Allen Bestwick is more than a one-off specialist with the Verizon IndyCar Series, but the veteran motorsports broadcaster had some catching up to do last month at ISM Raceway during the Phoenix open test.

Bestwick, Scott Goodyear and Eddie Cheever will be back in the ABC booth to call the 2018 season opener, the Firestone Grand Prix of St. Petersburg, on March 11 (12:30 p.m. ET). Rick DeBruhl and Jon Beekhuis will cover action in the pits.

It will be their first broadcast together in nine months, since ABC aired the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear doubleheader weekend a week after the Indianapolis 500. The Phoenix test on Feb. 9-10 offered a necessary preseason refresher for Bestwick.

“To get out here and talk face-to-face about cars, people, everything that’s going on and what they’re getting ready to do just gives us that much more of an advance on our preparation before we get to St. Pete,” Bestwick said. “Because when you get to the first race weekend of the year, the first TV weekend of the year, everybody’s running around – to borrow a Rusty Wallace phrase – with their hair on fire trying to get organized.”

There’s a lot to digest for the 2018 opener. The new-look car with its universal aero kit has changed how the cars drive. New teams and rookie drivers have joined the series, veteran drivers switched teams and there’s the enthusiasm throughout the paddock that everyone feels before the first race of the year.

Bestwick and Goodyear roved the garage area and pit lane during the test, often together, to talk with drivers, crews and officials.

“I have a philosophy about being a part of a team that the late Benny Parsons put into my head when I was first hired to go to work with Benny,” Bestwick said of previous years when he called NASCAR races. “He told me, ‘The way this works best on the air is if we’re really great friends off the air.’ I believe in that.”

Bestwick, Goodyear and Cheever have tried to follow Parsons’ advice on their INDYCAR telecasts.

“I told Scott and Eddie that same thing four years ago,” Bestwick said. “They’re great friends and we spend a lot of time together and we talk racing. I know what makes them tick, they know what makes me tick. I know what their strengths are, they know what my weaknesses are.”

The synergy is important throughout a telecast, especially when an incident occurs and they must describe, as a team, a serious situation as it unfolds. It happened during Sebastien Bourdais’ qualifying crash last year at Indianapolis Motor Speedway when the three detailed the frightening moment and its aftermath – Bestwick to call the crash as it happened, then Goodyear and Cheever to add their expertise as former drivers during the minutes that followed.

“Part of covering any event, but auto racing in particular, is being prepared to deal with difficult situations because the reality is, they can occur,” Bestwick said. “We have meetings before races and I always say to our crew, especially if we have newer, younger members of our team, ‘What’s your job in a tough situation?’

“We talk about it and we think about it, and when it happens you’re putting all of those discussions in play. You’re reacting like human beings, but you also have a job to do at that point. Everybody has to do their job. Scott and Eddie have lived through those experiences. They’ve each hit the wall at ungodly speeds. Their job is to understand how to convey that. My job is to understand the big picture and be sure to lead our team in the right way.”

It’s important to get the little details right as well during a telecast. That’s why Bestwick spent so much time at the ISM Raceway test talking with anyone from veterans Tony Kanaan and Charlie Kimball to rookie Matheus “Matt” Leist.

“I spoke directly to Matheus and asked, ‘How do you pronounce your name?’” Bestwick said. “It’s LAY-st. That’s how he wants it pronounced. I’m trying to get to know them.

“There are people in different places this season. ‘Tony Kanaan, you’ve changed teams. What has the process been?’

“Ed Jones changed teams. ‘How have you been doing? Track time is really limited in this series; what have you been doing to integrate with the team?’

“Charlie Kimball had a pretty traumatic offseason (with the California wildfires causing extensive damage to his family’s property). ‘How is your family?’”

The broadcasters must learn more about the 2018 car and how that may change its performance from previous years.

“We ask, ‘What is St. Pete going to be like with this car? What should we be paying attention to? What should I be paying attention to the most?’” Bestwick said. “We’re looking at anything and everything so we know where to focus our team when we get to St. Pete.”

ABC is once again carrying five of the first eight Verizon IndyCar Series races this season. Following St. Pete, it will air the INDYCAR Grand Prix from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course on May 12, the 102nd Indianapolis 500 presented by PennGrade Motor Oil on May 27 and the Detroit doubleheader on June 2-3. This year marks the 54th consecutive year that ABC is televising the Indy 500.