Many longtime NASCAR viewers know who Dick Berggren, PhD, is. He’s been a color commentator and pit reporter in NASCAR broadcasting for many years.

Dick has encountered and interacted with many legendary drivers over his career, but one that particularly stands out is Dale Earnhardt Sr.

As many NASCAR fans know, Dale liked an excellent prank and would never hesitate to pull one when he could.

It all started at Daytona International Speedway at 2001 Daytona Speedweeks when Dick Berggren was a pit reporter for, at the time, new NASCAR broadcast partner Fox Sports. The pressure was on all of the hires FOX made for their NASCAR broadcast teams to make sure they made a great first impression.

During practice and qualifying laps of the 2001 Daytona 500, A pit producer at FOX Sports wanted Dick Berggren to try to get an interview with Earnhardt right after he finished his practice and qualifying laps.

When Dick saw Earnhardt was done with his laps and out of his car, Dick noticed and tried to tell the producer at FOX we couldn’t get him, yet he was with his team and discussing strategy.

Once Berggren talked to the producer, there were better times to talk to Earnhardt and to wait. The producer said,” We need Earnhardt; get him now.”

Berggren would later say, “he’ll be done discussing with his team in a moment, then I’ll go over there and interview him.”

Berggren started to walk over to Earnhardt now that Earnhardt had stopped talking with his team. Berggren would ask when he went up to him and ask him for the interview.

Earnhardt would then pull a prank and say,” Not now, can’t talk.”

Once Berggren heard that, he thought nothing would come out of it.

Then, a short second later, Earnhardt turned him around and then said loudly,” How about now!”

Once the interview happened, Dick knew Earnhardt pulled one on him, and Dick would later realize that would be the final interview he ever would have with Dale Earnhardt before he died tragically at the Daytona 500 later that week.

It was for sure a classic Dale Earnhardt story many, including Dick, will remember for a long time.

If you are a longtime NASCAR fan, you have probably heard of NASCAR on FOX Sports Lead Announcer Mike Joy. He has been on the call for many of the most memorable moments in NASCAR history, like Dale Earnhardt winning the 1998 Daytona 500 after 20 years of trying and 20 years of frustration.

During my junior year at Benedictine College, I spoke to Mike Joy, the current voice of NASCAR on FOX Sports and many other networks over the past almost 50 years, on my QDOG Sports Network podcast over Zoom.

During the conversation, we discussed the evolution of NASCAR broadcasting on TV, where the sport stands today in terms of growth and overall popularity, and how Joy got started in NASCAR broadcasting.

“ I got started doing public address at local racetracks while I was about your age, while I was still in college, and managed to turn that into working five nights a week all around the northeast,” Joy said.

His announcing at those local tracks later caught the attention of the Motor Racing Network in Daytona Beach, Florida. They hired him as a full-time broadcast director and a turn (play-by-play) announcer in 1977, and later, he would get the radio anchor position for the radio network.

“I also tried other ventures in the automotive field and helped run the radio network as an announcer or pit reporter, well, until television beckoned in about 1983 or so,” said Joy.

During his stint at the Motor Racing Network (MRN), Joy worked with a well-known team of announcers and analysts, including Barney Hall, Eli Gold, and Jerry Punch, a longtime NASCAR pit reporter and medical doctor who later became a sports reporter for ESPN.

After 1983, Joy would work for various major networks as a pit reporter and full-race announcer for NASCAR races. Not until after the 1997 NASCAR season ended would Joy get his big break in the industry for big network primetime NASCAR race broadcasting. This breakout in the NASCAR industry started when legendary former NASCAR lead announcer for CBS Sports, Ken Squier, moved from the lead announcer role to pre- and post-race studio host for the network’s NASCAR Cup Series coverage, and Joy was named lead NASCAR race Announcer for CBS.

