TV Cameras Can’t Hide Empty Seats

SPEED put on a brave face Friday as the network continued with on-track NASCAR action from 9AM until almost 11PM at Lowe's Motor Speedway. For TV viewers, SPEED's efforts were outstanding.

Unfortunately, one thing was also easy to see throughout the coverage. It seemed as if there was no one there. The grandstands at Lowe's Motor Speedway are huge, and vast sections of them were purposefully closed for this Friday program.

It was the main grandstand along the dogleg in the frontstretch that served as the focal point of the TV cameras when "fans in the stands" needed to be shown. Like several other tracks, Lowe's has the multi-colored seats that appear to the TV cameras to be occupied when in fact they are not.

On this day, no fancy illusions or very tight camera shots could hide the fact that even for All-Star qualifying and the Craftsman Truck Series, the fans just were not there. Hardcore racing fans may have seen the Summer Shootout Series telecasts over the years as the Legends cars and other series take to the small oval built into the frontstretch and along pit road. This looked like a Shootout crowd.

As the Craftsman Trucks put on a great show, the SPEED crew tried very hard to keep the cameras off the grandstands. When the TV requirements needed a wideshot, it was almost startling to see the infield appear to be more populated than the available grandstand seating. More at Daily Planet