Gophers On FOX

(From The USA Today -- By Michael Hiestand)

On Sunday, FOX for the first time will plant cameras in the track at a DAYTONA 500.

The four so-called GOPHER CAMS, says FOX's DAVID HILL, will also get their own animated scrambling gopher to pop up onscreen to alert viewers.

But don't bother writing protest letters to FOX -- Hill hastens to add "no gophers will be harmed in the actual production."

Buried cameras, meant to shoot up, have been put in basketball courts, football fields, baseball diamonds, in ski-jump ramps -- and on NASCAR tracks.

But FOX's GOPHER CAMS, located inches inside the yellow boundary line, will be high-def and wired for sound.

With a lens less than a half-inch in diameter, they'll have a protective cover rising less than a quarter-inch above the track surface.

Overall, FOX will use at least 77 cameras Sunday, including 24 manned cameras.

Also Sunday, FOX will debut a new theme song, NASCAR LOVE, whose lyrics include a "love" for "when they're making lots and lots of noise."

Romantic.