Academics

Student races toward career in motorsports with NASCAR internship

Penn State student Morgan Giannone, right, uses her smartphone flashlight to help other members of the production team illuminate Fox Sports reporter Kaitlyn Vincie during a post-race report. Credit: Photo SubmittedAll Rights Reserved.

(Editor’s Note: This is the 11th in a series of stories about College of Communications students completing summer internships.)

A college student’s summer can pass quickly, and that was certainly the case for Morgan Giannone, a Penn State senior who spent her time building a potential career in motorsports broadcasting.

She worked from late May to early August for NASCAR Productions, the Charlotte, North Carolina-based group that creates a variety of auto racing television programming. She also worked with Fox Sports 1, which covers NASCAR races and produces live programming around the races.

“It was an experience that exceeded my expectations in every way. They helped me get experience doing a little bit of everything and I learned so much,” said Giannone, who grew up in Yardley, Pennsylvania. Her parents Glenna and Lee both attended Penn State and her father races vintage cars, which accounts for at least part of his daughter’s interest in the sport.

Last summer, as part of another internship, she worked with a race team in the Pirelli World Challenge. She handled the team’s social media accounts, distributed news releases, and worked with the media as she traveled across the country, and to Canada, for her duties.

That experience and with other motorsports connections helped her land with NASCAR Productions. Her internship was a first for the organization.

She also enjoyed several firsts during the summer, getting experience with almost every facet of the production company’s work.

“My boss, Keith D’Alessandro, set it up so I could get a real sense of all they do. He had me working with producers, with audio and video editors, with the people who do color corrections and voiceovers, logging and storing video -- everything.

“It was amazing to see how things come together for what’s produced. My ultimate goal is to be an on-air personality for motorsports, but getting a sense of production was really interesting, and kind of appealing, as well.”

Giannone’s other duties including editing videos for social media use, cutting features, working with graphics and timing on the worldwide feed of races in several NASCAR series and even completing the “scratch track” for voiceovers. “So, I did the initial voiceover to give the person who will eventually really do it a sense of pace and tone,” Giannone said.

She also cut the video for a seven-episode series that will debut later this year titled “NASCAR University.”

All of that experience came just through NASCAR Productions. With Fox Sports 1, she gained even more experience.

With FS1, Giannone helped and shadowed as the network produced episodes of “RaceDay” and “Race Hub,” pre- and post-race shows around NASCAR’s top-level Sprint Cup Series. Her efforts cutting “b-roll,” video that accompanies an on-screen story to provide context, were productive as well. What she did often ended up on the shows.

“It was a very different experience working on live TV vs. long-term production,” she said. “They kind of just threw me in there.”

She got to experience the normal hours (meaning long and sometimes unpredictable) of those who work in live television production and the abundance of abnormal and unexpected things that comprise a broadcast. There’s a hefty dose of good planning as well as some old-fashioned, high-tech ingenuity.

One of the many summer highlights was a working trip to Daytona International Speedway, following the Fox Sports on-air talent. She also met a Penn State alumnus, “Race Hub” producer Greg Cacali.

“I traveled with the production team and the talent from Thursday to Sunday. Along with the behind scenes things there was an interview with Dale Earnhardt Jr., and just watching people like Danielle Totta, Adam Alexander, Kenny Wallace and producer Kelly Hambleton do their jobs is impressive,” Giannone said. “It was fast paced, and after the race they do a show called ‘Victory Lane.’ They basically run from driver to driver trying to get news and reaction.”

When reporter Kaitlyn Vincie was in the midst of a stand-up report after the race and the lighting was poor, Giannone joined the others around her improvised -- with everyone turning on their smartphone flashlights to help make the shot work.

“If you didn't’ know any better, it looked pretty good,” Giannone said. “And that was pretty cool.”

The internship served to further spark Giannone’s career passion, and she was already driven.

Along with a full credit load this fall, she’ll continue her work on campus with the Lion Ambassadors (she’s the group’s director of communications) and with ComRadio, the internet-based, student-driven station housed in the College of Communications. She’s a co-production manager for the station that produces daily news and sports talk programming as well as coverage of many Penn State varsity sports.

“Another big part of the internship was how well it complemented what I’ve done in class and at Penn State,” she said. “There were certainly a lot of things about the internship that could not be done on campus, but there were also a lot of things that I’ve learned in class or with ComRadio that made the transition into the internship easier.”

Morgan Giannone Credit: Photo SubmittedAll Rights Reserved.

Last Updated June 2, 2021