Peyton Manning backs away from under center, leans right and barks out code words for his linemen. He leans left and does it again. He turns and motions for running back Joseph Addai to take a few steps over to one side. Manning scans the defensive formation and you can hear the exact words of coach Jim Caldwell that ring through Manning's helmet ...

It's 5-3 Red Sox when closer Jonathan Papelbon takes the mound. He walks the first batter, then gives up a single that moves the runner over. The third batter hits a sacrifice fly that makes it 5-4 in the top of the ninth at Fenway. You hear what he's saying to himself on the mound despite the Boston faithful cheering on. The A's are threatening to tie the game. You're able to look into his glove as he gets ready for the next two batters -- both of whom he strikes out to end the game and pick up his 23rd save on the season.

What's the problem with those scenarios? Neither is possible.

There is no huddle cam that Manning would allow mounted to his helmet, and Papelbon doesn't wear a clip-on micro cam on the bill of his Boston hat.

But when Kyle Busch's car bounces off the wall coming to the checkered flag and begins sliding down the Daytona backstretch, only to get slammed by Kasey Kahne's car, viewers are there -- literally. Replays of the last-lap crash in the Coke Zero 400 will wear out television screens until November. But the single shot that best captures the magnitude of Busch's crash was from the rear bumper of his car. When the footage went to that shot and showed the 18 car perched atop the No. 9 on Kahne's roof, the guys in the BSI truck had done their job.

BSI

The camera from Kyle Busch's Daytona car suffered damage, but it can be repaired.

Broadcast Sports Inc. is the company that provides, installs and monitors onboard television cameras in all three of NASCAR's national series -- the in-car shots that capture drivers checking the mirror, the roof cameras that create a depth as if the viewer was in the driver's seat, and the bumper cams that show bump-drafting at Daytona or a crash for the win with one car going beneath another.

These hand-sized cameras have become a staple in auto racing television coverage and provide a viewing experience that virtually no other major-league sport can replicate.

That's not to say other major sports haven't tried. In 1985, ABC first introduced the umpire cam at the Little League Baseball World Series when Frank Rizzo wore a tiny camera on his facemask. It resembled those used on hockey sticks and bicycles. And in 2000, the NFL used a postage-stamp-sized camera on quarterback helmets and the umpire's hat during the NFL Europe's World Bowl, broadcasting the feed on TV, NFLEruope.com and NFL.com.

The first onboard camera in a NASCAR race was in the 1979 Daytona 500 when Benny Parsons carried a primative camera inside his race car. Nothing from it ever successfully developed -- at least not in Daytona.

"The first time we ever tried it was 1979 and the technology was just getting to the point to where it was small enough to fit in a race car," says Peter Larsson, general manager of Broadcast Sports Inc. "When I say small enough, back then it was still 50 pounds worth of gear."

Larsson was working in Australia at the time for network giant Channel 7. They were broadcasting the Bathurst 1000, the country's road racing equivalent to the Daytona 500 in terms of prestige and coverage. The crew had a single onboard camera, and the outcome was surprisingly well, Larsson said. So the network tried two cameras the following year and had the capability to use a remote control that allowed the cameras to pan and tilt while inside the car. At the time, the creativity was groundbreaking.

It was also feverish for some network executives from CBS.

The story goes there were some reps from CBS -- including the savvy businessman and legendary broadcaster Ken Squier -- in Australia covering another event in October of 1980. With only four television channels available, they watched the Bathurst 1000. When the camera switched to that onboard shot, the CBS executives were smitten. They contacted Larsson's company and worked a deal for Larsson and his staff to install a camera for the 1981 Daytona 500. It was a hit, and CBS requested two more races at Michigan and at Talladega.

"It was the first time it was ever used fairly successfully over here," Larsson says. "There was one company that tried to do it before but with limited success. So for three years we were traveling back and forth. We would do three races a year for CBS and then at the end of '83 we moved over here and set up Broadcast Sports. The U.S. was the marketplace to be in at that stage, and still is. The way it was eventually funded, it was one of the few countries that had a big enough marketplace that would allow the advertising to pay for it directly."

