23. The Interview: Kim Coon
NASCAR Broadcaster, The CW, Prime Sports, & USA Sports
Editor’s Note: People Who Race tells the stories behind the faces in motorsports and are told by veteran award-winning television broadcaster Kaitlyn Vincie.
For the past 16 years, Kim Coon has built an impressive career in motorsports, evolving from the highly coveted role of Miss Sprint Cup into one of the most respected voices on pit lane. Throughout her journey, Coon has embraced every opportunity to expand her role in motorsports broadcasting, working across a variety of networks and consistently rising to the occasion. While talent and experience have helped shape her career, Coon credits two qualities above all else for her success: meticulous preparation and a relentless work ethic.
KAITLYN VINCIE: You have been a fixture in this sport for the last 16 years, but I’m curious: What first put NASCAR on your radar as a potential career path?
KIM COON: Growing up, I was a fan of stick-and-ball sports, and racing wasn’t necessarily something that was on my radar. My dad would occasionally go to the Indy 500 with his friends, and Daytona International Speedway was just 50 minutes from the doorstep of my childhood home. I was familiar with racing, but I didn’t have any connections in the sport. I didn’t come from a racing family.
Over the years, I felt like the sport kept tapping me on the shoulder in a lot of different ways, starting during my undergraduate education. I went to the University of Miami, and obviously, Homestead-Miami Speedway is there. In one of my sports management classes, they had a representative from the speedway come speak to our class, and I found it very interesting. My first job out of college with FOX Sports Florida was not on-camera; it was all behind the scenes. I had to cut down races for a show called NASCAR Classics, making a four- to five-hour race fit into their broadcast window. I had to go through and really learn the sport—what I should and shouldn’t cut and what I needed to leave in for the show.
Eventually, I moved to Charlotte and saw the job listing for Miss Sprint Cup. I thought it was the perfect combination of everything I had studied in school, and I obviously loved sports. That job looked very appealing to me, so I applied for it.
KAITLYN VINCIE: That leads me to Miss Sprint Cup. You held that role from 2010 to 2015. I feel like the Miss Sprint Cup program was ahead of its time in a lot of ways. What was special about that time in your career?
KIM COON: I tell people those were some of the best years of my life. I made some of my lifelong friends in that job. To your point, that program was very much at the forefront of social media. Twitter and Instagram were very infantile, and people were still experimenting with what worked at that time. I think, at one point, numbers-wise, the NASCAR handle, Dale Jr., and Miss Sprint Cup were the top three for followers in our sport. I think having the Miss Sprint Cup handle as one of the top three most popular accounts on Twitter at that time was a huge achievement. That just reinforced that we were doing the right things and catching people’s eyes.
There was a lot of experimentation: What worked? What did fans like? What things were going to go viral? It was kind of this big science experiment, and it was just fun to be a part of. That job was perfect for me in terms of getting my feet wet in the sport because you had so many different responsibilities. We were emceeing live events on stages in the middle of the midway in front of thousands of fans. We were doing driver interviews, and there was a broadcast element where we would do segments for radio and television. We would attend different customer-hosting events where we were talking to the presidents of Fortune 500 companies. On the flip side, there were all those interactions we had with the fans in the garage and the relationships we had to build with the teams and drivers. That job exposed me to so many different things and allowed me to circle back to the broadcast side, which I discovered I really loved.
KAITLYN VINCIE: From there, you started working with Motor Racing Network, and from there you transitioned to television. What are the biggest differences you notice between radio and television, or are there not many?
KIM COON: It’s strange, but I think anybody who’s done radio and television would agree that they are so much alike, but at the same time, so very different. You’re doing the same job, but in different ways, so there’s an overlap. With radio, you are the fans’ eyes. It’s your job to thoroughly paint the scene for the listener. With television, the screen dictates everything you do. It’s about telling a relevant, comprehensive story in a very short amount of time.
KAITLYN VINCIE: I think about the radio portion of your career, but then I also remember the Glass Case of Emotion podcast with Ryan Blaney, which was hugely popular. What are some of your best memories from that time, and can we ever expect to see an anniversary episode of some sort?
KIM COON: I miss that podcast so much. It’s so nice to be at the race track or at a NASCAR-adjacent event and have fans come up and tell me they miss the show. It demonstrates that it really struck a chord with race fans and just people in general, because I’ve had people tell me that the show made them a fan of the sport or a fan of Ryan Blaney. It was very unique because it did have that crossover appeal. I don’t know if there will be an anniversary episode. We have tried some of that in the past. I like to leave that in Ryan’s hands. He’s so busy these days that I don’t think I can make any promises on that. My favorite memories of that show were just having the best conversations and experiencing those natural, funny moments when the train went off the rails.
KAITLYN VINCIE: I feel the same way with Happy Hour. You have a plan, and it just goes somewhere else. You mentioned Ryan being busy, but so are you. You work for so many different broadcast partners. How do you balance all the series, the travel, and the ever-changing headlines? I will venture to say you’re the busiest pit reporter in the business right now.
KIM COON: I do stay very busy, but it all comes down to time management. I think my study habits are a big help. I’ve always loved studying and taking tests; those types of things really serve me in my job. I know this metaphor has been used before, but I look at a NASCAR race, or any live sporting event, as a test. You know the subject matter, you know what the test will be on, but you don’t know the questions that will be asked.
When you go into a test, you have studied everything you need, prepared throughout the week, and read all the storylines. Ultimately, as the live event plays out, you don’t know what’s going to come at you or what pieces of research will be needed for the broadcast. It goes back to this: You have to prepare for everything and hope that you have prepared enough, then do the reports that serve the broadcast the best.
KAITLYN VINCIE: That’s an amazing analogy. I feel the exact same way about studying and doing the homework. That’s my favorite part. I feel like, at this point, you have done a little bit of everything in this space. Is there something you still want to add to your broadcast resume or a sporting event you want to cover?
KIM COON: Big-picture broadcasting-wise, I would love to be a part of the coverage team for the Olympics. I’ve done so many things in terms of NASCAR coverage that I can’t think of anything that remains on my bucket list, but if I ever had the opportunity to be a part of the Olympics, I think that would be incredible.
A bigger career bucket-list item that I have is being a narrator for an audiobook. I don’t know how an author finds the voice to read their work, but that is one of my dreams. I just love voice-over work because there’s something about it that I find challenging in a different way.
KAITLYN VINCIE: I’m going to put that energy out there, then, because for someone who’s such a big reader, that would be very special for you. For younger generations who obviously want to be here, what’s one of the biggest things you have learned along the way that helped you succeed?
KIM COON: I think what’s more important than just your knowledge of a specific subject matter is your work ethic, your willingness to learn, and the way you treat people. Don’t worry if you don’t know everything, because if you have the work ethic and the willingness to learn, you will catch up. And finally, I think kindness goes so far and is something my parents instilled in me from a young age. It’s the Golden Rule, and it’s going to take you so much further than anything else. Those are my three pillars.
Thank you for reading & for the kind words! 🏁
We are blessed that NASCAR and auto racing in general has such dedicated and strong media workers. Some like Kim, Kaitlyn, Mumba, and others have been in the business for a while and are starting to get as much recognition as more prominent tv and radio broadcasters.