List of radio or television Networks Mike Joy has broadcast motorsports and NASCAR races for:

1. Motor Racing Network (Radio Network) or MRN

2. CBS Sports

3. TNN (The Nashville Network), now known as Paramount Network

4. ESPN for the 1981 Atlanta Journal 500

5. FOX Sports (2001-present)

6. Turner Sports/TBS Network as a pre-race show host

Advice Joy would give to future motorsports or sports broadcasters

When I asked Joy for advice for a future sportscaster or broadcaster, Joy referred back to a quote attributed to Larry King and Mark Twain: “ I never learned anything when I was talking; listening is an art.”

He means that in broadcasting, silence is okay occasionally, and listening is essential because these things can help you learn more about the sport or news event you are covering. When you listen and let things happen as they will, you will gain more knowledge or learn something you never knew before.

Another key piece of advice Joy gave during the conversation is that live sports on television is not radio with pictures. Sometimes you just gotta let the action of the sport or motorsports, and what’s happening in the moment, do the talking. Viewers of sports on television can see most of what is going on live at the event themselves and don’t need to be told what’s happening with the whole team.

“As a pit reporter, you must take your comments and compress them into relatively brief reports, so you don’t step on the action or stray too far from it. What’s happening on the field or on the track, while in the anchor’s seat, you are responsible for the viewers’ understanding of the race or action as it unfolds which means integrating pit reports and getting your analysts involved both in detail and in overview and sometimes reset the telecast so those that are just starting to watch at the time or recently tuned back in know what they missed”, he said.

He talked about how you don’t want viewers to tune into the race from another channel and have lingering questions about what’s happening now in the NASCAR race or other live sports television broadcasts.

Joy on the Evolutions of NASCAR Broadcasting from when he started to Today’s NASCAR broadcasts

“When I was doing radio in the early 80s, as well as my time announcing live races for TNN (now Paramount Network), to pit reporting for CBS Sports, there was no live race scoring given to the booth or to the home, “Joy said.

In the 1980s and early to mid-90s, NASCAR still used manual scoring to track drivers’ positions on the leaderboard for live race coverage. Each driver was given a different scorer with a clipboard. The media and broadcast teams would receive updates on leaders to share with viewers or listeners every 10 laps.

This manual score tracking happened every time a driver and their race car passed by the scoring stand during the race, and the scorer was supposed to write the time, lap leader numbers, and other stats on a grid paper to send to the booth.

Car numbers would be on the back of each driver’s scoring paper on those clipboards, and the NASCAR chief scorer would write down the order in which the scoring clipboards were held up. That’s how the manual scoring was handled.

Both radio and television had to deal with this, as did the chyron machine that made the fonts people saw on their news or sports broadcasts at the top or bottom of their screens; it was also manually operated.

The chyron machine was mostly used back in the day as the NASCAR race broadcast was heading into an ad break.

“So when the broadcast director said we are ready for a break, the chyron machine operator would put up the font of the top first few leaders of the race with the driver’s name and car number at the time before the ad break would start,” said Joy.

“Sometimes the operator would get three and sometimes more, and when the operator heard the chyron ready, they would put up the summary chyron leaderboard over the video of the race broadcast as the network was heading to break, and that’s all the scoring that would be given until the end of the race,” he said.

Once tech evolved and NASCAR started using GPS, which was invented by the military, scoring became much easier for everybody involved, so computers were making the fonts for broadcasts and digital scoring. The digital scoring era, which is still happening today, began in 2004 when Nextel became the Cup Series entitlement sponsor, a role they held until 2008, when Sprint bought out Nextel. They then renewed with NASCAR under the Sprint Cup name, not Nextel branding, which lasted from 2008 to 2016.

My Final Thoughts on the Conversation, one year after it was uploaded

Having this recorded Zoom video conversation with Joy was one I’ll always remember, like many of the other video interviews I have done since I started QDOG Sports Network and Podcast. I always enjoy watching him broadcast and call NASCAR races on FOX Sports. Watching him on TV on FOX and FS1 (which used to be the Speed Channel) is what got me into NASCAR in the first place back in my younger years.

When someone asks me what my dream job is or whose job I’d love to have someday, it would have to be the lead announcer for the NASCAR Cup Series on FOX Sports, the job he has.