RacingOne/Getty Images

Cale Yarborough carried a camera two times in 1983 and won both races. 'As far as I'm concerned," Yarborough said, "CBS can put a camera in my car anytime."

Only advertising didn't initially foot the bill. A photo of Cale Yarborough grinning from the cockpit with a giant CBS camera mounted over his shoulder proves as much. No sponsor decals, just the old CBS eye logo decorated the machine. The infancy of such technology had not yet caught up to the futuristic marketing ways such coverage has gone to today.

Enter Lyn Jeffers, a visionary who saw potential to earn revenue from the side of the cameras and the shot viewers watched at home. It resulted in the decals that now help pay for such viewing options.

"You remember the old CBS shots like with Cale Yarborough -- 'Number 28, Cale Yarborough' and there would be a CBS logo. In the late-'80s my dad got with the sales guys of BSI and said let's try to sell these things to the sponsors and make a little revenue with the in-car cameras," says Andy Jeffers, who now runs his father's company, Sports and Entertainment Media. "I would say from a marketable standpoint, the in-car cameras from the late-'80s to mid-'90s was when they really started taking off from a marketing standpoint. Sponsors were getting wise and teams were too -- why don't we put a sponsor logo on there. So then they said, 'Well we'll sell them.' So the networks made revenue to help pay for the costs that BSI was charging the networks. So that's kind of how all that developed. Dad wasn't the only guy who had that idea. He worked with the sales guys over at ESPN back in those days and that's kind of how the in-car camera became what you see now as a marketing tool."

What began as 50 additional pounds inside a race car for an onboard camera system has been shaved down to mere ounces. And what was once a one-camera shot is now a trifecta of angles to present a complete package option.

Each car carrying an onboard camera system is now set up with three cameras to show three angles: in-car camera, roof camera and bumper camera. Certain situations allow for creativity from BSI and the teams, with NASCAR's blessing, such as a road course where a camera is focused on a driver's footwork, or at a short track where a camera provides a look at the brakes. But typically, the three standard angles are used.

The roof cam is often referred to as the Big Mac because it mirrors the size of one of the McDonald's hamburgers. The bumper camera is 3.5 inches in diameter by 4 inches tall. And the in-car camera that is mounted where a normal passenger seat would be sizes up at 3 inches by 1.5 inches; they are smaller because they don't include tape-cleaning mechanisms that wipe away debris like the outdoor cameras carry.

Autostock

The roof cam is about the size of a Big Mac from McDonald's.

With cameras on the outside of the car, it presents the possibility that the devices can get damaged or lost. That happens, Larsson noted. But for the most part, when viewers see the screen go to snow following an accident -- as was the case when Kahne's car went underneath Busch's at Daytona -- the camera may not be totally lost.

"What we normally have now is a couple of times a year a car will back into the wall and it will just grind the camera down as it's sliding down the wall," Larsson says, noting that many roof cams have been saved since NASCAR implemented the roof flaps in an attempt to keep cars from getting airborne. "Most of the time you find though that the cable is broken or there's some damage to the outer housing, and by replacing the outer housing the guts of the camera are usually OK."

The exterior cameras also can be a thorn in the side of some traditionalist crew chiefs. Some contend that the cameras throw off the weight of the car, although each Cup car is outfitted with dummy weight built into the new car's chassis. When onboard cameras and battery boxes are installed, dummy weight is taken out to equalize the camera-carrying car with the rest of the field. All cars carry dummy roof cam housings so aerodynamic advantages or disadvantages are not caused by the technology, and bumper camera housings are available on all new car chassis.

Still, Jeffers, who serves as a liaison between NASCAR, teams, networks and sponsors, said it's an ongoing battle of perception vs. reality. He also credited NASCAR for addressing the potential controversy of weight distribution when the new chassis was being mapped out, since it has dummy weight that can be adjusted.

"If there's ever been a bigger farce in my life, it's that the in-car camera slows a race car down," he says. "An in-car camera has never made a good race car worse, and it's never made a bad race car run good."

A typical Cup Series race will have eight or nine cars carrying onboard cameras -- Nationwide races have the same, while Truck races are contracted for five onboards.

