NBC Sports this year is moving all of its NASCAR studio operations to Charlotte and restructuring the “NASCAR America” show as it returns for its sixth season. The daily studio show, which starts its ’19 season Monday, used to have part of its talent operate from Stamford, Conn., while other talent worked out of Charlotte. Now, all on-air work will come out of NBC Sports' Charlotte HQ for NASCAR, the Marty Snider & Associates video production building. Backroom production will still be in Stamford. The show is also restructuring its format to where there will now be a daily theme that will repeat throughout the season. Mondays will focus on the prior weekend’s races; Tuesdays will be co-hosted by Dale Earnhardt Jr. and based around his weekly podcast; Wednesdays will include the opportunity for fans to call in and ask questions; and Thursdays will both preview the upcoming weekend and also highlight action going on in some of NBC’s other motorsports properties. NBC Sports Exec Producer Sam Flood said moving operations to Charlotte made sense given many NASCAR teams are based near there. Flood: “Just the value of being in the home of NASCAR and have our studio operations there made a ton of sense. ... Having talent there and not splitting talent was valuable. Then, by creating the various shows and having a different type of show each day, it’s better for audience and a novel idea for us.”
PUSH TO PASS: NBC's IndyCar Pass OTT product will include live coverage of all NTT IndyCar Series qualifying and practice sessions, live coverage of Indy Lights races and replays of races that range from full-event to 15- to 30-minute cutdowns. There will be 50-plus hours of coverage from the Indianapolis 500, including of Carb Day, the banquet, parade and other shoulder programming. NBC Sports’ usual booth of Leigh Diffey, Townsend Bell and Paul Tracy will call the coverage, marking the first time all qualifying and practice sessions will receive TV-quality production. IndyCar used to stream practices and some qualifying sessions itself on its website. Pricing for the IndyCar Pass, which is part of the NBC Sports Gold streaming network, will start at $50 before increasing by $5 next month.
