Hendrick driver looking forward to hearing former crew chief on NBC
RELATED: Dale Jr. gets engaged | Dale Jr. focused on getting ready for the Chase
CONCORD, N.C.—With former crew chief Steve Letarte’s broadcast booth debut weeks away, count Dale Earnhardt Jr. as among those excited to see what happens.
“I want to watch because I think Steve is going to be really, really good at it,” Earnhardt told NASCAR.com at an AMP Energy promotional event last week in Concord, North Carolina, not too far from Hendrick Motorsports and Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Aside from listening to the crew chief who guided him to five wins over four seasons (2011 to 2014) the driver of No. 88 Chevrolet shared what he hopes to see on broadcasts in general.
“If you ever watch a race on TV and then listen to the MRN broadcast, you see a distinct difference. A radio broadcaster has to put in a real, hard effort to paint this picture because there’s no visual. That’s what we used to have in the broadcast booth and it’s been lost because broadcasting has gotten a lot more gimmicks and a lot more tricks up their sleeve.
”The fact that you’re actually watching the show instead of listening to it, sort of takes the responsibility off the shoulders of the broadcaster and puts it on the shoulder of the editor and producer. The show looks exciting on TV. And I think it sort of needs to lean back the other way.
“If you listen back to Ken Squier and those guys, back in the day, they sound a lot like MRN does today. Because they’re taking responsibility to feed the energy to the audience. That’s super important.
RELATED: Dale Jr. to NBC: Broadcast like Squier, 1979 Daytona 500
“I’m excited to see how Steve and those guys do as far as … they really can sell that show. Even if it’s a boring race, can they make fans believe it’s one of the greatest ones they’ve seen? That’s really a gift and I think Steve’s got that quality, so I’m looking forward to seeing it.”
Earnhardt believes that the coverage of the sport goes a long way to the perception of it.
“I think that the way that the sport’s perceived, whether the racing is good, whether the racing is boring, whether fans enjoy watching the races is directly connected to the quality of the broadcasts and the ability of the broadcast to sort of deliver the show. ”
Letarte and Jeff Burton will serve as race analysts, while Rick Allen will serve as the play-by-play announcer.
NBC’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race coverage begins Fourth of July weekend with the Coke Zero 400 (July 5, 7:45 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM). NBC and NBC Sports Network will televise the final 20 races of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season in 2015 in the first year of a 10-year deal to televise the sport.