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Indianapolis 500 Airing On ABC For 45th Consecutive Year
When the Indianapolis 500 aired on ABC for the first time, Lyndon Johnson was in the White House, the NFL Championship was almost two years away from becoming the Super Bowl, the Beatles and Beach Boys were at the top of the charts and Bewitched and Bonanza ruled the TV airwaves.
One of the longest-running relationships between a sporting event and a network continues on Sunday, May 24, when the Indianapolis 500 airs on ABC for the 45th consecutive year. ESPN on ABC’s live, high definition telecast from Indianapolis Motor Speedway is presented by GoDaddy.com and begins at noon ET, with the green flag at 1 p.m.
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Television coverage of the "Greatest Spectacle in Racing" has come a long way since highlights first appeared in black-and-white on ABC’s Wide World of Sports program following the 1965 edition of the race.
ESPN will use 59 cameras to televise the race fully in high definition, including a 360-degree rotating onboard camera mounted behind the driver on multiple cars. Unique views will be provided by Track Cam, a high definition camera running on a cable over pit road and the frontstretch that can move at more than 80 mph. All 33 cars will carry GPS boxes for the Sportvision RaceFX system to provide telemetry and pointers to help identify the cars for viewers. And ESPN will use a radio replay system that can record, play back and edit radios from any of the 33 drivers.
The one-hour pre-race show will include interviews with many of the starting drivers as well as four special features, including a look at the roller-coaster year of polesitter Helio Castroneves; the special relationship between Danica Patrick and her father; the "Super Team" of Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti; and the Allure of Indy - why drivers will risk everything just to be able to compete in the Indy 500
ESPN’s veteran team returns for the Indianapolis 500 telecast. Marty Reid will call the race, with analysis by former IndyCar Series star Scott Goodyear and 1998 Indy 500 winner Eddie Cheever. Reporting from the pits will be Jack Arute, Jamie Little, Brienne Pedigo and Vince Welch while Brent Musburger hosts the telecast. Arute has covered the event for ABC every year since 1984.
Some of the most familiar names in sports television history have been a part of ABC’s Indianapolis 500 coverage over the years, including Jim McKay, Keith Jackson, Chris Schenkel, Bill Flemming, Al Michaels, Paul Page and current host Musburger.
Early in his television career, Indiana native David Letterman worked as a pit reporter for ABC in 1971, and years later the late night talk show host would win the race as a car owner in 2004 with driver Buddy Rice.
Chris Economaki was a pit reporter and analyst on ABC’s Indy 500 coverage for years, while Jackie Stewart, Bobby Unser, Sam Posey, Rodger Ward and Rusty Wallace are among those who served as driver-analysts.
Charlie Brockman, a television personality in Indianapolis at the time, was the commentator on ABC’s first coverage of the race in 1965. Brockman had previously been the lap-by-lap announcer for closed-circuit telecasts of the race that were the norm before ABC’s coverage began. The race remained part of Wide World of Sports until 1971, when it aired for the first time as a same-day, stand-alone, tape-delayed telecast in prime time.
Because Indianapolis Motor Speedway did not want the event to air live at the time, it was shown on a delayed basis until 1986. The race telecast is still blacked out in the Indianapolis area, airing later that night.
"The stewardship of ABC’s storied history at the Indianapolis 500 is something we take very seriously," said Jed Drake, ESPN senior vice president and executive producer. "The heritage of this event, and the pure excitement and spectacle of it, are what we look forward to bringing to our viewers every year."
PaddockTalk Perspective
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