Why NASCAR’s Most Powerful Voices Are Now Behind the Mic, Not the Wheel

“I want to share with the fans what might be going on inside of that helmet, inside of that car. I want to ask the drivers, before, after, maybe away from the track.” Carl Edwards’ words about his expectations surrounding his Amazon Prime role summed up his dedication to it. A 28-time Cup Series race winner who finished runner-up twice in the championship run, a person like Edwards would know a NASCAR event inside out the best.

That is the philosophy that Amazon Prime, a newcomer to NASCAR, and other media partners have espoused. Besides the veteran media personnel in their midst, the ex-NASCAR legends probably make for the most influential voices in the sport. Read on to know more!

NASCAR’s elite dominate on and off-track

The usual names in NASCAR’s media include many veterans. For instance, they are Jamie Little, Fox Sports star pit reporter, Mike Joy, the most popular play-by-play announcer since 2001, or Leigh Diffey, who captivates fans with his voice on NBC. Besides these esteemed individuals, however, the sport also hosts ex-NASCAR drivers. Jeff Gordon, a four-time Cup Series champion holding 93 Cup Series victories, let go of the wheel and took up the microphone in 2016. From 1992 to 2016, he won several crown jewel races like 5 Brickyard 400s – and he used that wealth of experience for his broadcasting duties.

Besides dedicating practical knowledge of the racetrack, Jeff Gordon also gave the best possible angles due to his brilliant resume. The current Hendrick Motorsports veteran is hardly alone in this endeavor. Dale Earnhardt Jr is also an evergreen legend who has stunned fans in the car and the booth. Between 2000 and 2017, Dale Jr fetched 26 Cup race wins and 15 Most Popular Driver awards. After that, he became a fan-favorite in the booth, coming up with iconic phrases like ‘Slide Job’ during the 2018 Chicagoland race. After a year’s gap in 2024, Dale Jr. came back for a play-by-play role with Amazon Prime.

Evidently, NASCAR’s superstars make the best commentators in the sport’s booth. What is more, they take their broadcasting comments off-sport as well, as Dale Jr. did this year. Being attached to the sport for most of their lives, the transition into the booth is what keeps these drivers ticking. Yeah, they can have partial or short racing stints like Harvick has joined a late model program with Rackley Ware Racing, and then there is Dale Jr., who makes those one-off Xfinity starts a year. Well, if there is an exception to this case, it has to be Tony Stewart, at 54, he is still competing for championships and wins in NHRA Top Fuel, but even he has experienced what it was like to be a NASCAR broadcaster.

Top Comment by Truman Lewis

No, to full of his self and not a good announcer.

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Working for a fun sport

Most are accustomed to Dale Earnhardt Jr. wheeling a 180 MPH NASCAR stock car. However, you probably have not seen him around a Red Bull box cart race, have you? In March 2025, Dale Jr. was announced as the new American voice for the peculiar race featuring handmade crafts with four wheels, a steering rack, and a frame. Gravity does most of the work of powering the car through the course studded with obstacles. The teams feature amateurs who further embellish their crafts with catchy designs and names. A race can have anywhere between 30 and 50 carts, and only a dozen might make the cut for the TV show.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. commuted to a studio in suburban Charlotte, North Carolina, to record commentary for each episode. He had Mike Bagley, a beloved NASCAR radio voice, for company. Jr. thoroughly enjoyed showing the race to his daughters, Isla and Nicole. He said, “I showed them some of the YouTube stuff from the older races. They loved seeing the accidents and the goofy-looking builds. That’s probably personally my favorite thing about this whole deal, showing my girls.” The 50-year-old racing legend also admitted a desire to enter a race himself. He said, “I would absolutely be down for entering a race. One of the things I think would be cool is walking around the paddock. It’d be a lot of fun to see the ingenuity, creativity and just how people interpreted the rules.”

Many of NASCAR’s legends have found purpose beyond the racetrack and in the booth. That is what keeps the love of many fans for the sport alive. While the likes of Harvick and Dale Jr. are great additions, Darrell Waltrip stands in a league of his own. Boogity, boogity, boogity still rings as fresh as it did in the 2000s, and thus shows how former greats can influence that sport, beyond their racing careers.