NBC on Saturday during the NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Kansas Speedway will debut yet another new, experimental announcer setup, as it will have analyst Steve Letarte comment on the action from the top of a team’s pit box on pit road. NBC has experimented with various formats this season in the Xfinity Series, including having a radio-style format for a road course race where announcers were positioned throughout the course to give updates on their area. The pit box idea with Letarte is the latest iteration.
Letarte, who said the idea was a collective one between him and NBC Sports execs Sam Flood and Jeff Behnke, expects his analysis this week will be a bit more technical as he will try to bring even more of the crew-chief perspective. Letarte: “They’re continuing to try to improve the viewer experience and they said, ‘Why don’t you go back to watching the race from where you used to watch it on pit road?’ … It’s going to sound different because I’m sitting on pit road. Unlike being up in the booth and seeing everything from up above, being on pit road kind of brings you down you to the crew-chief feel and what the crew chiefs are thinking, seeing and doing.”
