Whereas hundreds of thousands of followers see races unfold from the grandstands or their residing rooms, Kyle McKinney watches them with a unique function.
“I joke that I receives a commission to look at races,” McKinney mentioned. “However you are watching with function. You are intently following each lap, each place and the whole lot that is occurring all through the sector.”
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As NASCAR’s chief scorer, McKinney leads the division chargeable for timing and scoring throughout the NASCAR Cup Sequence, NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Components Sequence, NASCAR Craftsman Truck Sequence and ARCA Menards Sequence. His group tracks each lap, place and end all through every race weekend, combining digital knowledge, digicam footage and human overview to find out official outcomes.
For McKinney, the trail to turning into considered one of NASCAR’s key behind-the-scenes officers began as a fan.
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Corey Heim wins NASCAR Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway
NASCAR Cup Sequence driver Corey Heim (67) celebrates Sunday, July 26, 2026, after successful the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
(Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch)
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Corey Heim wins NASCAR Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway
NASCAR Cup Sequence driver Corey Heim (67) celebrates Sunday, July 26, 2026, after successful the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
(Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch)
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Corey Heim wins NASCAR Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway
NASCAR Cup Sequence driver Corey Heim (67) celebrates Sunday, July 26, 2026, after successful the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
(Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch)
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Corey Heim wins NASCAR Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway
NASCAR Cup Sequence driver Corey Heim (67) crosses the Yard of Bricks on Sunday, July 26, 2026, to win the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
(Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch)
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Corey Heim wins NASCAR Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway
NASCAR Cup Sequence driver Denny Hamlin (11), entrance middle, leaves his pit field forward of NASCAR Cup Sequence driver Corey Heim (67), left, Sunday, July 26, 2026 through the NASCAR Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Ind.
(Doug McSchooler/for IndyStar)
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Corey Heim wins NASCAR Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway
NASCAR Cup Sequence driver Corey Heim (67) watches {qualifications} on pit street on Saturday, July 25, 2026, throughout qualifying for the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
(Grace Hollars/IndyStar)
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Corey Heim wins NASCAR Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway
NASCAR Cup Sequence driver Corey Heim (67) makes a pit cease Sunday, July 26, 2026, through the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
(Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch)
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Corey Heim wins NASCAR Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway
NASCAR Cup Sequence driver Denny Hamlin (11), proper, works to remain forward of NASCAR Cup Sequence driver Corey Heim (67), left, as they depart pit street Sunday, July 26, 2026 through the NASCAR Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Speedway, Ind.
(Doug McSchooler/for IndyStar)
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Corey Heim wins NASCAR Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway
NASCAR Cup Sequence driver Corey Heim (67) makes a pit cease Sunday, July 26, 2026, through the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
(Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch)
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Corey Heim wins NASCAR Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway
NASCAR Cup Sequence driver Corey Heim (67) leans towards his automotive Saturday, July 25, 2026, throughout qualifying for the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
(Grace Hollars/IndyStar)
McKinney’s connection to racing started lengthy earlier than he labored inside NASCAR. Rising up in Rockville, Indiana, he spent weekends on the observe together with his father and grandfather, growing an appreciation for the game that will ultimately grow to be his profession.
When NASCAR introduced the inaugural Brickyard 400 to Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1994, McKinney was there as a teen. He has attended each Brickyard 400, both as a fan or as a part of NASCAR’s competitors group.
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“I would be the man at college watching the race on Sunday in my dorm or house,” McKinney mentioned.
After graduating from Purdue College with a communications diploma, McKinney moved to North Carolina hoping to construct a profession in motorsports. He initially thought that will come by advertising or public relations, however his first alternatives got here by the operational facet of racing.
A buddy who helped run Charlotte’s Grime Monitor requested McKinney to assist with no matter was wanted — preserving observe of automobiles, working the scoreboard, portray college buses for novelty races and serving to put together the ability.
“It was a 25 bucks-a-day sort factor,” McKinney mentioned. “It was meaningless pay, nevertheless it was loads of good expertise too, simply studying the enterprise facet and the operations facet of a racetrack.”
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These early experiences confirmed McKinney that timing and scoring matched the way in which he seen racing. Folks observed his potential to comply with races and preserve observe of the sector with out counting on know-how.
That spotlight to element ultimately opened the door to NASCAR.
“I feel it is the paying consideration,” McKinney mentioned. “Actually paying consideration and having to attract on the foundations and procedures of placing on a race that I do not suppose the informal fan understands.”
At this time, timing and scoring is considered one of NASCAR’s most vital behind-the-scenes operations, however the work begins lengthy earlier than drivers take the inexperienced flag.
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McKinney and his group spend race week getting ready scoring methods, race-control know-how and the information wanted to trace the sector. The operation usually contains 14 to fifteen folks every weekend, with a number of working behind the scenes to handle the tools, cameras and methods that help official outcomes.
By the point automobiles hit the observe, a lot of that preparation is already full.
“There’s loads of clerical involvement that I’ve to do earlier than a race,” McKinney mentioned. “You then sit down, you truly sort of do the race and it is sort of the enjoyable half to some extent as a result of that is what you’ve got been working 5 days for.”
As soon as the race begins, the preparation offers approach to full focus.
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“Race-wise, it’s three hours of being honed in,” McKinney mentioned. “After I watch a race, I am following the chief nonstop.”
That focus is important as a result of each scoring resolution — from lap counts and restarts to shut finishes — will depend on precisely monitoring the chief and the sector behind them.
The way in which NASCAR tracks races has modified considerably since McKinney joined the game full-time in 2003. What as soon as relied totally on a single timing loop on the start-finish line has developed into a way more superior system involving a number of timing loops across the observe, digital transponders, pit street monitoring and finish-line cameras.
However McKinney mentioned know-how has not changed the human judgment wanted to interpret the knowledge.
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“It is a device, not the end-all, be-all,” he mentioned. “There nonetheless must be the human factor verifying all of it.”
That stability turns into particularly vital throughout shut finishes, when NASCAR critiques a number of sources of knowledge earlier than making an official ruling. Whereas know-how can present the information rapidly, McKinney and his group are chargeable for ensuring that info is correct earlier than the outcome turns into official.
After greater than twenty years in NASCAR Competitors, McKinney has watched the game evolve from a small operation with just a few computer systems and tools circumstances right into a extremely technical system constructed round superior know-how and a devoted group.
However his connection to racing has by no means been simply skilled.
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Each time he returns to Indianapolis Motor Speedway, McKinney will get a reminder of why he fell in love with racing within the first place.
“It is nonetheless fairly neat,” McKinney mentioned. “They tease me about it being my Disneyland or no matter else. It is simply fairly cool, the historical past of the place.”
McKinney’s identify won’t ever seem on a leaderboard. However each official outcome carries the work of the group he leads.
So what does he hope folks bear in mind about his time as NASCAR’s chief scorer?
“That I did not screw it up,” McKinney mentioned with fun.
After greater than twenty years within the function, that reply captures McKinney’s method to the job: adapt, put together and depart NASCAR’s timing and scoring operation in a greater place than he discovered it.
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Jessica Garcete is an IndyStar sports activities reporter. Get IndyStar’s motor sports activities protection despatched on to your inbox with our Motor Sports activities publication. Subscribe to theYouTube channel IndyStar TV: IndyCar for a behind-the-scenes have a look at IndyCar and skilled evaluation.
