CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Jeff Gordon thought his wife, a former model, was kidding when she asked the NASCAR Hall of Famer to color her graying roots. He realized she was serious after the third request, FaceTimed her regular stylist and took a crash course in mixing dyes.
“Those are the types of things we do when we are in quarantine,” Gordon said Wednesday. “There are things that you do to keep the glue together, to keep everybody healthy and sane. So if having gray hair stresses her out, then I am happy to contribute.”
The adjustments will continue Sunday when NASCAR resumes its 2020 schedule at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina. Gordon, now in his fifth season as part of the Fox Sports broadcast team, will not be at the track. He and Mike Joy will call the race from a studio in Charlotte, and Regan Smith will be the only at-track reporter for the broadcast team, working in the pits. Larry McReynolds, an analyst, will also work from the Charlotte studio.
NASCAR is limiting the number of people at the track to only those essential to compete and broadcast the Cup Series race, so Fox will have a dramatically reduced roster and use a high-speed custom-built drone that can offer more perspectives than usual because fans won’t be in the stands. The Fox team is still finalizing its approach, but it expects to use instant messaging with crews to glean the critical information Gordon and Joy need to properly call a race.
The duo have spent the past two months calling iRacing events from a studio, so they have some experience with broadcasting remotely. Still, they will be winging some things as they adapt to watching the race on monitors instead of describing what’s unfolding right in front of them at the track.