DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — There’s a distinct “first day of school” vibe for NBC Sports’ broadcast crew as it arrives at Daytona International Speedway this week for its first live race telecast of the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season.
And after last year’s rain-delayed, action-packed, Dale Earnhardt Jr.-victory in the early morning hours at the network’s Coke Zero 400 — the 2015 opening telecast in Daytona Beach — much of the on-air talent understandably feels prepared for anything as they begin their season two work this weekend.
“It was challenging for sure,” former NASCAR driver-turned NBC analyst Jeff Burton allowed with a laugh. “But looking back on it (Daytona), it was probably good for us to kind of get thrown right into the fire. It kind of presented us some challenges that would be hard to duplicate and kind of laid the ground work that ‘this isn’t going to be easy.’
“It kind of showed us right off the bat, you have to be prepared for everything. You don’t know what’s going to happen. It was challenging, but it was fun. We had a good time.”
Krista Voda, who hosts the pre-race show, felt like she’d wandered into a surreal first day of school a year ago.
“The best way I can describe it is that it’s the first day of school, and for us it was the first day of school in a new building, with new classmates and then it’s like you have a tornado drill and fire drill then, ‘Hey, everyone stay late because there’s construction,’ ” Voda said.
“You had everything you could throw at it and at the end of the day, or night, or early morning we all looked at each other and said, ‘Gosh, if we can do that, in those conditions you sort of feel like, ‘Hey, we’ve got this.’ ‘ You feel like we can do anything.”
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Again this season, Voda, former Cup champion Dale Jarrett and former Cup driver Kyle Petty will handle the popular pre-race NASCAR show to set the tone and deliver perspective. Veteran broadcaster Rick Allen again will team with second-year color commentators Burton and former Hendrick Motorsports crew chief Steve Letarte in the booth to bring insight and play-by-play.
And as the network takes over its portion of the 2016 NASCAR broadcast schedule this week, its on-air talent realizes the timing couldn’t be better. There is plenty of compelling content and high expectation.
“Our storylines just increased a thousand percent by Tony Stewart winning the race (at Sonoma, Calif. last week),” Jarrett said. “Who is going to be that next one to step up? We’ve got a lot of young talent and it’s going to be very interesting to watch their progression. And as we get closer to the cutoff for the Chase, who is going to still be trying to get that win and who is close enough in points that they’re going to be driving in maybe a way we haven’t seen in that situation and scenario?”
To a person, the NBC broadcast team echoes the feeling most NASCAR fans have that a first-time winner would add a strong element to the network’s second half of the season and Chase for the Sprint Cup.
There are high expectations, in particular, for four drivers: rookies Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney, and third-year drivers Kyle Larson and Austin Dillon — all of whom seem so close to claiming their first Cup trophies.
Those drivers are among a large group still vying for the final Chase playoff positions. So far, there are 10 winners and 16 Chase berths available, which means the intensity likely will increase as the schedule gets closer to that Sept. 10 regular-season finale at Richmond, Virginia.
“There are probably 10 teams when I sit down and analyze them I don’t know how one is better than the other,” Burton said. “They all look really similar. And then who’s the surprise winner in the next 10 weeks?
“Those are things that immediately strike me. But you know what’s so cool about this sport is, who he heck knows where it’s going to go? You just don’t know.”
The high levels of suspense are exactly what energize the NBC Sports crew as they take the race broadcast hand-off this week.
Along with Chase contenders, NBC Sports is prepared for storylines such as the technical aspects of the cars’ rules packages and which drivers make the playoff field based not on wins but gutsy drives and high points-days.
And NBC Sports has some of the most accomplished, most outspoken and most entertaining personalities to share perspective and bring the sport into people’s homes.
“I have two of the best storytellers in Kyle (Petty) and Dale (Jarrett), and it is so much fun sometimes to sit back and just let them go,” Voda said. “The conversations the three of us have when the camera isn’t on is some of the best stuff, and we hope to bring that to the viewers.”
Last year, NBC Sports’ portion of the schedule included Kyle Busch‘s amazing comeback from injury to claim his first Sprint Cup title in a hard-fought playoff push, and a grand farewell to four-time Cup champion Jeff Gordon completing his final season of competition.
NBC Sports knows this season will include another moving goodbye to yet another future Hall of Fame champion Tony Stewart. But the unknown of what else might happen is what energizes the group at NBC Sports.
“Ultimately, sports fans hook into stories and people and there’s no better group of athletes than these NASCAR drivers,” NBC Sports executive producer Sam Flood said. “You think about the beauty of it, every week the best go against the best. You wait for that special match-up in another sport where your two elite teams play each other. Well, every single Cup race has the elite guys face-to-face. So you don’t have to wait for that special match-up.
“It’s one of those unique sports that every weekend, every race, they’re head-to-head.”