Jamie Little has been connected to the motorsports world for 25 years. She started with dirt bike tracks and worked her way up through ESPN, ABC, and then Fox Sports. It was at the latter where she became the first full-time female play-by-play announcer in the motorsports industry.

But for a large part of the motorsports fan base, both the question and the answer have often been built around the fact that she’s a woman. So, Little took to a recent episode of Kenny Wallace Media with host John Roberts to tackle that assumption head-on.

Female NASCAR Broadcaster on Silencing 25 Years of Noise

“I’ve never been one of those, ‘Put me in because I’m female. Put me in because I want to be first,’” she said. “Long-term hard work—that’s what happens.”

Little grew up in South Lake Tahoe and fell in love with motorsports when she was five. Her father gave her a ride on a dirt bike once, and that’s where it all started. She then made her way to San Diego State University, and as a student, she approached ESPN and became an announcer at a motocross race. Her question was simple: how to break into the industry.

That conversation led to her covering local desert races and eventually earning a spot on Motorworld, ESPN’s motorcycle news program from 1998 to 2000. By 2004, Little was on pit road at the Indianapolis 500, the first woman to do so on a national television broadcast. In 2007, she joined ESPN’s NASCAR coverage team, and in 2008, she won the Toyota Pro Celebrity Race, outdriving racer Mike Skinner.

Soon after, in 2021, she became the first woman to be the lead play-by-play announcer for a national motorsports series, calling ARCA Menards Series races for Fox. By 2023, that expanded to covering the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series.

“I 100% knew I was the right person for the job. And I was the one that was next in line for the opportunity, for no other reason other than how hard I worked and how long I’ve been here,” she said on the podcast. “Hell, I mean, it took me 20 years. You look at all these other men—how many years did it take before they were given an opportunity to do play-by-play? Not as long as me.”

Roberts told her on the podcast that when Fox made the announcement, his first thought was not that she was the most qualified woman—it was that she was the most qualified person. To that, Little expressed a simple goal: “The only thing I’ve ever wanted people to look at me as is good at my job, the hardest worker, and someone they can trust. That’s all I’ve ever wanted.”

Addressing critics directly, she added, “People are looking at me, and it’s going to be tough. There’s going to be critics, and there’s a hell of a lot of them out there in the world of social media. Am I up for the task? Hell yeah, I’m up for the task.” However, for Little, the broadcast booth is only one part of what she’s building.

Little’s Other Full-Time Interests

In 2012, Jamie Little and her husband, Cody Selman, opened their first Jimmy John’s franchise. The business was run by Cody while Jamie traveled for race weekends. They later expanded across Las Vegas and Indianapolis, also adding three Nothing Bundt Cakes bakeries after relocating to Indianapolis in 2017.

More recently, by late 2025, they sold all of these franchises and are now opening a protein bar kitchen and Crave locations in the Indianapolis area. Their concept is shifting from traditional food franchises to more health-focused ventures.

Beyond business, there is also Shelter Surprise. It began as a personal project in 2017 and has now grown into a full-scale campaign. On NASCAR race weekends, Little visits a local animal shelter to highlight animals that have been waiting the longest for adoption—typically those in the system for over 90 days.

As of early 2026, the initiative has raised over $1.3 million in direct donations, with brand partners like Blue Buffalo and Kroger contributing between $10,000 and $15,000 per stop.

The project was inspired by her rescue dog, Stella, who passed away in 2024. Driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr. honored Stella by carrying her name on his car for a milestone weekend.