New NASCAR Production Facility Is Delivering the Goods for New Media Rights Deal

• NASCAR’s new facility houses three studios as well as a production room equivalent to an at-track TV production trailer.

• In addition to NASCAR Productions, the new building houses NASCAR Studios and Motor Racing Network.

• All of the Xfinity Series shows airing on the CW Network for seven years beginning in 2025 will be produced in the new $53 million facility.

A NASCAR channel isn’t on the horizon, but NASCAR’s new state-of-the-art, 58,000-square-foot production facility in Concord, N.C., will be home to many of the live and streaming shows seen by fans when NASCAR’s new $7.7 billion media rights contract begins in 2025.

All of the Xfinity Series shows airing on the CW Network for seven years beginning in 2025 will be produced in the new $53 million facility. Production responsibilities under the new media rights contract have yet to be determined for the Cup and Craftsman Truck Series, says Brian Herbst, NASCAR senior vice president media and productions.

Under the current TV contract which goes through 2024, NASCAR produces the Truck Series races for FOX and FS1 and the broadcasters call the events from a studio in Charlotte.

NASCAR’s new facility houses three studios as well as a production room equivalent to an at-track TV production trailer. There is also a room for NASCAR race control personnel and one where broadcasters can call a race without having to travel to the track. This will be used during the Jan. 27-28 Rolex 24 with the race commentary coming from the Concord facility.

“Everything you see inside (the building) goes to support the broadcast partners, but it’s also designed to support Monday through Thursday content, NASCAR.com, NASCAR digital, anything else that’s going to come up in the future,” Herbst says. “Part of the reason that this facility is based in Concord, North Carolina, is to be closer to the teams and all the teams’ shops. We (also) wanted to be positioned for our media rights discussions because we expected to have new entrants into the space that we would need to do more production work for.”

In addition to NASCAR Productions, the new building houses NASCAR Studios and Motor Racing Network. The largest studio is 1,500 square feet and can accommodate a race car. The other two studios are 1,200 and 400 square feet. The building also has eight control rooms, four audio control rooms, four announce booths, eight edit suites, and two audio sweetening rooms.

While NASCAR will keep some employees in Charlotte, 144 will move to the new Concord facility that is within walking distance of the NASCAR Research and Development Center.

“All of the old production technology that we have that’s currently in our building in downtown Charlotte is 14 years old,” Herbst says. “We refreshed all of that as a part of this move. It does allow us to do a little bit more from a live event perspective. Amazon bought the Garage 56 documentary (NASCAR’s 2023 Le Mans project). We’re working with words and pictures on the Netflix documentary, so I would expect to see more of that in the years ahead.”

Herbst says there is the “potential” for non-racing content to be produced in the facility.

“I would say that this building is going to be very, very busy from Friday until Sunday, every single week from February to November,” Herbst says. “That means there’s a lot of space, control rooms, edit suites, remote booths that are open from Monday through Thursday.

"So, are we open for business for non-motorsports entities? For sure.”