The project was hush-hush. It had enough secrecy around it at ESPN to even warrant a code name. The technology the network was working on to allow viewers to see how NASCAR drivers draft off each other was called "Bob Dylan," because, as one producer put it, it was "Blowing in the Wind."

The real name is "Draft Track" and the gadget will make its debut Sunday during ESPN's return to NASCAR Nextel Cup racing, the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard from Indianapolis at 10 a.m.

Draft Track is a special effects package developed by SportVision — the people who came up with the "1st and Ten" first-down line for televised football — that will allow viewers to see the airflow created by the race cars.

The draft effect — which at least at first will be shown only on replays — looks like pastel-colored smoke or heat waves trailing behind the cars. Viewers will see how a driver trailing a car can use the draft to lock himself behind it and actually use that air to maintain his speed and save on fuel.

If it works the way ESPN believes it will, Draft Track should go a long way to helping viewers understand a concept that heretofore could only be described verbally.

"As a driver you can feel it," said Rusty Wallace, former NASCAR star and now an analyst for ESPN. "You can feel what it does when you're side by side, you can feel what it does when you're behind each other and you can feel what it's supposed to do. I know what it's supposed to do and what it feels like. The story is letting the viewers see it.

"It would take me forever to explain everything to a viewer about what air does to a car. It was once said that Dale Earnhardt could see the air; he just had a hunch and good understanding of how he could move his car around the car in front of him and the car behind him to get the best benefit. He was really good at predicting things. Now this is going to help the viewers actually see what we (as drivers) already know."

For ESPN senior vice president and executive producer Jed Drake, the whole challenge is to make the invisible visible.

"We continue to be fascinated with showing viewers things that you cannot see," Drake said, "the line of scrimmage in football, the strike zone in baseball. Draft Track brings to life for the viewer an element of NASCAR racing that has been a much discussed but unseen part of the sport for decades."

ESPN is in the middle of showing 66 hours of NASCAR coverage this week building up to its return to Cup racing. ESPN2 will show the Busch Series Kroger 200 at 5 p.m. Saturday. ESPN's coverage Sunday starts with the pre-race "NASCAR Countdown" show.

Joining Wallace in the booth will be lead announcer Jerry Punch and analyst Andy Petree.

— Jim Carlisle is a staff writer for The Star. E-mail address: jcarlisle@VenturaCountyStar.com.