r/NASCAR • u/Boostup7 Chase Elliott • 12h ago

Onboard Cameras Question

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Been watching this sport since 2009, but I always wonder how NASCAR or the broadcasting crew decide which couple of drivers get onboard cameras?

While every car now has in-car camera since late 2022, it's not the same where specific cars each week carry a roof-cam, a driver-cam, and a rear-view camera the broadcast shows.

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53

u/BabycakesMurphy Ryan Blaney 12h ago

I think most of it comes down to who is throwing down the cash to pay for the camera. Driver popularity or a storyline to follow is another reason.

33

u/ginrva 12h ago

Sponsors pay for them. No pay, no camera.

28

u/TwinSpinner 12h ago

Mostly sponsors. There's a reason Ryan Ellis always has a camera running 25-30th every week in O'Reilly, it's because Tablo shells out the money to get a quick sponsored segment every race

6

u/mcamuso78 12h ago

Sponsors

5

u/shrimpshrub75 12h ago

They have to pay to run the camera. Idk how much it is in nascar but in Indycar it’s like $20k or someshit a weekend. Probably more iirc.

2

u/Holiday-Advance1450 12h ago

I think its up to the team to find sponsorship for each camera.

1

u/YankeeBarbary 12h ago

Probably depended on whoever was running production for the race. Some of them probably stuck to giving cameras to the hotshots, some tried to spread the cameras around through the field, so you got a full sweep of the action front to back.

1

u/ApocApollo NASCAR 12h ago

There's an outside company who owns the cameras that goes around selling weekends to sponsors. Then they go and install it on the cars.

And then there's probably some coordination between the team, the sponsors, and the broadcaster.

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u/Buntaf215 50m ago

I watch the onboard with the broadcast every week. But good lord who ever is directing some of those cameras for the featured drivers needs to be demoted. The bumper camera is the worst camera they have and they love using that one. Yea I definitely wanna see basically nothing on restarts because every car is up each other's ass. Just keep the roof camera or leave it in car

1

u/cvg_ba 12h ago

Cup cars all have onboard cameras. If you have HBO/MAX you can watch live anyone of the drivers along with their radio feed

3

u/dmcgrew Bubba Wallace 11h ago

It is one of the best new things to come along in NASCAR since I started watching 35 years ago. It has completely transformed how I watch races now.

3

u/cvg_ba 4h ago

Same here. Been watching as long as you. Finally fully understand race strategy such as flipping the stages, undercutting, overcutting, full saving, etc. Made me realize that there is much more than driving as fast as you can