When NBC Sports tweaked its NASCAR theme music this year, Blake Shelton’s song “Bringing Back the Sunshine,” the line about “through the storms and pouring rain” was left on the cutting-room floor.
Nothing should be drawn from the subtle lyrical switch, according to NBC executives, but it’s hard not to see the irony. Since its return as a NASCAR broadcast partner last year, NBC has dealt with rain seemingly every other week.
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NBC’s broadcast team for NASCAR has gotten used to umbrellas and rain boots.
Photo by: NBC SPORTS GROUP
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In the 33 Sprint Cup races NBC had aired since 2015 heading into last weekend, 13 of them — or just under 40 percent — had either the race or its qualifying delayed or postponed because of rain. That’s not factoring in races that had a practice session delayed or canceled — a situation that has popped up routinely as well — or including NBC’s portion of the Xfinity Series schedule, which also has seen delays. NBCSN televises practice rounds from both series.
Some of the delays have been as short as a few minutes, while others have stretched on for hours, like one earlier this season at Pocono Raceway when NBC’s team exhaustively interviewed either the driver or crew chief from all 40 teams because of how much time it had to kill.
Through it all, NBC staffers say they’ve learned to be more prepared and patient.
“We’ve kind of learned to chuckle with it and just roll with it,” said Jeff Behnke, vice president of NASCAR production for NBC Sports. “We’ve been through it so many times since the start of last year that we’ve just learned to react.”
When rain delays a race, qualifying session or practice, Behnke said he and fellow producers John Barnes and Matt Marvin follow a relatively consistent playbook that hasn’t changed much the last two seasons despite the amount of rain.
Weather — specifically lightning — permitting, NBC first focuses on staying live at the track as opposed to the less preferred options of showing produced content or past races. NBC Sports touts itself as a standout storyteller, and Behnke said delays afford it the opportunity to focus on drivers and crews sprinkled throughout the field.
Behnke said NBC’s team has developed what it calls a “dueling banjo mode” between its pre- and postrace team of Krista Voda, Kyle Petty and Dale Jarrett and its race announcers, Rick Allen, Jeff Burton and Steve Letarte, where the two teams take shifts of about 20 to 30 minutes apiece.
“If it’s a wash, we’ll go to a 30-minute show,” Behnke said “And part of it, too, is you have to give your crews a break.”
For her part, Voda said she’s managed to avoid getting overly frustrated when she sees rain clouds or a rainy forecast heading into the weekend. She does admit, though, that the constant weather interactions can have negative effects for network staff even away from the track.
“I wouldn’t say it’s pessimism — I like to say it’s realism; if you expect going into it that you’re going to have to stay an extra day, you’re not disappointed when you do,” Voda said. “I love my job … but yeah, it changes child care plans and appointments when you’re in a city that you didn’t plan on being in for an extra 24 hours.”
Voda said she’s not aware of anything superstitious that members of NBC’s 225-person team do to ward off the rain; she just makes sure to pack appropriately each week.
“I try to be prepared with a raincoat and rain boots with me because as we all know in life, the one time you don’t have it is when you’ll need it,” she said. “But I’ve had it all year, so I don’t think it’s really helped me any.”
