North Central grad living dream, from calling Indy 500 to first Brickyard 400 on TV. 'So lucky'

Indianapolis Star

25-07-2025

Before he found himself preparing for his first Brickyard 400 call from a national broadcast TV booth this weekend, Adam Alexander in part broke into the racing world calling Indianapolis 500s on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio network nearly a quarter-century ago.
This weekend, a winding road through the motorsports media space brings Alexander back to IMS as the lead-anchor in TNT's NASCAR Cup series broadcast booth for Sunday's Brickyard 400, along with similar duties working with The CW on their NASCAR Xfinity series broadcasts. After growing up in Indianapolis and going to high school at North Central, Alexander studied broadcasting at Vincennes University and worked his way to a local sports TV gig in Evansville, where through an otherwise innocuous assignment to launch a racing-themed radio show, Alexander began getting asked to work the PA at local tracks.
That work led to an interview and a job with Motor Racing Network in 2000 covering NASCAR, and by happenstance, his first shot to help cover the Indy 500. Over the next decade, he'd work for SPEED, TNT and eventually Fox Sports, where he spent more than a decade in various roles including calling play-by-play for NASCAR Trucks and Xfinity series races and hosting a NASCAR-related podcast; NASCAR Race Hub, the network's old daily NASCAR news TV show; and Fox's Cup series pre-race broadcasts up until this past year.
Earlier this week, Alexander spoke with IndyStar about his circuitous return to IMS, the importance and joy of this weekend for him and his interest in ever calling an Indianapolis 500 on TV. That interview, which has been edited and condensed for clarity, is below.
Nathan Brown, IndyStar motorsports insider: Does the opportunity to call a race at IMS have any additional importance to you, give the way your career in motorsports radio and TV took off after your with the IMS Radio Network calling the Indianapolis 500?
Adam Alexander, TNT NASCAR Cup series lead-announcer: "I would say its just a full-circle moment for me getting to come home to Indianapolis and really bigger picture all the broadcasting I've done began in Indianapolis when I was in high school at North Central and working at WJEL radio 35 years ago. When I was a senior in high school, we actually did a simulated Indianapolis 500 where we were in our production studio and just acted as if we're calling the race. Thinking about doing races at Indianapolis was a dream for all of us when we were in high school. To be able to come back not just to Indy and where it began from a motorsports standpoint and being able to do the Indianapolis 500 on radio, but really where my broadcasting career got started. It's really full-circle for me."
NB: You got a chance to call Cup series races for TNT for five years (from 2010-14), but this is your first Brickyard 400 in the TV booth in your career. As an Indy native, did you ever think this opportunity would come?
AA: "No way I would've ever thought I would be in this position. It's funny. My dad, we were not big NASCAR fans when I was growing up. We were more stick-and-ball and of course followed the 500 cause we were in Indy. As you know, you just can't escape it when you're there in the Month of May, it's just such a big deal. And so when we started to hear that NASCAR was coming to Indianapolis, our interest was piqued as sports fans, and then Jeff Gordon goes out and wins the first Brickyard 400, and that really made my dad a Jeff Gordon fan.
"And so with that, that was really a big moment for me because I was working in local TV at the time in Evansville, and there was another layer of a local connection to NASCAR when you were doing sports in the state of Indiana, so that just laid such a foundation on my thoughts on NASCAR and my connection to the sport. Even though I wasn't working in it, you just felt like it was a bigger deal, and to see the way the crowd and the fans responded in Indianapolis at that time to NASCAR, it obviously took off, and now to be able to go back and call a Brickyard 400, it's really a special moment for me and something I never would've been able to imagine when I started in the mid-90s."
NB: Your media career began in local TV. How did you break into the racing world in 2000?
AA: "I was working in local TV doing University of Evansville basketball games on the radio, and we were doing the 'Jim Crews Radio Show.' He was the head basketball coach at Evansville at the time, and someone at the station put together a racing show concept that was very similar to our coach's show, and he said 'I'll have you host this.' And we kinda joked about it, and a few weeks later he calls and says, 'Are you ready to go?' and I'm like 'I'm not sure I'm ready for this.'
"But we started doing this local show, and once I started doing that, I started using that time interviewing local drivers, I'd get those interviews and put them on TV, and so I just kinda became the local TV guy doing racing in Evansville, and then I started to have local tracks call and ask if I was interested in coming out, and eventually I started doing track announcing at Tri-State Speedway, and that was when I really got into calling races, and I saw that there was a path in my career beyond local TV.
"It was through my time there and some of my connections in local radio that I got set up with an audition with MRN Radio. I auditioned with MRN about 25 years ago to the day in St. Louis, and they hired me and I did a couple Truck races at the end of 2000, and it was when I was doing a Truck race in Texas that was partnered with IndyCar that I ran into Mike King who at the time was the voice of IMS Radio, and when he found out I was working for MRN Radio, he said 'You're an Indiana guy. You ought to come do radio for the Indianapolis 500.' And so that's what really set all of that up."
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NB: You'll be in the booth for both major NASCAR races this weekend at IMS, calling play-by-play for the Xfinity series with The CW and then the Cup race with TNT. You've been doing that all summer long, but what's that been like to juggle?
AA: "I would say the challenges are dual. The one challenge is doing two series and the prep that comes with that, and the other challenge is doing it with two different networks, and I've had tremendous support both from TNT and the folks at The CW and NASCAR productions in making sure the schedules align and I'm where I need to be and have the info I need to have and all that to make it all work, but it just makes for really busy weeks.
