NBC Sports Focuses Production Resources on Four Drivers Contending for the Cup Series Championship A NASCAR champion will crowned at NBC at Phoenix Raceway on Sunday By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital
Friday, November 8, 2024 - 11:54 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
An eventful NASCAR season comes to a close this weekend as the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Championship revs into Phoenix Raceway on Sunday (3 p.m. ET, NBC, Peacock) to crown a champion.
NBC Sports will take a unique approach to covering this race with a full field on the track but only four drivers still running for the championship: Joey Logano, Tyler Reddick, Ryan Blaney, and William Byron. The network will emphasize production resources on the contending drivers and has also assigned pit reporters to each one (Dave Burns with Reddick, Marty Snider with Blaney, Kim Coon with Byron, and Parker Kligerman with Logano.
We pride ourselves on our storytelling, says NBC Sports producer Rene Hatlelid, and that goes beyond the driver - not only does a driver win, a team wins, a crew chief wins, it takes an entire team. It's more of a team sport than people understand.
The broadcast crew will roll out an impressive complement of resources to cover the track and pit row, including 12 hard cameras, four of which will each have the responsibility on isolating one of the four title chasers. Additionally, there will be 10 robotic cameras, five handheld RFs, 1 RF Steadicam, a pair of jibs (one at the pre/post stages and one atop Rattlesnake Hill to capture the beauty and vista of the track and surrounding area), three cameras on the Peacock Pit Box, and a helicopter overhead. The front bench will also have access to 28 in-car cameras sprinkled between seven cars in the race (four of which are the Championship Four).
Hatelid pointed out that while much of the attention for fans heading into this weekend is the battle between the four drivers gunning for the Cup, there's a still a full field of drivers to cover.
It's important to find a balance, she says. At the end of the day, every driver is ending their season, but some drivers are ending careers, some are changing teams, some entire teams are ending. There are a lot of storylines to pay off and it's important to tell those stories and put a button on everyone's hard work. The Championship 4 are the most important, but stories like Martin Truex Jr. retiring, Stewart-Haas going away, Denny Hamlin once again missing the championship, and Reddick's regular-season championship are all examples of stories we plan to touch on as well.
This weekend is also a fork in the road for NASCAR. 2025 will officially begin NASCAR's next $7.7 billion rights deal that will see incumbent broadcasters FOX and NBC welcome new partners in TNT Sports, Prime Video, and The CW. This season, though, has the auto racing giant riding high into a new era. Phoenix closes the book on what's been a big year for NASCAR. Not only did the auto racing organization officially open its new $53 million, 58,000-sq.-ft. production facility in Concord, NC that has placed a greater emphasis on remote-based live production, but television ratings also ticked up 2% overall even despite its biggest race, Daytona, was hit with a 27% ratings dip when that race was marred by rain delays.
For NBC Sports, NASCAR's playoff format despite some controversy has proven to be a winner. Ratings for the races in the playoff schedule are up 6% so far from last year.
It's been an incredible season for us, says Hatelid, who noted she's excited to crown a champion in her hometown of Phoenix. We've had an awesome run of close finishes and historic moments. The competition in the Playoffs has been awesome and we've seen great viewership with five consecutive races and seven of eight with year-over-year gains heading into Phoenix. We were really proud of the Stage Two embeds with the race teams and the stories we were able to tell about the various team members, and we showed more than 600 live green flag laps from the Superspeedway races at Daytona, Atlanta and Talladega, and I think both of those resonated really well with the viewers.
NBC Sports presents the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Championship from Phoenix Raceway in Avondale, Ariz., this Sunday, Nov. 10, at 3 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock with a special edition of Countdown to Green beginning at 2 p.m. ET.
North America Stories
06/04/2026
Michigan legends bring a new voice to the broadcast as TNT Sports and CBS Sports...
06/04/2026
From high school sports all the way up to the major leagues, building high-quali...
06/04/2026
Quickplay, an AI company for the media and entertainment industry, has been accepted into the Advanced tier of the TwelveLabs Ecosystem Partner Program. Quickpl...
06/04/2026
Grass Valley has announced the Future Playmakers Program, a global initiative to...
06/04/2026
El l der de operaciones impulsa la producci n en estudio mientras encuentra insp...
06/04/2026
The ops leader helps lead the charge in studio for the Spanish-language broadcas...
06/04/2026
Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, includ...
06/04/2026
The National Hockey League (NHL), in partnership with Verizon and the New Jersey Devils, today announced the opening of the NHL Innovation Lab powered by Verizo...
