For NASCAR fans that cannot make it to the track, in recent years watching races on television has become nearly as close to the real thing as it can get thanks to continued advancements in technology. At the forefront of that increased broadcast experience has been ESPN, however, few fans understand the enormity and complexity of the production that brings them a few hours of television entertainment.

  Like a small roving army, every week for 10 months of the year, the ESPN NASCAR coverage crew packs its bags and heads off to a new track. The 11 mobile units along with 225 technicians, producers, directors and on-air crew move from city to city in what has become the most technologically advanced programming unit in the history of motorsports.

  For ESPN, producing NASCAR matches the efforts it would take to produce Super Bowl coverage yet on a weekly basis. “When we do Monday Night Football we have a lot of trucks and a lot of people because that’s a big property for us,” said Andy Hall, ESPN Manager of Media Relations. “We have 33 cameras for that. A typical college football game like Blacksburg or Charlottesville, we have 19 cameras. Here we have 65 to 75.”

  Just like the NASCAR teams, hours after a race the ESPN crew is packed and ready to roll. Once at the new locale, over the course of 36 hours, the technicians reassemble their small broadcast city, unrolling and connecting as much as 20 miles of video, audio and power cables with enough power to supply a small town.

  Four of the production trailers house sound, graphics, production and editing studios. Trailer units also house the pit studio and the ESPN’s Craftsman Tech Garage, which was located scant feet behind the food venders at RIR. The Emmy winning set has to be reassembled in exactly the same fashion every week with every object placed on shelves in the same location because at times announcer Tim Brewer has as little as 15 seconds notice before going on the air to explain a technical aspect of racing.

  For Chase weekend at RIR, cameras were utilized to cover every angle of the race from rooftops, to trackside, to pit row, to inside 24 of the cars. 

  They also use a digital device to monitor and record the radio conversations of all 43 drivers for possible use during the program.

  And the man who pulls it all together is ESPN’s Neil Goldberg, who has been producing NASCAR races since 1982. As the producer, Goldberg is responsible for the overall look of the show, making thousands of decisions over the course of the ESPN broadcast. Starting on Tuesday prior to every race, Goldberg and his crew come up with a general game plan of how they want the show to look. “We come in with a very prepared plan and it’s really more about understanding all of the scenarios,” Goldberg said.

  The complexity of Goldberg’s job on a weekly basis is almost beyond comprehension, but Chase weekend in Richmond stands at the top of the heap. With 10 drivers competing for the final eight Chase slots the normal production scenarios grow exponentially. “You can look at all of the scenarios that NASCAR puts out what a driver must do to get in the Chase, but it’s effected by one or two other drivers out here,” Goldberg said.

  “But there’s a bigger picture to satisfy,” he added. “There are 43 drivers out that that are putting their all into racing around this track. They’re there for a reason, so really we have to have a very focused story line but we have to be very cognizant of everything and broaden out…we have half a dozen different races going on in this one particular race.”

  When the race gets underway, Goldberg sits in the main production trailer viewing a bank of monitors displaying every possible camera angle. The director sits beside Goldberg making the camera calls which are implemented by the technical director. At the rear of the trailer is the Pit Producer who is in touch with all four pit reporting crews. Another person is in constant contact with ESPN headquarters in Bristol, CT for decisions on commercial breaks.

  Best characterized in movies and TV programs, action in the main production trailer can be both intense and noisy during the live broadcast of a race. “It’s organized chaos up here,” said Hall. “There’s a lot of yelling and screaming but it’s not because people are mad at each other it’s just to be heard. It gets a little tense at times but when you’re doing live TV you’ve got to react to what’s happening and you have to be ready. Things happen very quickly especially in racing.”

  Goldberg wears a headset that covers only his right ear, through which he hears from everyone outside the truck; chief spotter, tape room, reporters, support info, etc. He leaves his left ear uncovered to listen to the production crew inside the truck. In front of him is a speaker box through which the race announcers can unplug from their mikes and speak directly to him. “I have the voices coming from different directions and I figure out who’s talking to me just by the direction it’s coming from,” Goldberg said. The producer listens to the 30-40 voices with pen in hand and deciphers importance by tone of voice. “I may be listening here and writing down what’s happening here and looking to see what was actually said. It’s kind of a natural skill I have.”

  Goldberg admits that it takes a special mentality to do what he does on a weekly basis and says most producers refer to themselves as being a little ADD. “We’ve got a lot of things going on a lot of times but we don’t’ get distracted by our ADD,” he said. “I think the visual and audio stimulation for us is a challenge and we kind of feed off it. It seems like the more complex it gets, the more efficient we operate. When things are at their simplest for us are times when we’re most vulnerable to mistakes.”

  Yet, Goldberg points out that few sports producers can handle the pressure of NASCAR. “I’ve seen some of the best producers and directors in sports come into a racing environment and they’re just overwhelmed,” he said. “They have the skills to be great story tellers and producers but when they get into the racing environment the amount of information at one time that comes at you can be very overwhelming; visual and audible.”

  Fellow producer James Shifton quoted an article written on the subject. “More decisions are made in two hours in a TV truck than most people make all year.”

  Goldberg said the best way to picture his job is trying to imagine an air traffic controller trying to land 43 jet fighters on the same runway at once without an accident.

  Since starting as an assistant producer in 1982, Goldberg has seen NASCAR coverage grow by leaps and bounds. “There wasn’t a lot of people at the network or anywhere who knew a lot about motorsports,” he said. “We loved it and we were on our own island and got to do what we wanted.

  Goldberg was the first to put a camera on the helmet of Rusty Wallace’s crew chief to cover live pit action. “That idea came from a David Letterman show where over the winter I was watching and they introduced ‘Monkey Cam.’”

  Goldberg said as he watched pictures being broadcast from the camera on the head of a monkey swinging from the studio rafters he got an idea. “I was like if he can put a camera on a monkey than we can put a camera on a pit crew member.”

  Goldberg’s technology department down-sized the equipment to fit the helmet and since that time the devise has made its way into virtually every aspect of sports.

  ESPN continues to develop the televised NASCAR experience from high definition cameras inside the cars, to ground level cameras mounted on the fringe of the track, to pronounced sound so that viewers can get as close to the live-race experience as possible without being at the track. Three weeks ago, ESPN implemented its latest enhancement by breaking down every element of pit stops. “We can time right side changes, the jack man’s speed around the car, left side change, car down and out and then segment it out,” Goldberg said. “How much did the crew impact it and how much did the driver. We can literally find out where the problem was.”

  But Goldberg pointed out they are limited not by possibilities but by how much would be too much. “If we came in for the Chase and throw four new elements at the fans, it would take more time to explain what that element is doing than for us to really help enhance our coverage,” he said.

  For Goldberg, ESPN’s coverage of NASCAR has covered every sensory aspect of a live race but one. “I think the only thing they’re missing is the tire rubber, the oil and the engine smells,” he said. “I’m sure we could generate a little Smell-a-vision if we wanted to go that way; a whole another form of technology.”