Sponsorship, which once was not even a part of the onboard camera equation, now drives the train. In rare instances, a team will pay to have an onboard camera system on a car, whether it's to increase sponsor exposure or to showcase a young driver. Special cases arise when production requests that a specific driver carry an onboard camera.

"You always want to have somebody like Earnhardt or Jimmie Johnson," says Mike Wells, TNT's director of broadcast. "You also want to make sure you have the angles you need by a specific driver -- example being the Infineon Raceway where it's a road course and some people have the way they do their footwork on the pedals is different from other drivers. So it may not be a Jimmie Johnson or Earnhardt or Jeff Gordon. We might want one of those guys, but at the same time we want somebody like Ron Fellows or Robby Gordon, who are great road-course drivers. Their style on the pedals may be unique to what the other people are doing and how we compare it."

Turner Sports New Media

Each car is equipped with a bumper cam, roof cam and in-car cam.

During TNT's six-race stint of broadcasting races, the network designates one camera as the Victory Junction Gang Camp camera, decaling it exactly like those that were funded by sponsors.

Some onboard camera sponsorships are planned up to four months in advance. Some of them are landed on Tuesday night of the race week. The timing of all that dictates the legwork Jeffers has to do to clear all the paths so that conflicts don't arise. At Chicagoland, for example, Craftsman sponsored a Nationwide race onboard camera, sparking Jeffers to search for a driver who could carry the shot. After clearing it with Braun Racing, primary sponsor Dollar General and all of Brian Vickers' personal sponsors, the camera was installed on the No. 32 Toyota. The same issue popped up for the Cup race, when Papa John's sponsored a camera and the group settled on putting it in Kurt Busch's car.

"We had to get clearance from the team and Miller had to sign off on it," Jeffers says. "They had to make sure they didn't have any beer contracts, which Papa John's doesn't so there's not really a problem there. You still have to go through the proper procedures.

"Most people are very good about it. Right now I think a lot of teams understand the importance of an in-car camera, and the price points of exposure that an in-car camera can bring you is phenomenal."

Once the specific sponsored cameras are in place -- for example, Budweiser sponsoring an onboard for Kasey Kahne -- then the remaining sponsored cameras are secured through the negotiation of Jeffers, the networks and the teams. The production crew and on-air talent discuss target drivers they'd like to have carry a camera. Jeffers contacts the teams, and the pieces to the puzzle fall in place each weekend.

Turner Sports New Media

Some sponsors will buy an onboard camera for their own car.

Production staff then looks at fresh angles or unique storylines that onboard cameras can help relay, such as footwork at Sonoma or brakes at a short track. At Daytona, TNT chose an angle in Tony Stewart's car where the view went from his left leg looking up to his face.

"That shot really is a very significant shot for a plate race because they're all grouped together," Wells says. "Not to say they aren't on the edge of their seat regardless of the size or kind of track because they are. But when those cars are that close and that fast and you're surrounded by them, you have to always have your eyes looking behind you and in front of you at all times."

An initiative ESPN has used since the network returned to broadcast the sport in 2007 is the in-race reporter, where the network designates a driver at each race to carry an onboard camera and talk with the broadcast crew during the race.

Radio check, 1-2

The most commonly used and fan-friendly way of peeping inside the inner workings of a team on race day is the radio scanners where fans can tune in to specific frequencies and listen to driver-team communication.

Racing Electronics, who in addition to Racing Radios provides the majority of at-track audio communication devices, rents out approximately 10,000 scanners each weekend from their eight trailers at the race track, according to Ron Rater, a team services representative for RE. The company also does work for the individual teams, servicing their two-way radio equipment and providing rental parts and pieces while at the track.

"Sales, service, tech support, programming the radios -- we're the support for the teams. Goodyear does the tires, and we do the radios," Rater says, noting that about 80 to 85 percent of Cup teams use Racing Electronics equipment. NASCAR officials get equipment from Racing Radios.

A crew of more than 30 staffs the scanner trailers and work in the garage, arriving before the teams do and staying until everyone is gone. Teams wire up their own race cars, but the support staff is there to offer any assistance or advice. And of course, race day is always the busy time.