Thank you, statement to Mike Joy from me:

“Thanks for the amazing conversation you had with me on my small network and coming on my show via Zoom, even though my show isn’t the biggest one out there, since I’m working on audience growth today. Your advice has stuck with me still to this day. Thanks for all you do for NASCAR/Motorsports broadcasting and the way you present the sport nationwide on TV and across the mass media spectrum.”

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — From blue collar to blue jacket.

That’s a turn of phrase coined by Kurt Busch, but it could apply equally to the three newest inductees to the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

Drivers Busch, Harry Gant and the late Ray Hendrick, all of whom emerged from relative obscurity to reach the pinnacle of their profession, entered the Hall as the Class of 2026 during Friday night’s induction ceremonies at the Charlotte Convention Center.

Busch and Gant were elected via the Modern Era Ballot by the NASCAR Hall of Fame Voting Panel. Hendrick was chosen from five Pioneer Ballot nominees.

Also honored on Friday were legendary promoter H.A. “Humpy” Wheeler with the Landmark Award for Outstanding Contributions to NASCAR and veteran reporter Deb Williams with the Squier-Hall Award for Media Excellence.

“From blue collar to blue jacket”—the blazer awarded to each inductee into the Hall of Fame—was Busch’s description at a pre-induction party of his meteoric journey from a hobby racer who worked on his father’s cars in his native Las Vegas to a championship in the NASCAR Cup Series, stock car racing’s foremost division.

After winning the Southwest Tour championship in 1999, Busch graduated to the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series through team owner Jack Roush’s “Gong Show” audition for prospective drivers.

In 2000, his only full season in trucks, Busch won four times, claimed Rookie of the Year honors and finished second in the series standings behind teammate Greg Biffle. By mid-season, Roush already had earmarked him for a full-time Cup Series ride.

Busch struggled during first season and finished 27th in the standings, but a year later he rocketed to third in the final rankings after winning at Bristol, Martinsville, Atlanta and Homestead-Miami.

Two years later, Busch won the first Cup championship contested under the 10-race Chase format, despite a freak occurrence in the decisive season finale at Homestead, when his right front tire broke loose from his No. 97 Ford as the car approached pit road.

Busch rallied to finish fifth and wrapped the title by eight points over NASCAR Hall of Famer Jimmie Johnson.

Busch, 47, went on win 34 Cup Series events, tied with Martin Truex Jr. for 26th all-time. His resume includes a victory in the 2017 Daytona 500 and a rare sweep of the NASCAR All-Star Race and Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway in 2010.

The final inductee of the evening, Busch received his Hall of Fame ring from brother Kyle Busch. With 97 victories between them, Kurt and Kyle boast more Cup victories than any other pair of brothers in NASCAR history.

“To be here with the alumni of the NASCAR Hall of Fame, NASCAR executives, the voting panel, team owners, sponsors, my family and friends, and the thousands of fans who are watching tonight, this is something I never could have imagined,” Kurt Busch said.

Busch offered special thanks for the support of his parents, Tom and Gaye Busch, and those who encouraged him during his early racing days.

“I was just a blue-collar kid from Las Vegas, with a dream to be a racer,” Busch said. “Thank you, Mom and Dad, for all the support through the years. The work ethic that you instilled in me, and the village of people around me in Las Vegas… you guys were always there to help me out, both on and off the track. Love ya.”

Busch scored his last Cup victory at Kansas Speedway in 2022 in a 23XI Racing Toyota Camry, making him the only driver to win at NASCAR’s highest level for four different manufacturers—Ford, Chevrolet, Dodge and Toyota.

Busch’s versatility as a driver was on full display in 2014, when he finished sixth in a one-off appearance in the Indianapolis 500 before flying to Charlotte to compete in the Coca-Cola 600 on the same day.

Like Busch, Gant got his start racing hobby cars, in his case on the old dirt track at Hickory Motor Speedway.

Unlike Busch, Gant got a late start in NASCAR’s premier division, running his first Cup race for owner Junie Donlavey in 1973 at age 33. It wasn’t until 1979 that Gant decided to sell his construction business and commit to NASCAR racing full-time.

