The experience of being at a NASCAR race is unparalleled by any other sporting event.
A day before the biggest race of the spring at Texas Motor Speedway, crazed fans wearing their favorite drivers’ jerseys swarm the 160,000-seat stadium, which rattles each time drivers circle by the grandstands. It’s like a big party, with what seems like an entire city gathered in pre-race revelry.
It’s no wonder the guys at SPEED Network get such a thrill from being at NASCAR races each weekend.
Alan Rose, video editor at The Daily Mustang, and I had the opportunity to go backstage during production of a SPEED pre-race show on Saturday. If you’ve ever seen ESPN’s College Gameday, then you’d understand what it’s like to watch Hermie Sadler and John Roberts’ Saturday broadcasts of “NASCAR RaceDay” live from the track.
Fans surrounded the set with signs for their favorite drivers, and even back row spectators got to watch the show from a megatron perched above the set. It’s more than 24 hours before the biggest race of the weekend, and fans are already going crazy.
“It beats the hell out of sitting in a studio,” said Roberts, who worked for a nightly newscast before joining SPEED. “We wanted to create a studio at the racetrack.”
The show began in relative anonymity, but it has grown in popularity since producers made strides to involve fans in the action. In addition to installing the big screen, producers set up large speakers and hired SPEED girls to throw out T-shirts and other souvenirs.
The changes have dramatically improved the atmosphere at the set and given fans another attraction to enjoy.
“I watch these guys every week on TV,” said Jim Medlinger, a blue-blood NASCAR fan from Iowa Park. “It’s like you get to be a part of the sport. … Everybody’s excited to be here, and we’re all working-class people. Most people are like me, who had to save three or four months to get tickets.”
While fans waited for Sadler and Roberts to make their appearance on-set, the anchors waited inside a production truck and watched a SPEED broadcast of the warm-ups for the NASCAR Sprint Cup race, which was held on Sunday. As the cars roared by the main grandstand, the set – sitting just outside the stadium – rattled with the turbulence.
Just a few years ago, Sadler was on the other side of the bleachers. He began racing in the Busch Series – which used to be the premier NASCAR league before it was renamed the Sprint Cup Series-in 1993 and continued to race until 2006.
He performs in front of a slightly smaller audience each weekend, but his celebrity did not die when he made the switch to television three years ago. The SPEED Network, like NASCAR, is roaring with popularity, and the guys at “RaceDay” are enjoying the ride.
