to-consumer experience while also being available to the linear production team as replay sources.

On HBO Max, TNT Sports is again leaning into Driver Cam and Multiview experiences designed to give fans alternative ways to follow the race. This season's enhancements include the ability to isolate driver-radio communication without engine noise, a real-time radio indicator showing which drivers are actively communicating with their teams, and in-race alerts allowing fans to jump between streams and viewpoints.

The five-race slate also gives TNT Sports several strong venue storylines. Chicagoland Speedway returns to the Cup Series schedule as part of the In-Season Challenge, and North Wilkesboro Speedway in North Carolina will host a points-paying Cup race for the first time since 1996. The latter race offers TNT Sports a natural storytelling opportunity: Dale Earnhardt Jr., who played a prominent role in the track's revival, will be part of the broadcaster's race coverage.

Overall, though, for TNT Sports, the goal is to take the lessons from last year's return and deliver a more polished, more flexible production across every platform.

It's Year 2, time to improve on Year 1, says Brown. I think we did great in Year 1. We had a lot to learn, and I think we have. Everybody's ready to hit the ground running on this one.

LINK:	https://www.sportsvideo.org/2026/06/26/tnt-sports-heads-into-year-2-of...
	See more stories from svg

Most recent headlines