NBC revs up for return to NASCAR broadcasts NBC, which will make its NASCAR first broadcast since 2006, will focus on facts and storytelling

Brant James | USA TODAY Sports

Show Caption Hide Caption Coke Zero 400 preview USA Today Sports' Jeff Gluck on what to Watch for at Daytona International Speedway.

BROOKLYN, Mich. — The broadcast to no one had just gone to a commercial for nothing when Steve Letarte pounced into a chair and began computing. Moments earlier, in glass-walled booth 402B atop Michigan International Speedway, the former Daytona 500-winning crew chief, lead NBC announcer Rick Allen and co-analyst Jeff Burton had dissected the minutia of Ryan Newman's short pit stop as the first wave of storm fronts descended upon the Sprint Cup race.

"OK, how can I make this simple for the guy at home?" Letarte muttered to himself. "That's 1.8 gallons a second … give or take. …"

There was no actual guy at home, at least not one Letarte could reach. Not yet.

In an unprecedented marshaling of equipment and manpower, NBC Sports was undertaking a phantom broadcast in conjunction with Fox to practice full-scale before the network broadcasts a NASCAR race live this weekend for the first time since 2006.

About 50 NBC executives would watch the broadcast, with NBC Sports/NBCSN executive producer Sam Flood passing along "points and agendas" to his on-air talent. Flood admitted there were kinks to unkink before the Coke Zero 400 on Sunday night at Daytona International Speedway.

"It was a good start," he told USA TODAY Sports. "The worst telecast we'll ever do is the first telecast we do in Daytona, because we haven't done one. We want to build, build off a foundation we made in Michigan."

But even in the dry run, using a Fox television feed manipulated in NBC's on-site production studios, pit reporters interviewing each other and attempting to stay incognito in deference to Fox's sharing of space and resources, the underpinning's of NBC's differentiation from other broadcasts already was apparent.

There were no catchphrases. Allen, the choreographer and ringleader in the booth as the veteran broadcaster, announced the taking of the green flag simply with, "We're underway at Michigan." There was less folksy and more informational, although a few quippy references to Blake Shelton's Bringing Back the Sunshine theme worked in a meteorological way on this afternoon. There was, as is the demand from Flood, storytelling. And there was the attempt to explain fuel gambles and racer agendas not only to life-long fans but also to the guy on the couch who might have hung around after consuming some of the network's growing offering of sports programming, including the NFL, NHL and golf.

"We want to be factual. We want to present it in a relaxed way, but not in a silly way," Burton told USA TODAY Sports. "We're business-casual."

A day earlier, in a bland brown-walled trailer in a MIS television compound intersected by cables from two networks' sprawling operations, lead NBC producer Matt Marvin stood among reporters, directors and on-air talent. The collection was sizeable, and credentialed, Marvin an Emmy Award-winning NFL producer, whose list of questions had only lengthened following an afternoon directing this NASCAR mission.

For the on-air personalities, the basic conduct of the job would be no different than at the myriad of other networks from which they had come. For many on the production side, the undertaking was different. Everything was bigger. There had been no practice before NBC began its last NASCAR run in 2001 and Flood regretted the decision.

Race tracks are exponentially broader, both in terms of playing surface where stories must be found and told, and in the endless lengths of cables, robot cameras and gear controlled in the five new multi-million-dollar production trucks NBC will brandish each week.

Speaking in a cadence that connotated an excitement and a tinge of anxiety, Marvin concluded the meeting with, "This is a massive opportunity NBC has afforded us. It is not cheap to do this. Get yourself right tonight and tomorrow we'll kick butt."

Filling a delay

The first red flag came quickly at Michigan, 12 laps into a scheduled 200-lap event that lasted just 138 before torrential downpours ended it after nearly five hours of racing and raining. In a real broadcast, NBC would have had parried to prepared features, but resources weren't allocated for such an eventuality in a run-through. His on-air talent, Flood said, knew how to fill time. So Allen and Burton and Letarte filled for nearly 53 minutes.

