When Bubba Wallace was caught in the first major incident of Sunday’s Daytona 500, fans tuning in to NASCAR’s in-car presentation could watch from Wallace’s perspective as he slammed into the back of Kurt Busch’s vehicle and spun a full 360 degrees in a field of speeding race cars.
The incident was captured from a 360-degree camera that was placed in Wallace’s No. 43 car ahead of the event, as NASCAR continued to experiment with immersive media to engage fans.
The league first debuted the 360 cams last season after quietly testing the technology for a year, and successfully implementing the immersive camera angles in milestone races. It now plans to bring the 360-view experience to 10 or more races in 2019, potentially expand the cameras to additional cars, and tweak and improve the experience with a goal of broadcasting in 4K sometime this year.
For NASCAR, embracing 360 and other immersive storytelling methods, such as augmented and virtual reality, is a way to engage NASCAR’s loyal fan base while broadening the appeal of races to find new generations of motorsports fans.
“We continue to get more engagement around that experience so I think we’re solidly invested in that,” said Tim Clark, NASCAR’s vice president of digital. “The goal is to continue to improve the technology and improve the presentation, but we see this as a big part of our business moving forward.”
Putting cameras inside the field of play is something that is uniquely possible in motorsports. In other sports, making an athlete wear a camera might be awkward. According to Clark, the league’s new media plans involve embracing opportunities like that to tell immersive stories from the perspective of the teams and drivers. In the future, NASCAR may work with its broadcasters, FOX and NBC, to build a second screen experience that puts additional information and content in fans’ hands.
“There’s opportunity for on-demand content: No. 43 car spun and was involved in an incident. Being able to replay those instances on an on-demand fashion broadens the scale and gives fans and others the opportunity to experience more of the post race,” Clark said. “We’re presenting the entirety of the race through that live 360 camera, but after the race we’re able to clip highlights and post 360 highlights: so you’re watching 43 car spinning during the Daytona 500 while you’re in control of that experience.”
Clark said NASCAR has “a lot of admiration” for leagues such as the NFL and NBA, and the PGA Tour that have experimented significantly with immersive media. NASCAR is looking toward those other sporting leagues for inspiration, but then will look to add its own flavor into the mix.
“This is a unique sport and a unique experience, and the more we can extend that uniqueness to increase the scale of NASCAR, that’s the priority,” he said. “I think there’s an opportunity to tell a story that requires a deeper investment on a fan level.”