I don’t know how many of our readers have been to a race (I’m hoping most if not all have), but if you are an inexperienced race fan, let me offer a tip: get a scanner at the track. Whether you rent one trackside, or decide to purchase your own, you will not be disappointed. And I’m not just talking about using it at Cup races. Bring it to Nationwide, Truck Series, ARCA, Hooters, and any other series that has radio traffic going on during the race.
With just a little bit of research, you can find out the scanner frequencies of most drivers’ radios and tune your scanner to them. If you rent one, most will come pre-programmed. Sitting in the stands is great, don’t get me wrong, but if you really want to know what’s going on, scanners will allow you to be right there with the driver and the team. You will be able to hear everything we hear. A word of warning though, things can get heated during the race, and the language isn’t always PG. Its something to think about if you have kids listening in.
Scanners give you the ability to hear eveything from setup and pit calls from the crew chief, to the spotters guiding their drivers. I promise you will also hear some radio traffic that will make you laugh out loud.
Having been a crew member for a while now, my radio is a necessity, and something I think a lot of us take for granted. When I’m getting suited up, its automatic to grab my radio out of the cabinet and plug my earmolds in. We need them to be able to communicate in the pits and they have become vital to coordinating the team.
Besides the teams and the fans, you will also see the various media people listening in during the race. Everyone from the TV and radio folks, to the writers and photographers will be wired for sound.
Here are a few links to some sites where you get more information:
Racing Electronics
Racing Radios
Frequency Fan Club
Race-Scan
Sprint FanView
For those of you that are apart of the scanner club, feel free to use the comment section of this post to share any interesting or funny stories about radio traffic you’ve heard.
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on Jul 29th, 2008 at 10:55 am
The most interesting thing to me is how poor the technical feedback is from many drivers.
on Jul 29th, 2008 at 11:24 am
I was at Texas a couple of years ago when Greg Biffle’s girlfriend attacked Kurt Busch’s girlfriend in the garage. We were given a pretty good play by play on the scanner.
on Jul 29th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
I attended the Bank of America 500 last October and was afforded the privilege of renting Fan Scan.
My favorite driver to listen to is Tony Stewart. He has a colorful vocabulary. I listened to him berate his crew all night for lousy pit stops.
on Jul 30th, 2008 at 11:35 am
Back in the day, at a night race at Bristol, Jimmy Spencer was driving for Travis Carter. They had several bad pit stops and Jimmy was not a happy camper. Among some thing i will not repeat, Jimmy told them the next time he came donw pit road he was running over all of their butts. The next 2 times they pitted the crew would not come off the wall till Spencer stopped in the pit stall. After that he said he was sorry and they went back to the norm!!! I was listning and sitting in the stands right in front of their pits. Jimmy was alway the funniest to listen to!!
on Aug 2nd, 2008 at 3:30 pm
I listen to my driver’s (Labonte) scanner on trackpass each Sunday and does make a difference. You do get a real feel for how the car is handling and the strategy on pit stops. You also get to see/hear a side of your driver that you probably won’t see in interviews. I feel lost the times Bobby’s scanner has not been working or like last week when they had to change frequencies because some dork hacked in to the frequency and started yelling at him and talking over his & Jeff’s pit stop conversations.