Krista Voda and Kyle Petty, more faces long-time fans will find familiar and the hosts of a lavish pre-race show that will broadcast from a set on pit road, had their turn. And then came the pit reporters, sequestered under an anonymous tent behind Voda and Petty. They had conducted countless pit road interviews before. But this time they got their chance on the other side of the microphone. Racer babble eventually morphed into full-scale driver impersonation.

First it was a Kelli Stavast interview with Marty Snider, pretending to be Jimmie Johnson.

"I'm just glad this race isn't in the Chase, because we'd find a way to run out of fuel at some point."

Then Dave Burns with Mike Massaro as Dale Earnhardt Jr., miming facial expressions and cadence.

"… we gotta pretty stout machine."

Then Stavast with Snider as Kyle Busch on an Xfinity Series win the previous day.

"… it's always special to have the family there. …"

Then Massaro with Burns, crushing the deadpan of Ryan Blaney.

"I had a lot of people come over here from Ohio … so that's exciting."

Burns' rendition of Clint Bowyer — including the observation that he and former crew chief Brian Pattie hadn't been "melting together" — would have won the contest, had there been one.

Major investment

NBC Sports bid $4.4 billion to broadcast 20 Sprint Cup and 19 Xfinity races — sharing the 36-race schedule with Fox — for the next decade. Its investment was nearly double that of Fox, which extended its term eight more years in 2013. It's a sizable investment, no matter the sport.

But in a transitional era for motorsports where sanctioning bodies like NASCAR and IndyCar — which NBC also broadcasts in a shared package with ABC and ESPN — continue to grope for fans, particularly younger ones, television ratings and corporate sponsors, $4.4 billion was viewed by many insiders as a legacy-making coup for NASCAR chairman Brian France and a risk for the network.

NASCAR seemed eager for the network's return at Michigan, as vice chairman Mike Helton entered the booth — by happenstance just as Allen, Burton and Letarte had finished a rehearsal — shook hands with each and assured them, "you guys are pros."

So why did NBC opt to return and spend so lavishly to do so? Market share and history, Flood said, and the push of NBC Sports Group chairman Mark Lazarus as the network continues to amass content. NBC was part of the NASCAR broadcast package in 2005 for the highest-rated and highest-viewed season in the sport's history. It also broadcast the highest-rated race in NASCAR history, the 2006 Daytona 500.

"After the NFL, NASCAR has the biggest audience base in all of sport," Flood said. "It's a great audience to tap into. We've also had experience in it. Hopefully, we can reach out for some of that magic. The cool part is, we're back to where we were before where Fox has the first half and NBC has the second and it was a really special pairing between the two companies. … It will be fun to get back in the game and help grow the game."

Ask anyone involved in what will underscore an NBC NASCAR broadcast and the answer will either be "story-telling" or "if you ask Sam Flood, our job is story-telling." Flood made that premise the hallmark of the networks foray into the NHL and sees fertile opportunity in a sport with multitudes of competitors each week.

"I think from an NBC standpoint, we are trying to bring back a lot of fans that enjoyed the way NBC broadcast the races back in the early 2000s," Allen said. "We want to bring them back with the storytelling that has been a staple for us, conversational talk everyone is used to."

Opinionated and current

Burton and Letarte are known and respected commodities. Burton, a 21-time Sprint Cup winner, has driven at NASCAR's highest level as recently as last season. Letarte, 36, won 15 Cup races as a crew chief for Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr., overseeing a career renaissance for the latter, and won a Daytona 500 with him just weeks after he sent the fandom of NASCAR's most popular driver into dread by announcing he would leave for NBC after the 2014 season.

Together, Burton and Letarte are sharp and opinionated, and perhaps more importantly, current. That represents both an advantage and a challenge as both are cognizant that with each passing day their competitive careers are further behind them.

