My Race Interactive DVD a whole new way to tune in

Unless you faithfully TiVo, DVR or otherwise record each Nextel Cup event, you're going to miss some important stuff from week to week.

No more.

The NASCAR My Race Interactive DVD puts you in the cockpit with your favorite drivers, offers you the chance to view the race your way and gives you a whole lot of content that you might not have had the chance to see without it.

Here's the selling point that will grab NASCAR fans by the thousands: you control the viewing experience.

"There are some real benefits to this as opposed to taping it or TiVo or DVR," said Tony Cunha, president of Team 19 Marketing, which created the technology. "We have an edited broadcast, so there's no commercials, no timeouts, no delays. It is 52 minutes of really the best action of the race. The other element is we have the in-car views and the audio. This is unique in that fans can watch not just their favorite driver, but four other drivers. They can go back and watch something again from five different angles each time."

With as much complaining about the broadcasts by the sport's faithful, that ought to go over pretty well.

There's a reason no one has tried this before, and it is that the technology didn't exist until now, or at least the applications inside the technology didn't.

"Our team had some innovative technologies in the DVD offering field, and we were looking for places where they might apply in the sporting world," Cunha said of his San Diego-based firm. "NASCAR seemed a perfect fit for us because of the fan enthusiasm and interest in specific drivers, and also because the drivers have cameras and microphones in their cars, which is unique in the sporting world.

"The primary reason is no one saw the application for it, but I really think it's that no one has been able to do this before. We actually have a patent pending, encompassing elements of both the process and the product itself. This multi-angle DVD with the on-screen dashboard ... to do this, it required some innovation on our part that no one had ever done before. Perhaps that's why no one has attempted this before, because they felt it couldn't be done."

Once NASCAR was identified as a potential outlet, Cunha started talking with NASCAR Images, which owns the rights to the broadcasts of the races. That was 18 months ago.

"We really collaborated with them in developing a product that would be the best fit for the NASCAR fan," Cunha said. "We finalized our interface in December last year, and we began capturing races at Daytona."

It's not just race footage on the DVDs each week. NASCAR reporter John Roberts produces the bonus feature DVD that examines the stories of the weekend in detail, and that's important for the long-term viability of the product, Cunha said.

"[The bonus feature DVD] is a real value add," Cunha said. "John Roberts is doing an exclusive at-track report, beginning at Bristol. He's doing exclusive interviews with drivers and celebrities at the track, as well as pre- and post-race interviews. There are exclusive wallpaper downloads for each race, screen shots, and one section of the DVD is called Passes and Clashes.

"What we've done is taken some of the best interchanges and incidents that occurred throughout the race and built them into a quad-screen and dual-screen format where you can actually go into any of the cars, replay it from a broadcast view, a quad-screen view or from any of the three cars. So it's a completely different experience. The fan has complete control over the viewing experience and until you try it, you really can't explain how different that is from anything else."

What is also different is the case the DVD set comes in each week. It's blue steel and has a hologram on the back with a unique production number on it, which makes it ideal for the avid collector of NASCAR stuff.

"In addition to having six hours of race footage and behind-the-scenes in every product, you have a very high-end collectable case which is perfect for the serious NASCAR fan or as a gift for the serious NASCAR fan," Cunha said.

The DVD set costs $34.95 per race, and shipping is free during the introductory period. There's a free DVD set for each three purchased, too.

To a serious student of the sport, having a condensed, high-tech broadcast DVD on hand is evolutionary nirvana. Fans can use it to replay incidents, recall timelines and stories and settle wagers. That's serious business; there are more phone calls after midnight to the nation's newspapers that begin, "Me and my buddy are having an argument ..." than you might think.

Team 19 is owned by NFL Hall of Fame receiver Lance Alworth (who wore No. 19 for the San Diego Chargers of the old AFL, hence the name). Cunha, the resident technical wizard, is the founder of Duplitech Corp., which pioneered the auto-authoring utility that is used to create DVDs from digitally stored and dynamic content.

Fans can order DVDs at myracedvd.com, and titles are available from the Daytona 500 through the current event. Fans can even pre-order all the way through Homestead.