Where did you grow up? How did you get the interest in NASCAR?
"I grew up in Chicago. I spent my entire time up until high school there. I went to Arizona State University to study broadcasting and communications. I had known I wanted to be in the NASCAR industry since probably middle school. I got a pretty early start. It was me and a couple of buddies going around; we were 12 and 13 years old, interviewing people in the garage area at the track, like we had no right to be there whatsoever. My Dad knew that wasn't necessarily the right way to go about it, but no one's going to yell at a kid so I had been in the industry for a while and I had a path that I knew I wanted to go down and to eventually move to Charlotte. Dirty Mo Media actually wasn't on my radar until I talked with Mike Davis. It was at the Daytona 500 when we sat down before the race. It was me, him and my Dad. We talked about what it would look like if I came to Dirty Mo Media. There wasn't really a role for me at the time. I didn't want to be a podcast producer, but we kind of formulated a way for me to fit in here and they offered me a job as soon as I graduated, and it was a role I could not refuse. I graduated and moved here in February. I started the very next day, and my first show, which was Door Bumper Clear —that was the next Monday. So I moved here on a Thursday. The first day of work was Friday, and then the first show Door Bumper Clear was Monday. It was wild."
So where did the passion start for just racing in general?
"Early on, my dad took me to my first race in 2010 at Chicagoland Speedway, and before that, he'd always watched it on TV and I never understood why he liked watching it. (laughs) Like, how is this entertaining? Then I went to my first race, and I remember specifically, we left about halfway through the race cause he wanted to beat traffic. He was going back the next day. I'm like, are you kidding me? Why do we need to leave? We were in the infield, we did the whole tailgating experience, and I was hooked; this is so cool. And, I haven't looked back since."
Are you a goal-driven person when it comes to stuff you want to accomplish? Do you kind of have a path that you see yourself going on?
"I think that changed somewhat when I got to Dirty Mo Media because the goal is always to get a job in the industry, and that was my goal for so long, and then once I actually got in, there was a period of time where I was thinking what do I do now? I just do the job you know, and now that I've been here for a little bit over a year, there's definitely goals. I want the Dale Jr. Download this year to continue to grow. We took on a brand new format, working with Dale, the goal is to just get that show to be the best it can be by the end of the year and going into next year. I love the on-camera stuff. I love doing stuff with people, with fans, with drivers capturing their stories, so to continue to find out what that looks like here is definitely what I want to see through."
I love that, you’ve definitely have seen growth with Dirty Mo Media since the podcasts have started. I think that the fun, quirky stuff really gets fans to interact with the drivers and sport.
"That is how I got started in the sport. When I was that little kid running around, those were the types of questions that we were asking. And it's amazing, the respect you get from the drivers and from other media personalities because like you're asking the different questions, and they remember that. Everyone's going to ask, how's your car this weekend, right? And sometimes that's the important question, that’s the story you're following, but I love the human interest stuff. I feel like it can connect a fan to a driver, you know. For example, I interviewed Jeff Gordon years ago and I found out he scuba dives and I scuba dive and he scuba dives at the same place that I frequently go to Grand Caymon and I'm like, wow, that's crazy. Like we share this connection that I didn't know and it made me a bigger Jeff Gordon fan. So I feel like, especially now, with personalities and the Netflix show, they are so important to grow the sport. I like to bring that out of people, and I think it's important."
What is your biggest struggle in life right now?
"Right now is just finding a balance for everything. I mean, I love the job, but it can be intense at times. It can be long days and a lot of prep, and I wouldn't trade that for anything but I have other goals outside of just work. I'm big into the triathlon scene, and I'm going to be training for my next Iron Man 70.3, which is coming up in October. It's like, oh, man, I need to find time aside to train for that and then just time to relax and spend time on my personal life and stuff like that. It's finding a balance for all that right now. Which, you know, means if I have to get up early, wake up at 5:30 in the morning before a podcast day go for a swim and then come to work and then do a full day's work podcasting, maybe that's what I have to do, but that's probably the biggest thing is finding that balance."
So, you just said next triathlon. Have you done a full Iron Man?
“Not a full. I've done 2 halfs and I'm training for my third, which will be in October. We talked about that work life balance — that is like a full-time job training for a full (laughs). So that's a back pocket thing. But I have to do one eventually, no doubt.”
What is a proud moment in your life that has shaped you into the person you are today?
"It's not one specific moment, but my favorite thing to go back to is that I got started with my Dad being my camera guy and he was, up until I started at Dirty Mo Media. It was the two of us as the team, and obviously, when I started working here, we're like, well, dang, we just were at the Phoenix championship race a few years ago. That was our last race. And what's been really awesome is, I'll be going to Chicago. And I went to Daytona, and there are certain races where he'll still go to, and he knows so many people in the industry, and we'll be able to do it again together, just like the old days. I think it's just unique because you don't really see that type of thing carry on for a father and son. And so anytime we're able to share a weekend together, it’s amazing."
I love you and your Dad started this as a team.
"He's just my camera guy. That was it. He has some friends he made when he used to work at the Chicago Bulls. So he had some friends or coworkers that went from the Bulls to NASCAR, and knew some folks there and he was able to kind of help make some connections back when we were just first trying to get a conversation with NASCAR to get media credentials. But yeah, we've kind of networked and gotten to know a lot of the people in the media world just together, working through it over the years, which is awesome, cause now every time I go to the race track and he's not there, everyone like, hey, how's your Dad doing? Where is he at? When's his next race? "
10 years from now, what are you aiming to accomplish in this career?
"That's a good question. I don't know. I like what I'm doing here, and you see a lot of people who have been here for so long. I could certainly see myself still here; I don't know in what capacity that would look like; obviously at least for me, the goal has always been to do some sort of TV coverage, whether it be on pit road or kind of like what a Marty Smith does or what a Rutledgewood did. I'd love to continue to chase that, but I don't know. TV is changing, so fast with what that format looks like. It's finding some sort of fit like that would be interesting just to continue to tell those human interest stories, and you know, I love just getting people's stories and having a chance to get to know something that I would like to do."