NASCAR fans for the first time can access live, 360-degree views of pre-race events at Homestead-Miami Speedway before Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Championship finale at the Ford EcoBoost 400.
Fans will be able to “teleport” themselves into the driver’s meeting and throughout the garage via NASCAR.com and the NASCAR Mobile app. Delivered by Ultracast, the live 360-degree or virtual reality experiences can also be viewed through smartphones, laptops and VR headsets. Ultracast, based in Aventura, Fla., has previously worked with FIA events.
Also, much of the at-track content available via NASCAR’s GarageCam will be presented in live VR, 360 video this weekend.
“The technology around it is still evolving,” Tim Clark, managing director of NASCAR Digital Media, told Frontstretch. “It is literally a sphere-mounted camera that’s got multiple camera lenses in it so it is filming 360 degrees at all times. The user who is watching the video can control the angle they want to watch at.
“It’s a space we’ve been evaluating for a while. Daytona is something we’ve talked about, but we wanted to move a little bit quicker. We thought the championship weekend in Miami made a lot of sense since there is a lot of excitement around the weekend.”
Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick and Brad Keselowski will race to the finish line, as the first among the four remaining playoff drivers will be crowned this year’s Cup Series Champion. It’s also Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s final Cup Series race.