NBC takes over NASCAR broadcasting this weekend. Dale Earnhardt Jr. will enter his sixth season as a broadcaster when the NASCAR Cup Series races at Nashville.
Earnhardt has done a lot for NBC. He’s worked the Olympics and Kentucky Derby, and his Dale Jr. Download and Lost Speedways shows are on Peacock, but his bread and butter is NASCAR.
In a two-part 12 Questions interview with The Athletic’s Jeff Gluck, Earnhardt talked about what he loves about broadcasting. Earnhardt likes talking about one-on-one battles and having the ability to make those moments exciting for viewers.
“What I love about broadcasting is talking about two cars battling, Earnhardt said. “I always point to the 1979 Daytona 500 as the pinnacle of NASCAR broadcasting. To me, that is the gold standard in terms of delivery. Ken Squier and David Hobbs were in the booth that day, and the way Ken delivered his excitement for what he was seeing was so perfect. So when you feel like you get that right, that is such a great feeling.
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“I feel like as a broadcaster, that’s your main responsibility. You go into that booth to make the fan at home realize how great a race it is in person. Even when you’ve got to carry a race that’s not quite as exciting, you don’t say, “It is what it is.” Your job is to make it something, make it exciting, find something to talk about, find the battles, point the cameras there. There’s never a race that doesn’t have something compelling going on. So you’ve got to keep searching and looking and find it.”
Of course, battles for the lead don’t happen all the time. Sometimes, the top spots are decided in a race where it’s very difficult to pass. That’s where the teamwork between the commentators and the production truck comes in. Earnhardt explains that the commentators can alert the production truck where the best battle is. So while the race for the lead might not be exciting, chances are there’s a battle somewhere.
Earnhardt said, “I love working for NBC because all of the booth talent can say, “Hey, the battle for seventh is about to happen. The eighth-place car is catching him, he’s running him down” and the cameras will go there. They will trust us and take us to where we want to go. I really love that about my job. If I had to sit there and basically just talk about what was on the screen, that’d be frustrating, because I want to take you where I think the battles are. But if somebody was choosing what I was seeing and I had to narrate that, that would not be any fun.”
It’s crucial to convey excitement whenever the race might not actually provide that, but there’s a fine line between doing that and trying to put “lipstick on a pig.” Sometimes, a race is so bad that trying to act like it’s anything but can cause fans not to take you seriously.
To Earnhardt’s benefit, his emotions seem to be natural. So even if things aren’t as exciting for the layperson, someone like Dale Earnhardt Jr. can find appreciation for the little things and explain why it’s worth getting excited over.
