Larry McReynolds Unfurls Being a Part of NASCAR Division Into Fox & NBC

Published 11/26/2023, 3:52 PM EST

When Dale Earnhardt Sr took his maiden Daytona 500 win in 1998 amid much fanfare and anticipation, one man stood in the pits with a smile: The crew chief turned broadcast analyst, Larry McReynolds. Beginning his career in 1975, he has spent the last several decades in various roles. But perhaps, he will be best remembered for his stint in the boxes of Fox Sports. When McReynolds dropped his toolbox to take up the mic for Fox Sports in 2001, it was to join a legendary team that included Darrell Waltrip and Mike Joy.

The trio were a combination who would change NASCAR for what it was, over the next 15 years. In a recent conversation with former racer Kenny Wallace, he talks about this exact conjuncture where he diverted his car towards the “road not traveled”.

Larry McReynolds talks about one of the most important phone calls of his life

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Months after Larry McReynolds led Dale Earnhardt Sr to the Daytona 500 victory lane, NASCAR made an announcement that shifted the sport to a new landscape. The television networks Fox Sports, NBC and TBS had made a $400 million deal with the promotion that would give them the rights to televise NASCAR races for the next six years. The deal was effective from the 2001 season and was termed in a manner that let Fox broadcast races for the first half of a season, and NBC, for the second.

Talking to Kenny Wallace about his life during that period, McReynolds narrated how his career changed for the better in the wake of that announcement. Detailing about the whole development, he said, “I remember it like yesterday, Kenny. I was in the body shop in the #31 shop of Richard Childress Racing. We were working on our Daytona Car. I was in there with a fabricator and a body man, covered in Bondo dust from head to toe. And they paged me on the phone.”

Mentioning how he heard a gentleman with an Australian accent speaking to him, he revealed that the call was from none other than David Hill, then-chairman of Fox Sports. McReynolds then narrated what was said to him, “We just kind of wanted to plant the seed to see if you would have a conversation with us a bit about becoming our crew chief analyst. We’ve hired Darrell Waltrip already as our driver analyst. We’ve watched some tapes of some stuff you’ve done and we like what we see. We’d like to have a conversation.’

Over the next decade and a half, McReynolds would call races and serve as an analyst on Fox’s pre-race shows of the Cup Series and the Xfinity Series. He would also be a part of the NASCAR Race Hub, a daily NASCAR news program. All the accomplishments that came his way after that phone call from Hill would end with him being conferred with the Ray Fox Memorial Award at the Living Legends Of Auto Racing Banquet this year.

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The Xfinity Series audition that ended in Larry McReynolds taking up the mic

Continuing to talk about how Hill had wanted to know if he would be open to having a talk about joining Fox, McReynolds narrated his initial speechlessness and subsequent agreement. The reason behind Hill wanting the crew chief to join a broadcast team out of the blue was a well-calculated move. Though he was a crew chief at the core, McReynolds, as he himself reveals, had done some pit reporting between 1995 and 2000 for TBS. It was after being impressed with his words during one of those sessions that Hill made the call to the Richard Childress Racing body shop.

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Transitioning your career from guiding Dale Earnhardt Sr to becoming a wordsmith on national television is quite the change. Regardless, McReynolds had made the decision to give it a shot by going to Fox’s “kind-of” audition in an Xfinity Series race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway. Impressing the executives further along with Darrell Waltrip who had also been a part of this setup, he was given the choice to accept the new role at Fox Sports should he want it.

“It was a long process, Kenny,” Larry says. “It was the toughest decision I’ve ever had to make in my life. The good thing is they were not offering me any more money. Which, I thought was good I could slide that factor aside and make the decision based on what’s really best for me and really best for my family.”

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Two decades after he made that decision, McReynolds currently resides in Mooresville, North Carolina. He can today be heard on SiriusXM NASCAR alongside Daniel Trotta. He also continues his association with Fox Sports as a sports analyst. Who would have thought that the birth of NASCAR’s new television partners would set in motion the creation of one of the most loved television personalities?

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Written by:

Hello, there! Though my affinity for racing originally stemmed from the European circuits of Formula 1 as a teen, I unexpectedly found myself drawn to NASCAR's unparalleled excitement growing up. This sport took hold of me and never let go, leading me to a career as a NASCAR writer. Over the last few months, I?ve had the chance to share my insights and observations through a myriad of articles on EssentiallySports.

Edited by:

Abhishek Ramesh

Larry McReynolds Unfurls Being a Part of NASCAR Division Into Fox & NBC

Larry McReynolds talks about one of the most important phone calls of his life

The Xfinity Series audition that ended in Larry McReynolds taking up the mic

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