Fox’s broadcast of NASCAR’s Daytona 500 Sunday rolled out the “driver’s eye” camera, the ostensible replacement to the helmet camera.
The new angle is designed to give viewers a look at what the driver is seeing at eye level, rather than inches higher. However, some viewers were confused about why some parts of the camera were blurred out.
The answer, put simply, is to protect proprietary information for the drivers. Every team’s cockpit is going to look different, so the pixels are being used to protect the information being projected on the dashboard.
While it may look a tad strange, it is a good representation of what a driver is seeing on the track.
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Driver’s Eye looking much better today! #Daytona500 pic.twitter.com/MDYFxT7LxN
— Mattzel89 (@Mattzel89) February 19, 2023
Clint Bowyer confirmed the purpose of the blur.
That’s the new drivers eye cam. Awesome stuff. You’ll see more of that convo later in the week. Blur is respect to teams all having proprietary info. I think you’re going to dig it. https://t.co/m9vu11kN2c
— Clint Bowyer (@ClintBowyer) February 17, 2023
Some NASCAR fans, however, took issue with the scope of the blur as an inelegant solution.
I don’t dig seeing a blurred race track. The blurring is more than just the dash. A step backwards for in car shots.
— Ryan Kintz (@jnayr17) February 17, 2023
Lol F1 doesn’t even blur those displays. And they are leaps and bounds ahead of nascar in technology. So nah…
— Jake Fluman (@jake_fluman) February 18, 2023
So they blur dashboards on NASCAR in-car cameras? Come on…no other series does this. What’s so secret? What does knowing how many revs someone is pulling going to tell competitors?
— Martin Pinnau (@martinpinnau) February 19, 2023
#Nascar needs to get rid of the visor cam. I get why they blur the dash out, but it’s so distracting. #DaytonaDuels
— 𝘔𝘢𝘺𝘩𝘦𝘮 (@MayhemMero) February 17, 2023
Bowyer did acknowledge it as a work in progress.
Y’all figured out the camera deal yet? 😂.
Someone asked me what it was. I thought I answered from what I knew about it. First stab wasn’t great. Great is what y’all want. I bet they figure out how to land on great. 🤷♂️
— Clint Bowyer (@ClintBowyer) February 17, 2023
As with any new broadcast trick, it’s clearly a polarizing rollout. But NASCAR and Fox are likely beholden to their actual drivers, in some way. If they don’t want that information getting out, it stands to reason there’s a purpose behind the discretion.