NBC Gets Creative With NASCAR Announcer Positions at Watkins Glen International The Peacock is bringing back its multi-vantage-point coverage this weekend By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor
Friday, August 3, 2018 - 1:54 pm
Print This Story
Story Highlights
NBC Sports Group continues to think outside the box in locating on-air talent for its NASCAR coverage. This weekend's telecasts from Watkins Glen International will be called from four vantage points throughout the historic 2.45-mile road course. It's no small task for NBC Sports' operations team, which is deploying a total of 13 announcers in seven stationary announce positions, plus four roving pit reporters using RF mics.
It's the second consecutive year that NBC has sprinkled its announcers throughout the road course at Watkins Glen and just the latest chapter in the Peacock's efforts to mix up its strategy for on-air talent: last month, an Analyst Only telecast featured analyst Steve Letarte calling a full race from the Peacock Pit Box.
Our NASCAR coverage first and foremost is for the fans, says Jeff Behnke, VP, NASCAR Production, NBC Sports Group. Anytime we can enhance, energize, and entertain all at once, we will give it a go. The multiple-vantage-point Radio Style' broadcast was well received last year, so we are going for it again.
Talent All Over the Track: Seven Positions for 13 Announcers
NBC is combining with MRN (Motor Racing Network) and SiriusXM for the multi-vantage-point coverage of Saturday and Sunday's race telecasts.
NBC will cover Watkins Glen International this weekend with 50+ cameras, BatCam, and Peacock Pit Box.
NASCAR on NBC's lead race announcer Rick Allen and analyst Letarte will call both races from NBC Sports' traditional broadcast booth above the start/finish line. Meanwhile, analysts Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Burton and veteran MRN/SiriusXM radio announcer Mike Bagley will contribute to the race telecast from three individual locations around the track. Bagley will be stationed in The Esses along the track and will report as the cars make their way through the preliminary turns. Earnhardt (calling a race on his own from a single position for the first time) will catch the cars next, in The Carousel, and Burton will add perspective as the cars maneuver through Turn Six.
To accommodate the supplementary announce positions, NBC Sports Technical Manager Eric Thomas and his team have installed additional fiber for signal transport, along with some additional equipment.
The biggest challenge is not as much technical as it is logistical, says Thomas. We will be adding three Lance Design systems to handle audio transport. One of the locations is at the farthest point from the TV compound, so getting the equipment and announcers there will be a challenge.
Besides the newly added positions, there will be four pit reporters - Marty Snider, Kelli Stavast, Dave Burns, and features reporter Rutledge Wood -equipped with RF microphones and roving the garages, pit lane, and infield throughout NBC's race coverage.
In addition, the new Peacock Pit Box on pit road has upstairs and downstairs announce positions for pre/postgame coverage and will be manned by host Krista Voda and analysts Kyle Petty and Dale Jarrett.
We are very proud of the synergy between our operations/tech team and production, says Ken Goss, who work seamlessly together week in and week out.
BatCam, Peacock Pit Box Make Watkins Glen Debut
Watkins Glen is typically one of NBC's largest NASCAR productions. This year, it features 50-plus cameras, including nine Sony HDC-4300 high-speed cameras, four RF cams, 12 robos, and 16 in-car systems. New to Watkins Glen is the BatCam point-to-point aerial system, which can hit speeds of 100+ mph and has been used at other high-profile NASCAR on NBC races the past two years, is positioned just after Turn 2 and runs up the hill to the top of the Esses.
Analysts Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Burton and MRN/SiriusXM radio announcer Mike Bagley will contribute to the NASCAR on NBC race telecast at Watkins Glen from individual sites around the track.
This area will allow the camera to be as close to the track and cars as possible, says Thomas. We are anticipating a new and interesting angle as the cars make the turn and climb the hill.
The Peacock Pit Box, which debuted earlier this season on NBC's midseason NASCAR opener at Chicagoland Speedway, is deployed at pit road for pre- and post-race coverage. The 14-ft.-long x 12.5 ft.-wide remote studio set is built within a traditional pit-box frame and features two levels of sets, as well as an arsenal of robotic cameras that aid NBC's coverage of pit road.
The Pit Box will be in Watkins Glen and has quickly become a very comfortable location for all of our announcers, says Thomas. We will also be using the BatCam system, which will help showcase the high-speed on-track battles.
Most recent headlines
09/11/2025
Dalet today announced a transformative leap forward for media operations: Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) that unifies the Dalet ecosystem under one natura...
23/10/2025
A deadline is looming for a new carriage deal between Verizon's Fios TV and Nexstar, with both Verizon and the pay TV-backed American Television Alliance bl...
23/10/2025
NEW YORK During a high-profile session at NAB Show New York, new survey data was shared that revealed significant public concern over artificial intelligence (A...
23/10/2025
BELLEVUE, Wash. and NEW YORK Fox Weather has tapped T-Mobile has as its preferred communications provider and announced that all Fox Weather reporters are being...
23/10/2025
PBS and Amazon Web Services have announced the network is using generative AI to provide enhanced search results to viewers on the PBS App and PBS LearningMedia...
22/10/2025
Prime Video Inks Deal To Present NFL Black Friday Game Worldwide By SVG Staff
Wednesday, October 22, 2025 - 10:06 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story ...
22/10/2025
NBA Tip-Off: ESPN Goes 1080p HDR End-to-End, Flipping HDR Switch on REMI and REM...
