CONCORD, NC — Jeff Burton is in the middle of a point, trying to break down what’s going on with Denny Hamlin’s pit crew, and then he cuts himself off: "So see that’s what – Oh! Big crash!"
Play-by-play man Leigh Diffey then retakes the reins of the broadcast to focus on a wreck: "Bubba Wallace, Alex Bowman, this is nasty." It’s brief, but sums up what all the viewers can see on the screen, and allows Steve Letarte to chime in and provide details.
"These guys were running inside the top five," Letarte says. "This is on the back straightaway, exit of turn 2. Debris littered over the exit of 2. Oh my goodness."
It’s Sunday, Oct. 11 at Charlotte Motor Speedway and – as the broadcast team for USA Network – Diffey, Burton and Letarte have a bird’s eye
view from atop of the grandstands of the most violent moment in the Bank of America 400, the sixth race in the postseason Chase for the NASCAR Cup Series.
On the 77th lap, Bowman got loose battling for fifth place, overcorrected and his No. 48 Chevrolet turned right up the track, rocketing into the left rear of Wallace’s No. 23 Toyota. The collision sent Wallace into the outside wall first, then spinning down the track where his left rear bounced hard against the inside wall. William Byron, riding the top, couldn’t get out of the way in time and slammed into Bowman, damaging the front and right side of his No. 24 Chevrolet.
Suddenly, two Chase drivers were eliminated from this critical race, and it was up to the broadcast team to illustrate that. While the scene on the track seemed wild, what was happening just outside the speedway in USA Network’s production trailer was controlled chaos.
"OK, give me Byron going to pit road," says Sean Owens, the coordinating director for the broadcast.
"We don’t know how Bubba is," says Rene Hatlelid, the supervising producer. "I don’t want to do a lot of replays here."
NASCAR safety officials have circled around Wallace’s Hardees-sponsored Toyota. Still, it’s unclear to everyone watching what his condition is. While the crash was incredible, the crew in charge of bringing the race to television screens around the world didn’t want to be insensitive without knowing Wallace’s status. They cut to a commercial break, and Owens anxiously taps a pen on the counter in front of him as he scans dozens of screens, searching for the right shot.
During the break, they see Wallace getting out of his car, able to walk on his own and seemingly in stable shape.
"All right let’s show him gingerly getting out of his car, then walking to the ambo," Owens says.
Once the production crew sees that all three drivers are out of their cars uninjured and walking on their own, they let Diffey, Letarte and Burton tell the story of the crash through eight replays, each showing a different angle, some in slow motion and others with the sound of the impacts. Diffey hands the keys over to Letarte and Burton. The duo has spent decades in the sport, Letarte as a former crew chief for household names such as Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Burton as a Hall of Fame driver. Burton tells the viewers how the crash happened, what Bowman was probably feeling and how his car got loose, while Letarte keys in more technical aspects like how fast Bowman was going when he hit Wallace and how Wallace’s second hit on the inside wall was probably worse.
"Let’s see him getting out again, making that face," Owens says from the trailer, as the broadcast cuts to a shot of Wallace walking in front of his car, turning his head, eyes wide saying, "Wow!"
The wreck ends Stage 1 of the race and the broadcast moves from Diffey, Letarte and Burton up in the booth to Marty Snider, Dale Jarrett and Brad Daugherty live from the pit box to give their perspective on the opening laps and the big wreck. As Jarrett and Daugherty are talking over replays, Patrick Perrin stands from the back row of the trailer: "Bowman is coming out!"
Perrin is the pit producer and his job, ultimately, is to filter information from the pit reporters to Hatlelid and Owens. Hatlelid then gets into the ear of Snider, the host at the pit box: "Marty, we’re going to throw it to Kim (Coon). She has Bowman."
Coon interviews Bowman from the infield care center and has questions lined up, but the driver gets a little long winded and cars are beginning to line back up for green flag racing.
"We’re good here, Kim," Hatlelid says. "We’re throwing it back to the booth, not the pit box."