"That's probably our most hectic day because there's always last-minute stuff and everybody's in a hurry," Rater says. "Of course for fans, it just depends on which track. For Bristol, people are there Friday, Saturday and Sunday. But a lot of tracks people just come in Sunday before the race so that's when our scanner sellers are the busiest -- the morning before the race -- especially for one-day rentals."

Rater says the next step in radio communication is a move from analog to digital. And it's all available to the fans.

"Joe Smith down in Concord can get the same radio equipment that Jeff Gordon has," Rater says.

"There had been a history of broadcasters talking to motorsports drivers during yellow and pre-race over the radio so we knew that was possible," says Rich Feinberg, ESPN's vice president of motorsports. "What we tried to do was to say this is a unique aspect of the sport, how can we take it to the next level, not only in terms of executing but also branding? That's where we came up with the in-race reporter idea where we would talk to a particular driver and try to focus on that driver throughout the race to the extent he or she stays in the race. We talk to them pre-race. We talk to their crew chief. We talk to them in Countdown. It's really an opportunity for our viewers to get inside the team for that race, that weekend or a number of laps, whatever the situation may be. That access and ability to allow fans that inside, voyeuristic opportunity is one of the reasons why NASCAR is so popular."

The main thing ESPN brought to the table when it returned to NASCAR was that it upped the ante on the onboard cameras to high definition. FOX, NBC and TNT all had been broadcasting the races in HD, but when they showed onboard cameras, those shots were still standard definition. When ESPN began planning its 2007 return to the sport, the network became the first to show the entire broadcast in HD, onboard cameras included.

"The biggest difference in the evolution of in-car cameras in motorsports in this current age is the introduction of high definition," Feinberg says. "One of the things we began in our 'how do we want to come back on the air' approach in the offseason was that ... we wanted to commit ourselves to a presentation of a full-on, high-definition experience for NASCAR and ESPN fans. It's one thing for a group of producers and operations people to sit in a room when they're planning these things on paper and say let's do this and commit to it, and it's another thing to actually make it happen.

"It wasn't as simple as dropping a high-definition camera into a car. You have to take in numerous considerations into your in-car camera systems -- weight, bandwidth for transition of signals, power sources, location in the car so aerodynamically it works with the teams."

The milestone, however, didn't come without a cost. BSI developed the technology and got it to Daytona just days before the 2007 Nationwide Series season opener, where it debuted. But the upgrades have meant cutbacks in other areas of onboard camera work for now.

"Unfortunately, it's been like a double-edged sword," Larsson says. "The cameras have gotten a lot smaller but they've also gotten more complex, so it makes them 10 times harder to maintain. Everything is almost purpose-built specifically for the application of putting it in a race car just because of the heat, vibration and nasty environment that it's used in."

Despite the crystal clear picture the onboards bring, Jeffers and the networks always have a backup plan, whether their original plan falls through due to sponsorship or a crew chief flat-out denies allowing a camera in his car. Because despite NASCAR requiring teams to comply if asked, it's ultimately the crew chief's decision, and Jeffers, the networks and BSI all comply.

"Pretty much we have an A, B and C plan of drivers," Wells says of TNT's approach. "If this driver or crew chief doesn't want to do it for whatever reason, we go to the next one. It's not as much the driver as it is the crew chiefs. Some drivers will say you can have a camera in my car but you can't have it here because it distracts me. And that's the last thing we want is to distract a driver from doing his job the right way and the safe way."

Autostock

Some Nationwide cars have to be cut by BSI crew.

With a plan in place, Jeffers takes it to BSI.

"When I get all that formatted and laid out, then I talk to BSI. They're the guys who physically get in the car and install it," Jeffers says. "They're the ones who are sweating, bleeding from cutting themselves, drilling, wiring and zip-tying everything to make sure what the fans see every Saturday or Sunday -- they're the ones who are the unsung heroes of the whole thing."

While the behind-the-scenes work is being done to secure the sponsorships and dictate placement, the cameras are being prepared to be shipped to the race track. At BSI's headquarters in Hanover, Md., the maintenance department is working on scrubbing down and repairing any damages to last week's equipment.

