NASCAR opens $53 million production facility in Concord. What that means for viewers, fans

Continuing to look for ways to expand its digital content and connect with a younger generation, NASCAR unveiled a 58,000-square foot building on Wednesday.

The $53 million investment — which includes eight control rooms and three studios — comes a week after NASCAR announced its historic media rights agreement, which will see Cup Series races air exclusively on a streaming platform for the first time.

“This is a historic day for our sport,” NASCAR President Steve Phelps said at a ribbon-cutting event Wednesday morning. “The scope and scale of the NASCAR production business has fundamentally changed with the live events business more than tripling in the last few years. Meanwhile, the proliferation of streaming services and the growth of social media and podcasting has made quality, on-demand content an important currency for connecting with current and, importantly, prospective fans.”

NASCAR’s production facilities had been in uptown Charlotte, and now they move next door to its Research and Development Center. Once the new media rights agreement begins in 2025, NASCAR hopes to produce more live events out of this building instead of having its entire crews on-site. The location closer to the teams could allow drivers to appear on in-studio shows more frequently.

“Cabarrus County and its cities are known for a couple of positive phrases. One is where racing lives,” N.C. Senate Majority Leader Paul Newton said. “NASCAR lives here. And NASCAR thrives in Cabarrus County.”

Currently, about 150 employees are on-site for the production of every race. That number will be down to about 45. It’ll be better from a business perspective, minimizing travel, and allow many of its production employees to live and work out of a Concord office full-time.

Announcers have already been remotely calling Truck Series races on Fox Sports out of the uptown facility. Brian Herbst, Senior Vice President of Media and Production, told The Observer “you’ll probably see more of that in the future,” referring to broadcasters calling races from a studio.

Recently, NBC broadcasters Rick Allen, Steve Letarte, Jeff Burton and Dale Earnhardt Jr. visited the new studios. They said that what they lack at race tracks is consistency, as some press boxes are bigger than others and provide better vantage points. Depending on the track, like at a road course like Watkins Glen, they primarily call races off monitors anyway.

Remote broadcasts have yielded mixed reactions on social media across all sports, as the delay is sometimes obvious on the air. NASCAR thinks it has a way to circumvent that.

Whether NASCAR ultimately moves all of its commentators remote or not, the announcers’ studios in the new Concord building will have a light that will go on when a car heads down pit road. That way, the announcer can make that point on-air before the car is shown heading down pit road on-air, eliminating the belief that the commentators are calling the race off the shots shown on the broadcast.

On Thursday, the mayors of North Carolina’s largest cities will tour NASCAR’s new building while they’re in town for the fall metropolitan mayors’ conference, Concord Mayor Bill Dusch said. He stressed the impact that NASCAR has throughout the state, especially in its largest communities, and how the work that comes out of this building could give the league more ways to connect with fans.