“The first event I ever announced was a women’s gymnastics meet at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln,” said Rick Allen, lead announcer for NASCAR on NBC. “The guy who was supposed to do it didn’t show up. And I just happened to be hanging around, so I did it.”
As the then-reigning back-to-back Big Eight (now Big 12) Conference decathlon champion for the Cornhuskers, as Allen was in 1991 and 1992, why wouldn’t you be hanging around the women’s gymnastics team? If charisma was a sport, he’d still be leading the league.
Allen’s affable, smooth, confident tone on the air transitions just as easily outside of the booth to the confines of the NBC Sports tent where we talked about his job as the voice of NBC Sports’ rejuvenated NASCAR franchise.
“Nothing about this position is easy, but I am privileged and very excited to be here.”
He joined Fox Sports in 2003 and served as play-by-play man for Camping World Truck Series and Xfinity races until last year. Former NASCAR driver Jeff Burton and former crew chief Steve Letarte join Allen in the booth.
“NASCAR is seen as a guilty pleasure by a lot of people. We’ve all heard the jokes about endlessly turning left. But there is so much more to it. We want to explain and explore the strategy. Think about it in terms of football. If you run the ball on first and second down, you’re setting up a downfield pass on third down to the tight end. There is every bit as much strategy in NASCAR.”
To some people, Alexis DeJoria is the wife of Moster Garage star Jesse James. To others, she is the daughter of Jean-Paul DeJoria, billionaire businessman and co-founder of Paul Mitchell hair products and the Patron Spirits Company. But on the NHRA Mello Yello circuit, Alexis DeJoria is one of the most successful Funny Car drivers on the tour.
We spent two days with Alexis and her team from Kalitta Motorsports at the Kansas Nationals at Heartland Park in Topeka, Kansas, and inadvertently found ourselves in the middle of the most exciting weekend in the history of the sport.
In this video, Alexis talks about how her car accelerates faster than anything on earth (yes, even a fighter jet), how she got into racing, and her career-defining victory in the 2014 NHRA U.S. Nationals, it’s 60th anniversary, a feat akin to winning the Super Bowl.
The day before we arrived in Topeka, during the second day of qualifying, DeJoria ran the best run of her career, an Elapsed Time (ET) of 3.994. ET is the time it takes from the car to get from the starting line to finish line.
Inadvertently, the above shirtless NASCAR fan, with a canister of what we can safely assume is “Purple Drank,” a southern beverage of choice, dangling from his loins, summed up the entire three-day NET10 Wireless NASCAR event.
NET10 — with no contracts, plans starting at $40 a month for unlimited service, and over 100,000 locations — doesn’t care about your past relationships with previous cell phone service carriers. All NET10 cares about is you and your freedom.
As America’s largest no-contract cell phone provider, they are all about keeping you #FreedForSpeed to enjoy the most sexually progressive cell phone relationship you’ve ever had in your life. #NSA.
Bullz-Eye spent three days in Charlotte, North Carolina and immersed our senses in the intricacies of both NASCAR and the #FreedForSpeed lifestyle of NET10 Wireless. It was the fastest three days we’ve ever experienced.
I have never been a NASCAR fan. For a guy who loves sports, I knew more about curling than I did NASCAR. I could never understand why watching cars making hundreds of laps was so popular.
Then I attended the 2014 Daytona 500 in Jacksonville, Florida courtesy of Lowe’s and my life changed. I’m not ashamed to admit I’ve watched each of the ensuing races in Phoenix and Las Vegas, intently. We interviewed 21-year old rookie Kyle Larson since then and my respect for him, and the sport, is through the roof.
The highlight of the trip? Meeting six-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion and Lowe’s driver Jimmie Johnson.
Prior to meeting Jimmie Johnson, I had no frame of reference for his level of success or how historically dominant he has been working alongside Crew Chief Chad Knaus.
It was only after someone aptly explained that Knaus is the Bill Belichick to Johnson’s Tom Brady (though they’ve been twice as successful in terms of championships) did I realize how much they’d accomplished as a team. Here’s Jimmie and I, laughing about our favorite recipes:
Read about the full experience here.
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What were you doing when you were 21 years old? For NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Kyle Larson, the answer is driving the #42 Target Chevrolet, going head to head with NASCAR legends like Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Tony Stewart.
“Being only 21-years old, I get to race against a lot of guys who have been racing since I was a toddler,” said Larson regarding his rookie season. “It’s neat to race those guys, especially Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart. It’s going to be a lot of fun, but hopefully I can beat them.”
Larson made his Sprint Cup Series debut in last week’s Daytona 500 and was slowed early on, finishing 38th. But he followed that up with a 20th place finish at Phoenix this past weekend.
A rookie hasn’t won a Sprint Cup race since Joey Logano in 2009. Then again, no rookie has been hailed by both Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart as a can’t-miss prospect.
The Elk Grove, California native has gone from being a local driver to a Sprint Cup driver in just two and a half years.
