NBC Brickyard 400 Media Call Highlights: NBC Sports today conducted a media conference call to preview the Brickyard 400 from the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway. NBC & TNT’ coverage of the Brickyard 400 weekend begins Saturday at 11 a.m. ET on TNT with Bud Pole Qualifying. Saturday night in primetime, Midas presents NASCAR Busch Series Racing from Indianapolis Raceway Park at 8 p.m. ET on TNT. NBC’ Brickyard 400 coverage begins Sunday at 2 p.m. ET with the Discover Card Countdown to Green pre-race show immediately followed by the green flag at 2:30 p.m. ET. On today’ call were NASCAR on NBC & TNT analysts Benny Parsons and Wally Dallenbach; pre-race host/lead pit reporter Bill Weber and producer Sam Flood. Highlights of the call follow: On the 79 cameras NBC has deployed to cover the Brickyard 400: Flood: This event is obviously the biggest event on the calendar this weekend, and one of the top two or three events on the Winston Cup schedule. Unlike any other track there is, one camera cannot follow the leaders around the racetrack. [In adding more cameras] We have raised the degree of difficulty for Mike Wells, our director, but we know that Mike can handle it. A lot of this [additional cameras] is because this is such a big event, but in the same breath you cant do your normal coverage. Parsons: It’ a BIG event. It’ the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. It’ without a doubt the most famous Speedway in the world. When Tony George and Bill France got together and we started running the Brickyard 400 in 1994 – I think it elevated NASCAR another notch. On the S.A.F.E.R. Soft Walls being used at IMS: Parsons: I have been talking about soft walls, for what seems like forever, but I guess it’ been five or six years. It started when drivers started hitting the walls and breaking their shoulder blades We have got to some how soften this blow, the cars are faster and they are going through the corners faster. Twenty years ago they hit a metal guardrail that gave, then the cars got faster and the rails really gave – they broke. So you have to have the concrete walls, but you have got to start to soften the blows that these drivers are taking. I cannot tell you what a pleasure it is for me to go to a racetrack that is going to soften that blow for these drivers. Dallenbach: I think Benny hit the nail on the head, it’ going to be a big test this weekend, I hate to say it, but everybody is waiting to see the first guy to hit the wall. That’ the information that they need. NASCAR and everybody else is waiting to see what the result of a Winston Cup car hitting a soft wall in competition is. From a drivers standpoint, heck yeah, I would rather hit a soft wall than a concert wall – there is no question about it. On Jeff Gordon’ 2002 season and chances of repeating his Brickyard 400 victory: Parsons: He has won Indy three times, but if you look back at Pocono (last Sunday), unless they find some magic this week he did not have a car that is good enough for him to win at Indy. Weber: I love to disagree with Benny and I will disagree with him here, I would have a hard time picking against Jeff Gordon in this race. That is not to say that if he does not win here that his season is a total disaster. If you go back and look at his history of how strong he normally is in the Winston Cup season’ second half, he is not only a contender this weekend but I think he is a contender for the championship. If I were going to Vegas I might put some money on someone else, but I would definitely put money on Jeff Gordon. When you talk to these guys in the garage you hear what they are saying, and you sometimes hear what they are thinking. This team is clearly pointing to certain events in the second half to show there muscle and I think one of theses events is Sunday. No one wants to win here more than Gordon, especially since the last time he won was Kansas City. On Dallenbach driving three NASCAR Busch races, beginning Aug. 17 in Michigan: Dallenbach: This is something that is not only going to be good and not only a lot of fun for me, but also adds credibility for me in the booth Sunday after just coming off the racetrack Saturday. I will be able to talk to the booth during cautions. Benny will be able to pick my brain on what we are doing and what we have accomplished.(NBC PR)(8-1-2002)