"I think that relevancy will bring a different approach because it's very, very difficult to stand away from the garage for a length of time and still understand it from a competitive side," said Letarte, whose first Cup crew chief position was with four-time series champion Gordon in 2005. "I challenge myself every day and I will every month and every year, to make sure there isn't a day I don't think I could go back on to the pit box."

But relevancy, Flood said, matters little without relatability.

"We're really proud of our group of talent, but they've got to do it on the air now," he said. "It's all fun and games to talk about 'fresh from the car' but now they have to show it on the air and make sure everyone out there understands the great insight they have."

With insight comes the need to critique and the concern of alienating people. Burton says that is not a personal concern as he would say nothing on-air that he wouldn't to someone's face.

Limits will be learned, however, when the air is live. Letarte was aghast at a fuel gamble Joey Logano crew chief Todd Gordon attempted unsuccessfully mid-race at Michigan, saying for the broadcast, "I do not understand how Todd Gordon ran the car out of fuel. You can rely too much on your computer."

Then during a break, reanalyzing himself with Burton and Allen: "I almost was too blunt. I almost said he needs to take his head out of his computer."

The interplay was entertaining, with Letarte remarking that a second win this season by Martin Truex Jr. would not be so well-received as his first.

"Yeah, at first it's 'Look everybody my friend's here in victory lane,'" Burton observed. "And then nobody's in there anymore."

There were noticeably fewer insertions of sponsor references.

"We know this sport is run by sponsorships and we have to do sponsor mentions when it fits," Allen said, "but as far as forcing anything upon anyone, I don't want it to be commercialized in my broadcast. Because again, it's conversational. I don't think I would say in a conversation, 'it looks like he's going to put 11 gallons of Sunoco fuel in that car.' That's just not a normal thing."

It remains to be seen how much Letarte will be called upon to plumb his history with Earnhardt Jr. for content, but he seems mischievously willing to share when appropriate. Flipping through a menu of in-car cameras as NASCAR race control announced engines would soon be re-fired at Michigan, he turned to his comrades, gesturing toward a monitor displaying an empty Earnhardt Jr. car and quipped, "We've still got a little bit of time. The 88 is empty and they ain't leaving without him."

If they connect, with their youth as broadcasters — Allen is 46, Burton 48 — they have the chance to become mainstays.

"This crew has the chance to be phenomenal," Marvin said. "And it's up to me and this production team to make them that way. The talent is absolutely there. If we're not there at the end of the year and people aren't saying 'They're fantastic, love them,' that is my fault. I need to catch up to them."

Easy comfort

Letarte completes his fuel calculations as if he were attempting to make a play to steal a win from atop the pit box, then calls to Marvin over his headset. Burton adds input while watching a replay and within seconds a video package has been created for the return from a phantom commercial.

"What I need to say is they put 6-to-10 more laps of fuel in the car," Letarte said, then beckoned to Marvin over his headset, "Mav, keep me honest. Don't let me get dorky."

Communicating with hand gestures as they talked through the piece, the three explain the nuanced strategy of trading track position for less fuel as rain approached, all while standing anonymously in stocking-footed comfort. With a rapport built on the golf course and honed through hours of time together in meetings and on set before they ever reached a broadcast booth, Allen, Burton and Letarte exude an easy comfort.

Allen's penchant for singing off-air is humored, while Burton's need for a four-inch platform to stay in frame with his counterparts is a source of amusement. As is Letarte's notorious thirst for Red Bull and tendency to occasionally arc from one topic to another, prompting Burton to yelp, "squirrel!" as if his partner were a skittish hound. Letarte's fondness for polka-dot suit liners will probably come up somewhere in what they hope is a 10-year run together, reaching out to the man on the couch, somewhere, for real. Beginning Sunday.

"It's going to be nervous, but that's the way I've always done it," Allen admitted. "I think the nervous really hones you and brings those personalities out. I think when that red light comes on, we're going to be excited, we're going to be a little bit nervous and we're going to have a lot of fun."

Follow James on Twitter @brantjames

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