Moments later, the pace car leaves the track and green flag racing is back underway.
"It’s just about hearing the urgency in their voices," Hatlelid says of managing everything going on in the production trailer. "We’re putting all the pieces together, but always, the most important thing is the race and product on the track. It takes every single person from the technical side to the production side. Everybody makes a difference and makes the whole thing run as smoothly as it does."
The wreck that collected Bowman, Wallace and Byron is one example of all the moving parts and all of the people that power USA Network’s ability to bring NASCAR races to millions of fans each weekend. While the Cup Series schedule is divided between four television partners, USA Sports produces the most crucial competitions of the season – 14 races in all, with 10 of those as part of the postseason Chase.
Four of those 14, including the final three, air on NBC, but the people who create the broadcast remain the same. This same crew also produced the five races that aired on Amazon Prime this season, including an emotional Coca-Cola 600 and an exciting never-done-before road course race on an active U.S. military installation.
USA Network granted USA TODAY Sports exclusive behind-the-scenes access at the Bank of America 400 – a race won in thrilling fashion by Chase Briscoe in a photo finish ahead of teammate Christopher Bell – to see how broadcasting a NASCAR race comes together.
'We don’t know what the hell is going to happen'
Around 10:30 a.m. on Sunday morning, four hours before their pre-race broadcast starts, 29 USA Network employees cram into a trailer for the production meeting that will set the tone for the day. However, work for this race began days earlier.
On Wednesday, five days before the race, crews began mounting 15 robotic cameras around the track to give the broadcast several unique angles. FOX will use those same cameras for their broadcast of the Truck Series race. Two of those cameras will be stationed in turns 2 and 4 and focused on the bumps there to help illustrate why a driver might be getting loose on that part of the track.
"We can do as many toys and goofy stuff we want, make it look as cool and as fun as you can, but at the end of the day, people want to sit there and watch a race," Owens said. "The main thing every week is making sure we're getting the best racing on the air and trying to come up with the best ways to cover it, new angles and creative things we can do to make it entertaining."
The meeting begins when Jeff Behnke – the executive producer and senior vice president of sports production for Versant, USA Network’s parent company – introduces guests in the room and thanks everyone for their hard work. Hatlelid, who Behnke calls "the captain of the ship," then steers the meeting by going over some storylines, such as the Chase and the fall Charlotte race pivoting away from its Roval setup for the first time since 2017.
Diffey, Burton, Letarte, Snider and Jarrett then all take turns chiming in, and the story that USA Network is trying to deliver to fans begins to take shape.
"The fun thing about today is, we don’t know what the hell is going to happen," Burton says. "A lot of this we haven’t seen before."
"I find the Hamlin story compelling," Snider says, referencing the regular-season champion who has slid back in the standings. “That error last week (at Phoenix) was all Denny … I also found all the stuff that Dustin (Long) was talking with Chase (Briscoe) about very compelling, too. I don’t know if he believes all of that."
Long is a longtime journalist who has covered NASCAR since the late 1990s and now works with the editorial team at USA Sports. Briscoe had told Long in a previous interview that he was going to run down Larson – the points leader – and attempt to take control of the race early.
"I pressed him on it because I was incredulous when (Briscoe) said that. I don’t think we can overhype it," Long said. "He’s going guns to glory. It’s almost like he’s either going to take the lead or crash."
Hatlelid then turns to Jarrett, the former Cup Series champion and Hall of Famer.
"Well, Dustin just stole all my stuff, which I got from him," Jarrett says as the room laughs.
"You were going to say 'incredulous'?" Burton asks.
"What are you trying to say?" Jarrett says.
"Well, I had to look up," Burton says amidst more laughter.
A few minutes later, Daugherty walks in and stands near the door. A 7-foot former NBA All-Star – who has long been involved in NASCAR as a broadcaster and team owner – Daugherty is hard to miss.
"Hey Brad. You thought you were going to be able to sneak in?" Behnke says, drawing more laughter from the room.