06/04/2026
Rock League, a new professional curling league, has announced that ESPN+ will stream its inaugural 2026 season for fans in the United States. The first Rock Lea...
06/04/2026
Advanced Systems Group has announced the appointment of Andrea (Andy) Cummis as Vice President of Systems Design and Engineering. In this role, she will lead de...
06/04/2026
Backed by Bolt Ventures, the venture brings Bryson DeChambeau, Grant Horvat, and...
06/04/2026
With this environment we can start that collaboration even earlier because we ca...
06/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
06/04/2026
Dalet Showcases Dalia Agentic AI and End-to-End Media Workflows at NAB Show 2026
Brie Clayton April 6, 2026
0 Comments
Dalet, a leading technology and...
06/04/2026
OpenDrives Shows Off Sports Expertise in Sports Business Hub located in NAB Show...
06/04/2026
Proton to Demonstrate 3D Application at NAB 2026
Brie Clayton April 6, 2026
0 Comments
Yet further creative potential unleashed through innovation in ...
06/04/2026
Autoscript Highlights Voice-Driven Prompting and PTZ Solutions at NAB 2026
Brie Clayton April 6, 2026
0 Comments
Experience Autoscript Voice, PTZ prom...
06/04/2026
Mediaproxy Highlights Significant Enhancements to its LogServer suite at NAB Sho...
06/04/2026
April 6th, 2026
TRIBECA STUDIOS AND LILLY ANNOUNCE WINNERS OF INAUGURAL VITAL...
06/04/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Expands Kids Entertainment Lineup With Playground App ...
04/04/2026
The University of Arizona's Men's Basketball team has only loss twice th...
04/04/2026
1080p HDR arrives, a new generation of storytelling tools takes center stage, an...
04/04/2026
Michigan legends bring a new voice to the broadcast as TNT Sports and CBS Sports...
04/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
04/04/2026
DHD Introduces AI-Based Audio Noise Reduction to XD3 IP Core
Brie Clayton April 3, 2026
0 Comments
The accompanying image shows the rear panel of the ...
04/04/2026
Macnica Redefines ST 2110 Flexibility with Two Speeds on One Card
Brie Clayton April 3, 2026
0 Comments
New for NAB Show 2026, MEP100 SmartNIC now sup...
04/04/2026
Unified Media Workflows for Story-Centric Production
Brie Clayton April 3, 2026
0 Comments
Framelight X unifies field capture, editing and publishing ...
03/04/2026
Michigan's Fab Five will reunite for an alternate presentation of the Mich...
03/04/2026
Avid will exhibit at NAB Show 2026 (April 18-22, Booth N2226, Las Vegas Convention Center), demonstrating its Content Core platform and new AI-driven workflow c...
03/04/2026
Mark Roberts Motion Control (MRMC) has announced the appointment of Nick Barthee as Chief Operating Officer.
The announcement follows MRMC's transition fro...
03/04/2026
Interra Systems has announced that Elite Media Technologies has selected its BATON file-based QC solution for media workflows. Elite Media Technologies speciali...
03/04/2026
Ateme has announced that Moldtelecom has deployed Ateme technologies across its streaming workflow, covering encoding, delivery, operations, and analytics.
Mol...
03/04/2026
Grass Valley will demonstrate Framelight X, its content management platform, at NAB Show 2026. The platform connects capture, ingest, editing, and publishing in...
03/04/2026
Encompass Digital Media and Techex have announced a cloud-native Master Control ...
03/04/2026
Live Vertical Video automatically track the action on the court via AI technology and delivers a fully optimized, 9 16 live feed for viewers...
03/04/2026
As the Illini make their first trip to college basketball's biggest stage si...
03/04/2026
After last summer's Softball National Championship victory and last week'...
03/04/2026
The University of Arizona's Men's Basketball team has only loss twice th...
03/04/2026
Eight games across four tournaments will be played in three venues; accommodatio...
03/04/2026
The Ottawa Senators and Bell Media have announced a long-term rights extension for regional Ottawa Senators games on TSN and RDS. TSN Radio 1200 remains the exc...
03/04/2026
Massive production in Phoenix is run out of Game Creek Video Flagship mobile uni...
03/04/2026
New York April 2, 2026 TelevisaUnivision, the world's leading Spanish-la...
03/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/04/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
NBC Sports Focuses Production Resources on Four Drivers Contending for the Cup Series Championship A NASCAR champion will crowned at NBC at Phoenix Raceway on Sunday By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital 
