On Friday, NASCAR announced a joint effort with Microsoft that will revolutionize the way races are officiated. 

The Race Management App will be used to help officiate events starting this weekend in Sonoma. The app incorporates everything from inspection to racing. Everything will now be available on one screen for race control, helping to simplify race officiating. Teams will be able to see this information. Eventually, this program will be viewed by fans. 

“We’re really excited about working with NASCAR because they really have complicated problems to solve in really three areas: operations and logistics, in competition and performance and in fan engagement,” said Microsoft’s Mike Downey, “As we looked at, over the last year working with NASCAR, all the things we could do, our major focus was how can we use technologies to create efficiencies in how NASCAR runs its races?”

With the fast pace environment of race-day officiating, NASCAR’s Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer, Steve O’Donnell, was impressed by the ability to consolidate information onto one screen.

“It allows us to be quick, see the replays, make calls and be confident in what we’re seeing,” stated O’Donnell. 

The Race Management App allows for race “recreation, which allows for critiquing of the racing product, how teams were policed, and for training purposes. 

“This is not only about being more efficient and transparent at the race track but improving each week when we go back and building our team off of this platform and kind of learning together,” O’Donnell added. 

Although NASCAR offers more realtime stats to its fans compared to other sports, they must remain vigilant in being sensitive to private information that teams use. However, the telemetry and analytics from the app will be used to create and increase fan engagement. 

“We’ve talked often about our fans being in the 41st car and experiencing everything,” O’Donnell added. “Ultimately, we still have work to do in terms of getting data out from the race track to the fans. But the great news for us is no other sport has more data to be able to compile and get out and especially with the younger generation and racing technology. For us, it’s about getting as much data out to the fans knowing that there are some things that the teams need to be proprietary. Those are the discussions we’re having right now with Microsoft and the race teams. What can we get out to the fans and what should we keep proprietary that would effect competition?”

Caleb Whisler
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