"The cameras obviously are in a dirty environment, so the first thing is they have to be cleaned," Larsson says. "You'll see the cameras with the tape-clear systems on them. The tape has to be pulled out, the cameras have to be cleaned up, and then they have to be loaded with fresh tape. Then there's just the general maintenance from the use and abuse that they receive on a weekend."

At the track, the final plan has been formulated as to which cars will carry onboard equipment and which angles -- particularly if any new or trick angles will be used.

"There are two things that really restrict what we can do," Larsson says. "No. 1, the NASCAR playbook has a list of tracks and what we can do at those tracks, which has a lot to do with the aerodynamics of the car or the safety aspects. We follow that religiously. After that, it's what the teams will let you get away with."

If a network or sponsor has a specific request -- such as the face shot of Stewart at Daytona, or one of the foot pedal or brake cameras -- the network tells Jeffers, then Jeffers tells BSI, and the three approach NASCAR.

"The people at BSI, who own and install the cameras, they go with Andy to NASCAR and say this is what we want to do and this is why we want to do it. Then we wait for them to bless it," Wells says. "The one thing we won't do, because like NASCAR we're very concerned about safety, we would not put a camera in a location that is in an unsafe position to where it could hurt the driver or fly into the crowd and hurt somebody as well. Those cameras can be like a bullet, so you have to be very careful when it comes to how they're mounted and where the locations are."

Autostock

The in-car cameras are 3 inches by 1.5 inches.

On typical race weekends with multiple series competing, the BSI crew will arrive at the race track on Thursday when the Nationwide Series garage opens. BSI's two trucks are already parked and set up for operation -- one in the television compound where signals will get transferred from the cars to the networks, and a second truck parked in the infield among the transporters so the crew can store equipment.

More advancements have been both positive and negative for the at-track installers. The signals from inside the cars used to be transmitted from the cameras to a helicopter that hovered 2,000 to 3,000 feet above the track. The helicopter would send the signal back down to the TV compound, and the signal would be distributed to the TV networks. The problem was, if the signal was broken up by weather or even track features -- bridges at Dover and the road courses -- then it reflected in a poor on-air product.

Now BSI installs a ground-based system that is essentially a fiber loop around the facility that tracks the signal of the onboard camera. The loop is a set of receive sites placed around the track that serves the same purpose as the helicopter: it catches the signal, then sends it to the TV compound. A misconception, however, is that it picks up signals from all three onboard cameras. Instead, only one signal can come from the onboard camera system at a time. If the producers are showing a bumper cam shot, then the in-car and roof shots are not available.

It's all run by the seven at-track guys from BSI who operate a three-series weekend. If it's a stand-alone weekend for Nationwide or Truck, four guys will make the trip.

"Our general schedule for a Nationwide and Cup show, we'll come in when the Nationwide garage opens up and we'll install the Nationwide cars right away. Seven guys or whatever the crew is will spend about two hours installing our eight Nationwide cars," says Matt Newland, who heads up the installation crew for BSI. "Depending on the schedule, we'll do practices with those Nationwide cars. The same guys that install also run the cameras. They'll go up and pan them back and forth to test them and make sure everything is working. So normally we'll have a couple of hours of practice there."

On a Nationwide car that's already carried an onboard camera earlier this year, the hole in the rear bumper should already be there for camera installation. If it's a new car, BSI's crew has to cut the hole, although some teams take the liberty of cutting their own hole if they know in advance they'll be carrying a camera.

"It's easier on everybody to have someone at the race shop do it and not us at the track while they're trying to work on the car," Newland says. "But we do have a battery-powered RotoZip just like you cut drywall with. We mark out the exact spot that NASCAR has designated for the camera and cut it with the RotoZip. You can hear it all the way across the garage when we're cutting holes in these cars. We still have to cut holes in three or four cars in the Nationwide Series every week."

Once the Nationwide cameras are installed and tested, sponsor decals are placed in the car where the camera views and they're finished until race time.

Autostock

The Cup cars have bumper camera housings built in at the shop by each team.

