Singer Blake Shelton: 'Football’s fun, but ... I am a NASCAR fan'
FORT WORTH — The take took a while. But Blake Shelton and Clint Bowyer sharing a confined space, attempting to accomplish something important, was never going to be an exercise in expediency.
“They wanted no audio, just B roll of us laughing and having fun,” Jimmie Johnson told USA TODAY Sports Thursday after exiting the gray motor coach in a parking lot at Texas Motor Speedway, where NBC Sports, returning as a broadcast partner for its second season, was filming the opening for its Sprint Cup race broadcasts that begin July 2 at the Coke Zero 400. “With Clint and Blake in the same room, it’s very easy to laugh, so they got what they needed.”
Twenty-three drivers — including the injured Tony Stewart, who is sidelined with a compression fracture in his back but was decked out in a firesuit — filed in groups through the coach that served as the backdrop of one scene, or cavorted with a small group of extras at a chic barbecue constructed outside.
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On Friday, 1,400 extras will pack a stage area just a few feet away as Shelton is filmed performing a tweaked version of the Bringing Back the Sunshine opener from 2015.
“I don’t want people to get tired of my stuff,” Shelton told USA TODAY Sports, “so we had to try and change it up a little bit.”
Exuding the unfiltered charisma that helped make him a country music star and crossover personality on The Voice, the self-described racing fan from Oklahoma seemed to be thoroughly enjoying his opportunity to mingle with drivers who have become friends.
“I am a NASCAR fan,” he said. “Football’s fun, but NASCAR ...”
Sitting on a couch in the gray coach, Xfinity Series practice droning outside and Stewart chatting across from him on an adjacent bench, Shelton seemed amused by the process as the first day of shooting wrapped.
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One of the only drawbacks, he said, was hearing his song repeatedly, as it tends to remind him of things he wishes he had changed.
“The only reason a song and a record is ever finished is because the record company goes, ‘Hey, uh, we need that now.’ Otherwise you would tweak with it forever. Same thing with the drivers,” Shelton said, gesturing toward Stewart. “I’m sure they would tink around with their guitars, I mean their cars until ... You would never race. You would constantly be messing with it.”
“We would practice until they said you’ve gotta stop,” Stewart concurred.
Such might be the case if Bowyer and Shelton end up in another scene on Friday.
“That’s probably not a good thing for Clint, as a professional, when I show up at a race because he’s already ADD, a little bit,” Shelton said with a grin. “He’s ADD a lot and when I show up. It’s just that much more of a distraction and so when we’re trying to actually make some television and Clint’s in here and I’m in here, it’s hard to be professional.”
Especially when you’re such a fan.
Follow James on Twitter @brantjames
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