After going over feature pieces and the rundown for the pre-race show, the meeting wraps up in about 25 minutes and the crew all go their separate ways, toward their battle stations to prepare for a day of racing.
NASCAR on USA Sports: A brand-new start
At the beginning of this year, Versant launched as a new media company when it completed its long-planned spin-off from NBC and parent company Comcast. Under the Versant umbrella are several digital and cable networks including CNBC, MS Now, the Golf Channel, E and USA Network. Under the brand "USA Sports," Versant owns the rights to thousands of hours of live sports programming each year, including the WNBA, WWE, Premier League soccer, Bundesliga soccer, League One Volleyball, countless pro golf events, college sports for the Pac-12 and Atlantic 10 conferences and the NASCAR Cup Series.
With Game 7 of the WNBA Finals set for Halloween and the Cup Series finale at Homestead scheduled eight days later, two champions of major sports could be crowned on USA Sports broadcasts just days apart this year. For Behnke, cross-promotion between sports is crucial, so he made sure that Diffey had all the information he needed on Gabby Williams and Angel Reese for a shoutout to the WNBA Finals during the race broadcast.
"It’s a huge priority," Behnke said. "We're a new company, and although the audiences don't always seem to match, you have to get the message out there."
But while Versant is a brand-new company, almost all the folks working on its broadcasts for NASCAR are seasoned veterans of the sport.
"Pretty much the only thing that changed was the logos on our shirts," Hatlelid said. "It's the family that stayed together."
Behnke, for example, worked his first NASCAR race at Darlington in 1981 with ABC Sports. Behnke believes not much has changed when it comes to presenting a race.
"It's always the characters, the speed and the danger. You're always going to have those," Behnke said. "What's changed? The technology, for sure."
Two noticeable differences stand out about a USA Sports broadcast: First, it is the only television partner of NASCAR that has a set atop a pit box on pit road to put viewers "right in the action," Behnke says. At Charlotte, Snider, Jarrett and Daugherty did the pre- and post-race shows from their set right between pit stalls for Tyler Reddick and Denny Hamlin. Jarrett remains in the pit box during the race too.
"If I'm on the pit box, I'll send (Burton and Letarte) a text, you know, just about something that I might be seeing," Jarrett said. "There's certain things that I can maybe pick up on or see completely different from them."
And second, beginning this year in select races, USA Sports has a pace car analyst. During caution laps, former Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne gives viewers the closest look possible at what’s happening on the track from the front of the field. The idea came from Behnke, who mulled it over with Burton and then took it to NASCAR for approval.
"The first time we sent him out there, he was hearing different things in the cars as they drove by and it just brings a very personal touch to the broadcast," Hatlelid said. "Having somebody that close and intimate in there, it's great."
The rest of the crew has been around motorsports for a long time, too. Snider grew up working on his cousin’s cars in what was then the second-tier Busch Series, then became a pit reporter in the 1990s when Burton and Jarrett were racing in the Cup Series.
Hatlelid has been working in NASCAR since 2006 when she was at ESPN. These days during a race, she’s the person in everyone’s ear. She sits next to Owens and in front of Perrin, then communicates with Snider, Diffey, Matt Hogencamp — the senior director for remote technical operations — and others via radio headset.
Owens directed his first race in 2018, but began working in NASCAR as a logger for the Speed Channel in 2009 after he went to the offices with his resume in hand shortly after graduating from college.
Perrin, who grew up in Daytona, has been "Pit Producer Patrick" since 2007 when he was at ESPN, but he worked his first race for CBS in 1980 at the World 600. He also works on FOX’s pre-race show.
"I guess you would say I’m the traffic cop," Perrin said. “They're giving me the information that they gather on pit road and I'm feeding it to the front of the truck. I have to listen to (Owens and Hatlelid) up front to make sure I'm not interrupting what they're doing, but at the same time get the stories on the air in case there's an urgent moment."
'The best, most prepared play-by-play person'
Way atop Charlotte Motor Speedway, Leigh Diffey sits in a chair while Jeff Burton and Steve Letarte stand to his right. On lap 117, John Hunter Nemechek goes for a spin in his No. 42 Chevrolet in the trioval after getting loose coming off turn 4, bouncing into the wall to bring out the caution flag.
