NASCAR uses DJI Inspire 2 drone to indicate lane choose area

The NASCAR dirt track race on Sunday at Bristol Motor Speedway marked the first time drivers were allowed to pick a lane on a dirt restart. And giving a rather high-tech twist to the whole process was a drone hovering above the racing surface, carrying a bright orange LED marker to indicate the “choose” area.

NASCAR typically has a choose “V” shape painted just beyond the start-finish line on a track, signifying where drivers should line up before a restart. But that would have been near impossible to implement on Bristol’s dirt surface. Meanwhile, a drone sitting above the track surface is pretty hard to miss.

Jesse Little, NASCAR’s senior coordinator of competition operations, explains that people across multiple departments, including broadcasting and productions, were involved in the brainstorming session that led to the debut of the “Choose Drone.”

“The question that was thrown to the group was, hey, we’re choosing everywhere now, that includes dirt. Can’t paint on the track. We don’t want anybody running out there. We don’t want anyone on pit road that would in the event, retrieve something from the racetrack. So what do we do?” Little tells NASCAR.com. “What can be seen during the day? What can be seen at night? What is visible to drivers? What will be visible to spotters, fans, and TV?”

Using a drone was suggested by Tim Bermann, senior director of competition operations. And the team soon zeroed in on DJI Inspire 2, which is a powerful, professional drone with a host of sense-and-avoid safety features. Interestingly, DJI is expected to release a new, more robust version of this drone, Inspire 3, on April 13.

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“I think so far it’s been received very well,” notes Little.

Two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Joey Logano agrees. Here’s Logano:

There are a lot of times, in almost all the races, where the choose box on the race track is really, really hard to see. Especially if you come up to it and there’s a car in front of you or if the track is really flat and not banked, you can’t see the choose area. [The drone] really pops out, you know exactly where it is, and it worked out pretty well. Might want to do it everywhere.

Here’s how the drone looks hovering above the track:

Little is quick to clarify there are no plans at present to implement the choose drone elsewhere but adds that NASCAR will welcome feedback regarding the process. “It’s pretty fun to know that we, as NASCAR, are going to be one of the first [motorsports sanctioning bodies] around the nation to fully officiate with the drone. So we’ll certainly take what we learned from this week in a way and see what happens.”

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