Gant holds two “age” records in NASCAR’s top division. He is the oldest driver ever to win a Cup race, a feat he accomplished at age 52 years, 219 days on Aug. 16,1992 at Michigan. Gant also is the oldest driver to win his first Cup race; he was 42 years, 105 days old when he took his first checkered flag on April 25, 1982 at Martinsville.

Gant is most famous, however, for the streak that earned him the nickname “Mr. September.” Driving the No. 33 Skoal Bandit, which carried him to all 18 of his Cup victories, Gant won consecutive races at Darlington, Richmond, Dover and Martinsville in September of 1991.

In addition to his success in NASCAR’s premier division, Gant also won 21 events in what is now the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series.

For his accomplishments, Gant was named one of NASCAR’s 75 Greatest Drivers in 2023.

“Thank you to NASCAR, and the France family, for giving us a Hall of Fame like this and giving us a place to make a living,” Gant said after receiving his Hall of Fame ring from Kyle Petty.

“And thank you to the fans. I owe this to them. I hear from a lot of fans that they voted for me for the Hall of Fame. I thought I’d get in eventually, but I’m proud of everybody that voted for me.”

A prolific racer and prolific winner, Ray Hendrick was a driver who would compete “anywhere and everywhere”—everywhere, that is, where there was prize money at stake.

In a career that spanned nearly 40 years, Hendrick won 44.4 percent of his starts and finished in the top-five in four of every five races he entered. At the conclusion of his career in the late 1980s, Hendrick had more than 700 wins to his credit in modified and late model sportsman divisions, having earned the moniker “Mr. Modified.”

Winner of 20 races at Martinsville alone—including a sweep of a modified and late model sportsman event on the same day—the Richmond, Va., native, named one of NASCAR’s 75 Greatest Drivers, succumbed to cancer in 1990 at age 61.

Though Ray Hendrick and NASCAR Hall of Fame car owner Rick Hendrick are not related by blood, Rick Hendrick was inspired as a teenager in the 1960s while watching Ray Hendrick’s “Flying 11” modified car dominate races in Virginia.

“On behalf of the Hendrick family, we are proud to be here tonight to honor our father, ‘Mr. Modified’ Ray Hendrick,” said Ronnie Hendrick, Ray Hendrick’s son, after receiving the Hall of Fame ring from the inductee’s grandsons, Chuck Hendrick and Ray Hendrick III.

“We would like to thank NASCAR, the NASCAR Hall of Fame and everybody who voted to have him inducted into the Hall of Fame tonight. We also want to thank all of the fans for their support.

“I’m not so sure Ray realized just how many fans he had throughout the years. If our dad was here tonight, he would be so honored and thankful to be recognized among so many other great drivers.”

Wheeler, who passed away last year at age 86, was NASCAR’s first great impresario, a reputation he earned during his 33-year tenure as president and general manager of Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Wheeler’s bold, innovative and often outlandish stunts highlighted the races he promoted, notably the Coca-Cola 600 on Memorial Day weekend, which often featured armed forces maneuvers rife with explosions in the Charlotte infield.

It was Wheeler’s brainchild to bring Janet Guthrie to compete in the 1976 Coke 600 after she failed to qualify for the Indianapolis 500, and it was his vision to light the 1.5-mile track.

Wheeler’s daughters Patti Wheeler and Tracy Hardy accepted the award during Friday night’s ceremonies.

Williams, a pioneering journalist in a field that had been dominated by men, is the 14th winner of the Squier-Hall Award, named for broadcasters Ken Squier and Barney Hall.

Williams began her career at United Press International (UPI) as one of the first female NASCAR reporters and spent 18 years with Winston Cup Scene—10 of those as editor of the definitive racing magazine.

Citing the contributions of Squier and Hall, Williams said, “To me, this award is the Mt. Everest of Motorsports journalism awards. So, to receive this award tonight means I have reached the top of Mt. Everest in my profession.”

During the ceremony, NASCAR Hall of Fame executive director Winston Kelley also recognized 1960 NASCAR Cup champion Rex White and veteran driver Greg Biffle, who died in 2025.

