NBC faces many challenges with NASCAR Chicago race

Most NASCAR fans tuning in Sunday to watch NBC’s coverage of the Chicago Street Race cannot begin to imagine the logistical challenges the network faces in broadcasting the unique event.

Sunday’s race (4:30 p.m. ET) is NASCAR’s second trip to the Windy City, and the sanctioning body and NBC should have an easier time given everything learned in the debut.

Still, building a 12-turn, 2.2-mile course through the heart of a major city is nothing like holding a race at an established track. And to build it all from scratch in a matter of days makes it even more remarkable.

NBC’s Nate Ryan went behind-the-scenes in a video showing the challenges the network faced last year in Chicago.

First, the streets used on the course aren’t shut down until a couple of days before the event. When the production crew arrives, there is no infrastructure.

“We are used to coming into either an oval course or a road course that is already laid out, has infrastructure,” NASCAR on NBC technical manager Matt Hogencamp told Ryan. “When we come into a street course, we’re coming into a blank slate. So we are building the entire infrastructure from the ground floor. There’s no camera positions, there’s no fiber infrastructure, there’s no cabling, there’s no course.”

To help capture backdrops of the Chicago skyline and landmark, NBC used an 80-foot crane, a fixed wing plane and drones.

“As cars are coming over the hills, it would just look like a city race, and it was just fantastic,” lead video operator Mark Morel told Ryan.

Jeff Agrest of the Chicago Sun-Times reports NBC will employ 60 cameras around the course this year, along with 10 cars each carrying four cameras, giving director Sean Owens 100 cameras to choose from, more than any other NASCAR event.

NASCAR’s and NBC’s efforts last year were made even more challenging by torrential rain that delayed the start of the race. But once underway, NBC’s production crew knew they’d pulled off something special.

“It was trying, but the moment we heard the sound of the cars on track, seeing them actually roll through Grant Park, it was one of those moments in my career where I just had to stop and take it in,” Hogencamp said.

“Because this is something that had never been done in the 75-year history of NASCAR.”

NBC set a high bar with its production of last year’s race; the network recently earned an Emmy nomination in the category of “Outstanding Technical Team Event.”

[NASCAR on NBC]

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