At a certain point during Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway, NBC’s lead announcing team of Rick Allen, Jeff Burton and Steve Letarte will stop calling the race. The trio, which has drawn favorable reviews of their first two months on air together, will hand off the microphones to another set of announcers — a special trio comprising NASCAR legends and longtime race announcers Ken Squier, Ned Jarrett and his son, Dale.
The switch, which will only be for part of the race, is one aspect of NBC Sports embracing Darlington’s “Tradition Returns” throwback weekend.
As part of the Southern 500’s return to its traditional Labor Day weekend date for the first time in 12 years, the International Speedway Corp.-owned track decided to embark on the throwback theme, which will see more than 30 Sprint Cup and Xfinity Series teams run historic paint schemes during the weekend. Festivities include a specially made old-fashioned merchandise line from Fanatics, track employees wearing retro outfits, a parade with classic cars and concessions that were sold at the track in the 1970s, which is the period the race is celebrating.
From a television perspective, NBC — which is airing the race on its broadcast network — is looking to bring the throwback theme to viewers.
“We’re all in,” said Jeff Behnke, NBC Sports’ vice president of NASCAR production. “What we want to do is make sure viewers can really touch and feel this throwback experience. The 1970s was a special time for NASCAR … so we want to celebrate that and create an incredibly entertaining experience for the fans.”
On top of the move with the Hall of Fame announcers, NBC’s coverage will include:
n On-site and studio talent wearing retro outfits during different parts of the three days of coverage.
n On-air graphics reminiscent of ones used during the 1970s, including a version of NBC’s famous peacock that was used at the time.
n Features looking at the Wood Brothers, NASCAR’s longest-running team; Bill Elliott winning the 1985 Winston Million and his relationship with his son, current driver Chase Elliott; and a comparison of past race cars to modern ones.
n And at least one unnamed advertiser running a throwback commercial from years past.
Meanwhile, this weekend’s race will be the ninth of NBC’s 20-race NASCAR package. Two months into its return to the sport, network executives are pleased with both race production and ratings.
“We are off to a great start — we’re very happy with the ratings,” said Jon Miller, NBC Sports’ president of programming. “This race in prime time on Sunday night is going to be a lot of fun. We strategically backloaded the schedule, and particularly The Chase, so that five of the last seven races are on NBC, including the final three. … All those races that are going to take place on NBC in the fourth quarter are going to lead into ‘Sunday Night Football,’ so we think that’s going to be a great marriage.”
NBC Sports has averaged 4.0 million viewers over its first eight races — one on NBC and seven on NBCSN — which included a rain delay that pushed the Coke Zero 400 from Daytona into the early morning hours. For comparison, the first eight races of the second half of last year’s slate, which were aired by a combination of ESPN and TNT, garnered an average of 4.4 million viewers.
“It’s been tremendous,” Miller said. “You have two new cable networks between FS1 and NBC Sports Network that are broadcasting NASCAR for the first time, and the numbers are basically flat with where they were last year — which I think, in this marketplace, is a real victory.”