"He might as well just turn left and take it into the garage," Letarte says as Diffey, Burton and a handful of crew members laugh.
"Pit road comes alive one more time, right Kim?" Diffey says as he tosses the broadcast down to pit reporter Kim Coon.
During the commercial break under the caution, Letarte has a few requests.
"Anybody got any Advil over there? My neck is killing me," he says. "And, hey, while you’re over there, I’ll take another one of those green waters (a Perrier) and one of those peanut butter sandwiches."
Indeed, the three members of "the talent" – Diffey, Burton and Letarte – each have custom-made peanut butter sandwiches tucked inside a cooler in the booth when snack time arrives. Letarte prefers his with Jif Natural, Burton requests almond butter, while Diffey likes the peanut butter and banana combo. Like their sandwiches, each of the trio brings something different to the broadcast.
Following a successful run as a crew chief for Hendrick Motorsports, where he won 15 races with Gordon and Dale Jr. – including the 2014 Daytona 500 – Letarte has become one of the most respected broadcasters in NASCAR. He started in 2015 with NBC, and this season has been an analyst for races on Amazon Prime, TNT and USA Sports. He also hosts a podcast for NASCAR called "Inside the Race."
"This is home for me. This is the group I've worked with now for 12 years," Letarte said. "The stuff I prepare for is probably really, really boring for some to hear, right? It's rule books and strategies and, like, I don't pretend to be a driver, so I don't really look at the stuff that Jeff probably looks at. I study for a final exam every week, I just have no idea what the subject's going to be."
Burton, a 21-time winner in the Cup Series who took checkered flags at the Southern 500 and Coca-Cola 600, was named one of NASCAR’s 75 Greatest Drivers in 2023 and will be inducted into the Hall of Fame next year. His broadcasting career also started with NBC in 2015.
Hatlelid and Burton both refer to Diffey as "the quarterback" of NASCAR on USA Sports. A native of Australia, he’s been broadcasting motorsports of all types for decades, from V8 Supercars to F1 to IndyCar to IMSA to motorcycles and more. He called his first NASCAR race in the second-tier Xfinity Series in 2015 and quickly fell in love with the sport.
"It's something completely different to everything else that I've done. I love just how dynamic and how unpredictable it is," Diffey said. "It's been great for me to challenge myself to be the best sponge I could be, just to listen and soak it all in while I hang out with Steve and Jeff. I feel very fortunate to be in the position because I love calling racing of any kind.
"We’re just watching a race with mates and having fun."
In 2024, Diffey became the lead play-by-play voice for NASCAR races on NBC and came over to Versant when the spin-off happened. The trio of Diffey, Burton and Letarte added instant credibility to USA Sports' presentation of NASCAR races.
Diffey is technically "the new guy" in the group, Burton says, but has quickly earned the admiration of his peers and the folks working all around the NASCAR garages.
"Diffey is the best, most prepared play-by-play person – I could say in this sport, but he goes across many," Jarrett said. "He can do something on fricking Saturday in track-and-field and is amazing, and then he's calling a race on Sunday and it was like he had been prepared for that all week, which he was."
What is obvious about the USA Sports crew is that this is a group of people with incredible chemistry, who love working with each other and have a real passion for NASCAR.
It’s apparent in the morning meetings, in the bus that the talent hangs out in, in the command center where Owens and Hatlelid run the show, and up in the booth where Diffey, Letarte and Burton call the action on the track with excitement and detail.
And they all have the goal of giving fans at home the best experience of watching NASCAR.
"There is an enormous amount of pride that we were a part of starting something new. Everybody is bought in. It is really, really hard to take nothing and build it into something, especially in sports television," Behnke said. "There's no chip on the shoulder. It’s just like, we know we're damn good, and we're going to show everybody how great we can be."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: How USA Network produces the most crucial races of the NASCAR Chase
