1987 Winston 500

Network: ESPN

Date and time: May 3, 1987, 1:00 PM

Format: Live

Length: 4 and a half hours (Scheduled for 3 and a half hours)

Viewership: 5.7 million viewers

The race was broadcast live on ESPN, as part of their ESPN Speedworld series of auto racing broadcasts.

The satellite feed of the race came online slightly before the coverage started, at 12:50 PM. For these opening ten minutes, communications with drivers were set up over shots of the cars on pit road, followed by a run-through of the intro segment and commentator introductions.

The race was marred by a crash on lap 22 involving Bobby Allison that damaged the catchfencing, causing a red-flag on lap 23, lasting 2 hours and 38 minutes. ESPN filled time with various interviews and updates about the situation, as well as showing brief highlights of the previous day's Permatex 500k ARCA race. At around 2:00 PM, half an hour into the red flag, ESPN left for other programming, including that week's edition of SpeedWeek. They came back to Talladega at around 3:45 PM (though the satellite feed came on slightly earlier, showing the repairs on Darrell Waltrip's car), and stayed on through the end. Running well past the planned 4:30 PM sign-off time, it pre-empted coverage of the Grand Prix of San Marino, SportsCenter Sunday, and Major League's Greatest Hits. The coverage finally signed off at 7:00 PM. The satellite feed continued for an additional two minutes, showing more of the victory lane celebration, and a "GOODNIGHT ESPN FROM TALLADEGA" message over a still shot of a Goodyear tire (from a Goodyear sponsorship tag).

Despite the extensive delays, the 5.7 million viewers the race drew made it the highest watched motorsport event in ESPN history, according to The Greenville News.

Personnel:

Announcers: Bob Jenkins, Larry Nuber

Pit reporters: Jerry Punch, Dick Berggren