A look inside NBC's inaugural Indy 500 broadcast with its all-star crew of Danica Patrick, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Mike Tirico.
CLOSE Jim Ayello of USA TODAY Sports and the Indianapolis Star breaks down the 103rd running of the Indianapolis 500. USA TODAY
NBC outbid ABC for the rights to the Indy 500 and agreed to a new deal last year. The event, known as The Greatest Spectacle in Racing, had previously been carried by ABC since 1965, making it the second-longest TV partnership behind CBS and The Masters . IndyCar and NBC know the change to the world-renowned race will be watched closely — and that now is the time to build momentum.
Tirico, Patrick and Earnhardt will provide pre-race, in-race and post-race coverage, while Leigh Diffey is on the play-by-play with the help of analysts Townsend Bell and Paul Tracy, who a combined 19 career Indy 500 starts. Tirico is, of course, the TV expert here, having hosted so many of NBC's high-profile broadcasts like the NFL and the 2018 Winter Olympics. He'll fill the same role Sunday at the 2.5-mile Indianapolis oval.
No one is an expert in everything, but they're all an expert in something, Patrick joked during the conference call. And while the newcomers are certainly embracing the novelty of their first Indy 500 broadcast, they'll have to rely on each other. "I really don't walk into these situations with a script or any kind of planned notes or anything like that. I'll just be taking it in as it's happening, and when they come to me and need me to say something, I'm going to say whatever's on my mind."
"Boy, are we lucky that [the track] is still here," Earnhardt gushed. "Think about all the opportunities where it could have disappeared. … I know I'm going to see and feel and sense things that I've never felt or sensed at any other race I've been to.
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