Biffle, who was killed in a private plane crash along with his wife and two children, is the recipient of the NMPA Myers Brothers Award and the inaugural North Carolina Motorsports Association’s philanthropy award.

NASCAR is heading full steam into the future with a return to the past.

In response to growing sentiment among fans and stakeholders in the sport, the sanctioning body has opted to revive the Chase format to crown champions in its top three national series.

In the Cup Series, NASCAR’s top division, 16 drivers will qualify for a 10-race Chase based on the number of points they score during the 26-race regular season, according to the format announcement on Monday at NASCAR’s Production Facility in Concord, N.C.

Gone is the “win-and-you’re in” provision that governed qualification in the elimination Playoff format in use from 2014 through 2025. Under the Chase format, the top 16 drivers in points will compete for the series title irrespective of the number of regular-season victories they accumulate.

To provide balance and to elevate the importance of wins in the Chase format, NASCAR will award 55 points for a victory versus 40 under the elimination system. Points for all other positions, including stage points, remain the same, though Playoff points, an important element of the elimination format, are now a thing of the past.

No longer is there Regular Season Champion, but finishing first in the standings will continue to have substantial value. The points leader after 26 races will start the 10-event Chase with 2100 points, 25 more than the second-place driver and 35 more than the third-place qualifier.

From third on down, the value of each position to start the Chase declines in five-point increments, with the 16th-place driver receiving 2000 points. Under the Chase format, there are no eliminations and no single championship race to decide the title. The driver who scores the most aggregate points in the final 10 races will be crowned champion.

In the newly christened NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, 12 drivers will compete in a nine-race Chase; in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series, 10 drivers will vie for the championship over seven races. Those numbers are commensurate with the respective proportions of the schedules of those two national divisions.

Landing on the Chase format followed lengthy discussions involving owners, drivers, manufacturers, tracks, broadcast partners and fans.

NASCAR Hall of Famer Mark Martin, a vocal advocate for a full 36-race championship format, was delighted with the compromise that revived the Chase.

“I think that this is the most perfect compromise that you could ever ask for,” Martin said at the announcement. “It’s going to require our 2026 champion to be lightning fast and incredibly consistent, and that’s what we can all get behind.

“So, I’m really excited. I think it’s fantastic. I would just appeal to the race fans, all the race fans, but especially the classic fans who say to me, ‘I don’t watch anymore.’ I say we need you. Come on back. We’re headed in the right direction. Come back and join with us, and we’ll keep making progress.”

Like Martin, NASCAR president Steve O’Donnell feels the return to the Chase provides a delicate balance between those who favor a full-season points race and those who prefer a postseason playoff.

“We believe we’ve struck that balance,” O’Donnell said. “We’ve got the best of both worlds where every race matters. We’ve talked to a lot of folks in the industry. We’ve run a lot of different models and believe this is the best place to land really to get back to who we are.

“That’s the core of NASCAR… and we’re really excited about the 2026 season.”

Chase Elliott, the 2020 Cup Series champion, grew up watching drivers compete in the Chase, the system used from 2004 through 2013, and was enthralled by what he saw.

“A lot of those years of (seven-time champion) Jimmie (Johnson) dominating and the (2011) championship of Tony (Stewart) and Carl (Edwards) all during the Chase were incredible runs. I think we oftentimes forget how good we had it through all those years of Chase format.

“I think it’s a really nice compromise. I think getting a full season was going to be a pretty big challenge, and I’m not sure there’s really a better place to land than a true 10-race Chase, really similar to what we had through those years of the epic battles that we saw.”

Kyle Larson, who won his second Cup title in November at Phoenix Raceway, favors the longer format, even when it was just theoretical—and even though next year’s final race is moving to Homestead-Miami Speedway, one of his favorite tracks.

“Even though Homestead’s arguably my best track and most dominant track, I still would feel like I have a better opportunity to win a championship going off—whatever it may be—a 10-race, three-race, four-race sort of point-earning thing,” Larson said two weeks before the Chase format was announced.

“With more races, it’s a little bit more in your hands… I think what we had kind of ran its course.

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