NBC Sports has changed plans with its IndyCar booth talent for next weekend’s race at Texas Motor Speedway, as they will now be on site after originally planning to call the event remotely from network HQ in Connecticut. IndyCar starts its delayed ’20 season next Saturday night before no fans, and the race will now be aired on NBC after the sports group was able to work with NBCUniversal’s entertainment division to get the event switched over from NBCSN. NBC was originally planning to have play-by-play man Leigh Diffey plus analysts Townsend Bell and Paul Tracy call the event remotely. However, with states including Texas slowly opening back up across the country and changing their rules on quarantining, NBC will now send the talent to the track. NBC will also have two pit reporters on site in Marty Snider and Kelli Stavast; it originally only planned to have Snider but is adding Stavast since the new regulations will allow for it. Meanwhile, NBC Sport Exec Producer Sam Flood said the network will not overly focus on the stands being empty for the race. "People want an escape, people don’t need to be reminded why there's no fans in the stands," he said. Flood thinks having all talent on site is "going to be a huge advantage in the sense of having them in place at the track for first race back."