The focus then turns to the Cup garage, where timing is a lot more complicated. For an impound race, cameras are installed before qualifying since cars can't be touched afterward. But for the rest of the races, Newland's crew must wait until after qualifying and work around each team's schedule and preference

Each Cup car carries a box made for the bumper cameras and teams install those when the car is prepped at the shop, so no cutting is involved with the new chassis. The bigger issue, however, is walking the delicate line between getting the cameras installed and not stepping on the toes of a time-constrained crew chief trying to get his car ready for race day.

ESPN flying the Bat Cam

When ESPN takes over the Cup Series coverage at Indianapolis, it will unveil the Bat Cam -- a first in NASCAR this season.

The Bat Cam is a camera mounted on a cable and suspended above the race track. It will travel from Turn 4, across the start/finish line and down to Turn 1 at speeds up to 80 mph.

ESPN used the Bat Cam for the Indianapolis 500 earlier this year and worked with NASCAR to approve the process for the Brickyard 400.

"Cable cams and cameras flying on cables have been around a long time," says Rich Feinberg, ESPN's vice president of motorsports. "Certainly their most preeminent function these days are in the world of professional football and college football, which we commit to using it quite a bit around here."

The cable cam has also been used in events such as the X-Games and the Olympic Games, particularly in events like swimming.

"Indianapolis Motor Speedway is one of the most famous speedways in the world," Feinberg says. "They're in their centennial celebration right now. Our goal is to make the Brickyard 400 and our return to coverage of the Cup Series as big, as spectacular and as interesting as we can for our fans."

"These multi-million dollar operations, their sponsors want on-board cameras because they want the publicity, but the teams would never want them if they had the choice. That's a constant battle," Newland says. "We in the garage have to cushion that. When we walk up to a team that's having a bad weekend and say, 'OK now we're going to put cameras in the car,' it takes a lot of diplomacy and a little bit of friendship between us and the teams."

Decals are put near the cameras before Cup practice, which is also when testing of the cameras takes place from the TV compound. Should a camera have a technical difficulty, when a driver brings his car in for adjustments, certain teams allow BSI's crew to make their own changes to their equipment then. Others, however, prefer the camera workers wait until track activity is finished, which puts added pressure on the install crew.

With the Cup cars set, the attention goes back to the Nationwide Series for the race. New batteries are put in each car's onboard camera battery pack, and the four track workers assigned to that race head for the TV compound for work. The same routine is set for the following day's Cup race, only with more personnel on hand in the TV compound.

BSI's truck in the TV compound is outfitted with a 14-foot table of eight joysticks, and a second table is behind it for computers that power the cameras. One worker handles two joysticks. At showtime, the BSI camera operators must know who they're dealing with. FOX's production crew, for example, requests frequent switching back and forth between camera angles and panning side to side to capture the action. TNT, however, sticks with the shot with limited panning so to keep the viewer focused.

As the race is coming to a close, BSI's extra personnel hit the garage ready for teardown.

"After all the races, in NASCAR teams load up their cars really fast," Newland says. "They drive into the garage to the lift gate and those guys are out of there in 15, 20 minutes tops. So we're always spread a little bit thin to get the stuff out of the car -- it all has to come out of the car after the race. That's really our mad time right there, getting everything out of the cars and back in our possession before the car goes inside the truck.

"In past years we have had some stuff go home with the teams. Over the last couple of years working with the teams, they're a little bit more patient with us. They all want to get on their planes as most of those guys fly. And every minute that we hold them up, they're not at the airport. We understand their rush, but our stuff has to come out. Those guys change cars every week and we don't want them to be responsible for our gear."

When the cameras and equipment are back in BSI's possession, they're loaded onto the infield truck and shipped back to the office for cleaning and any repairs.

On the way home, Newland and his crew stop for drinks. The television is showing highlights from the weekend's race. And when the right highlight pops up on the screen -- say, for example, Kahne's car underneath Busch's -- the crew smiles as the announcers wrongly predict it's another camera lost. That particular camera on the back of Busch's car is in their truck with damage to the lens assembly and cable pigtail. It will be repaired, hopefully in time for Indianapolis while Peyton Manning's helmet sits silent and Jonathon Papelbon prepares for the Baltimore Orioles. By the time the Indy race is coming to a close, Papelbon may be hitting the mound for the Red Sox -- but fans will be limited to reading lips instead of experiencing the action from on the mound.