"But I would say that the greatest asset for me in this whole process is the people you're surrounded with, and (TNT booth mates) Dale (Earnhardt Jr.), Steve (Letarte) and I in that Cup booth have very much taken the approach of 'Let's be three guys watching a race together,' and when you have that approach, it really takes the pressure off, because you can do as much prep as you want, but the reality is once the green flag goes in the air, you're just talking about the race, and that really has been a refreshing thought process from them. It's always really been my take going in, but that really helps with those Sunday shows, and the Saturday shows we've had guest analysts most every week, and so it's either been (The CW booth mates) Parker Kligerman or Jamie McMurray and myself and a Cup driver. That's not going to be the case this weekend; it'll just be the three of us together, but by bringing in a Cup driver, it changes that process cause they've not been part of the preparation all week, and so you go into the Saturday show very much with that mentality of, 'Let's just watch the race and talk about what we're seeing.' You can make it sound really difficult, but at the end of the day, simplifying it is the best way to handle it, and I also believe that's the best path to a great broadcast."
NB: You were heavily involved in Fox's NASCAR coverage for years, but it's been more than a decade since you've been calling Cup races in the TV booth. What's it been like to be back doing that during this 10-race stretch with Amazon and TNT?
AA: "It's been really great experience for me. The Turner folks are the same people I worked with from 2010 to 2014, and a lot of the faces there are the same as when I left. Those relationships really never went away, and it's interesting all that came back around, because I'm not sure any of us believed that was how all that was going to work out, but in the industry that's kinda how that goes. You're never really sure where you're going to land or how things are going to come together, so to be back with Turner feels right and natural, so that's been special to be part of.
"And then with Prime coming in as a new partner, and I had a chance to meet with them in the spring of '24 in anticipation of the opportunity that could exist, and I knew right away when I met with them that that was something I wanted to be a part of. I just loved their approach and the way they do business, so to be able to share those 10 weeks with Dale and Steve really has just been the icing on the cake for me. To be able to jump in with them and their history and friendship and the way they've opened the door to me to come in and be who I am, it's been awesome. And from the first day, we did a rehearsal for Turner Darlington weekend. We showed up, had a meeting, and jumped into the studio and called the final stage, and it was like, 'Wow, this just feels comfortable and easy.' So it's been that way. We got off the airplane Sunday night and were already, 'We can't wait to get to Indy and do it again.' The moments in the booth are great. The moments at dinner are great. We laugh a lot and have had so many good moments, and I think we'll all disappointed come Sunday when it's over because we've just had a wonderful summer."
NB: As you look ahead to Sunday's Brickyard 400, who do you have your eye on as a potential contender to win this year?
AA: "There's no doubt you could take those eight drivers from Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing and pull them out of a hat and say, 'This is the guy,' because we just feel like they have speed each and every week, and you look at Hendrick's history at Indianapolis, and it's just been unbelievable, and Kyle Larson won this race for HMS last year.
"But I would say a couple things I'm interested to watch: Denny Hamlin, where does he fit in? This team is performing at a high level, and it's remarkable what he's been able to do and his versatility I feel like is going to be a difference maker, because you have to be versatile to be good at Indianapolis. So Denny Hamlin with momentum from winning at Dover I think is on the shortlist. Kyle Larson showed us something at Dover that we haven't really seen much of this summer, and you have to consider him. Chase Elliott has been running so well lately and took over the regular season points lead at Dover, so I feel like he's someone to watch.
"But the one I'm probably most curious about right now is Chase Briscoe. They won at Pocono, his first win at Joe Gibbs Racing, and that is a track that probably is best connected to Indianapolis when you talk about the way it races and strategy and all the things that go into being successful there connect to Indy. I know Indiana drivers have had a lot of success in this race with Gordon was able to do. Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman won, and I just feel like there's something really special about Chase Briscoe right now. He won at Pocono and has those two runner-up finishes the last couple weeks, and his confidence appears to be at a very high level right now, and it would just be so neat to watch him go out and 20 years after his racing hero Tony Stewart won this race, for him to go out and win the Brickyard would be something really special."
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NB: Given your Indiana and IMS roots, would you say finding a way to call an Indianapolis 500 on TV is on your career bucket list?
AA: "I guess it's not something I've really thought a lot about. Now, I'm so ingrained in the NASCAR world and seeing how the contracts are aligned — not my contract, but just more so the way the broadcast rights are setup and the length of time and where I'm at in my career. I would say I'd probably bet against me ever doing an Indianapolis 500 if I just had a common sense approach and knowing where I'm at and where things are, I'd say that probably won't happen. I've never been with my career a big bucket list guy. I've always been so fortunate to get to do cool things, and it's all kinda taken its natural path, and I wouldn't trade any of it.
"There's nothing out there where I feel like 'I need to do this.' If that were to happen, certainly that would be cool, and I would embrace that if that were to ever come to fruition. But I can't say there's anything out there right now that I need to do to satisfy me. I've been so fortunate and blessed to get to do the things I've been able to do, and I'll add a big one to the list this weekend, but I've always just enjoyed the process and never let the other parts and pieces get in front of me. My philosophy has always been, 'These events are about the competitors, and I enjoy being part of it, and I have a great passion for what I get to do, and it's a wonderful connection to sports,' but because of that, I've never felt there was anything I need to do. I've just been so lucky and feel like in so many ways I've overachieved that I just kinda take it as it comes. If it came up, that would be near, but that's not something that is eating at me where I'm saying, 'That's something I need to do before it's all said and done.'"