22/10/2025
FloSports Empowers Division II, III Athletic Departments With Turnkey Production...
22/10/2025
Wall Street Video Summit Debuts, Bringing Together 200 Financial Enterprise Vide...
22/10/2025
Dueling Pianos: International Chopin Piano Competition Is as Competitive as a Ba...
22/10/2025
In 1995, a young Colombian artist released an album that would change Latin pop ...
22/10/2025
Over the past few months, a photovoltaic system has been installed on a three-he...
22/10/2025
The Orion spacecraft for NASA's Artemis II mission is stacked on the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket in High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kenn...
22/10/2025
L3Harris' Hybrid SATCOM is resilient by design, offering path diversity that eliminates vulnerabilities by routing data across the best available networks i...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. Organizers of NAB Show New York said they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countries along with 260 exhibitor...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C The organizers of The 2025 NAB Show New York have announced that they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countr...
22/10/2025
Masque Sound, a leading theatrical sound reinforcement, installation and design company, supplied an extensive gear package of professional-grade equipment for ...
22/10/2025
Lightware, a global leader in signal management and AV connectivity solutions, is seeing strong market momentum for the UCX-3x3-TPX-RX20, a compact transmitter-...
22/10/2025
MELVILLE, N.Y. Chyron has released PAINT 10.2, the latest update for its telestration platform, adding support for SMPTE ST 2110 IP workflows, expanding brandin...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON Run3TV today said NBCUniversal is joining as an investor in the ATSC 3.0 Framework Authority, which develops the Run3TV NextGen TV application platfo...
22/10/2025
ATLANTA swXtch.io will feature two new networking solutions extending the company's reach across more cloud and on-prem workflows at NAB Show New York, set ...
22/10/2025
The Warner Bros. Discoverys HBO Max streaming services has increased prices for all its streaming tiers effectively immediately for new customers. Existing cust...
22/10/2025
LOS ANGELES OpenDrives has signed a new distribution partnership deal with Versatile Distribution Services (VDS) to strengthen its channel and streamline how it...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C The organizers of The 2025 NAB Show New York have announced that they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countr...
22/10/2025
Samora Pinderhughes Brings Immersive Sound to Berklee's Signature Series The artist and composer, who's worked with Herbie Hancock, Robert Glasper, Co...
22/10/2025
BMI Day at Berklee Celebrates Composer Fil Eisler and Awards Scholarship to Stud...
22/10/2025
October 22nd, 2025 TRIBECA ANNOUNCES STAR-STUDDED LINEUP OF MEMBERSHIP EVENTS F...
22/10/2025
Rohde & Schwarz and TRUMPF cooperate in drone defense Rohde & Schwarz and TRUMPF partner to deliver a comprehensive drone defense solution combining Rohde & S...
22/10/2025
European Broadcaster Upgrades To Grass Valley's NativeIP LDX 135 Cameras And...
22/10/2025
Everyone Gets a Better Deal on Verizon with New FOX One Perk The $15 FOX One streaming service perk is yet another way Verizon continues to add savings for cu...
22/10/2025
First Look Hidden Assets Series 3
Premieres on 9th November 9:30pm on RT One & RT Player
WATCH HERE Promo Link: Hidden Assets Series 3 | RT
The Crimin...
21/10/2025
NAB New York 2025: Although AES Show Is on Its Own, Audio Will Be a Major Part o...
21/10/2025
NAB New York 2025: Business of Broadcast and Media,' Future of Content'...
21/10/2025
SVG All-Stars: Ethan Folz, Senior Director, Digital Operations and Quality of Ex...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: Livestream Offers Graphic Overlays, Predictive Gaming, Ancil...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: At the Front Bench With Producer Frank DiGraci and Director ...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: NBC Sports, NEP Build Ultra-Flexible Production Plan That Se...
21/10/2025
Indigenous storytelling has been at the heart of the work of the Sundance Instit...
21/10/2025
Top L-R: Mysterious Skin, American Dream Second Row L-R: Little Miss Sunshine, D...
21/10/2025
Last week, Spotify and Columbia Records transformed Pier 4 at the Brooklyn Army ...
21/10/2025
SBS Learn's Dharug Ngurra resource empowers classrooms to meaningfully celeb...
21/10/2025
As global operators simplify and evolve their digital platforms, NPS improvement...
21/10/2025
Critical Design Review completion is a key milestone on the path toward Wideband Global Satellite Communications certification for the network in 2026, opening ...
21/10/2025
New Australian undersea training range to implement and improve warfighting tactics, proficiency and safety; enable joint/allied training that contributes to pr...
21/10/2025
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({...
21/10/2025
September, the beginning of autumn, brought an expected revival to the TV market, largely due to the new fall TV schedules. The time spent in front of the TV sc...
21/10/2025
Broadcast Booms with 20% Uptick vs. August, Achieving Largest Monthly
Increase ...
21/10/2025
During September, streaming's share of TV viewing in Mexico settled at 24.5%, a marginal shift of -0.5 share points from the previous month.
Disclaimer: YU...
21/10/2025
RENNES, France BBright and GlobalM have conducted a technical trial validating Ultra HD interoperability across the entire contribution chain in the cloud, achi...
NBC Gets Creative With NASCAR Announcer Positions at Watkins Glen International The Peacock is bringing back its multi-vantage-point coverage this weekend By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor 
