Former Team Penske Crew Chief Revealed Why He Took the Darrell Waltrip Road Over His NASCAR Day Job

Anyone who has tuned into SiriusXM NASCAR Radio is familiar with the voice of Todd Gordon. Though plenty of people have wondered why he quit working his NASCAR day job to take the Darrell Waltrip road.

Well, turns out he has a good reason for it.

Gordon worked as Joey Logano’s crew chief till 2018 at Team Penske, then moved over to the #12 car of Ryan Blaney. He was a man the entire garage was pretty familiar with, so when he quit his role there, everyone was left wondering. But the crew chief found his perfect fit at the SiriusXM radio, and away from the fast-paced environment of a Cup Series garage. But Gordon had a very simple, 5-word voice in his head that made him take the new role.

“I said, ‘I see myself working in media,’” Gordon declared in an interview with Racer.

Seems like the former crew chief found his calling. He further added, “One of the things I felt I made an effort at since 2016 is the radio side of things (doing weekly live hits on SiriusXM) and trying to be more engaged with the fan base and trying to help the fan base.”

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Of course, there is more to it though. Mainly, he wanted to give back to the fans of NASCAR, a sport that works for its fans.

Todd Gordon wanted to give back to the NASCAR fans

Beyond just finding his calling, he had another big reason for the new role, and that was to help the fans. After hearing their cheers for years and gaining all the support to go out every weekend and do what he does, he wanted to give back. And he felt like it was time for him to help some of his fans out. And an enormous driving force for him was to educate them.

Logano’s former crew chief emphasized, “Our sport isn’t anything if we don’t have a fan base, and I always felt we owed it to our fan base to try to educate and try to let them see more of what our sport because there is so much behind the scenes the average fan will never see or understand how we race.”

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It’s incredible to see the passion and love for the sport coming from Todd Gordon. But if anything, we should expect that from the crew chief that has taken Logano to his first-ever Cup Series title. Additionally, he was a key player in bringing Ryan Blaney to his current form at Team Penske. Clearly, we have someone with serious experience and skill in the booth and we couldn’t ask for anymore.