Biography

I was born in a log cabin built by my father, who ran moonshine from Centerville, Tenn., to Nashville in a souped-up 1946 Ford. Actually, I wish, because that sounds pretty cool. Dad was actually an air traffic controller, which meant he spoke to Bobby Allison without ever seeing his face.

I am actually from Centerville, which was home to Minnie Pearl. If you're under 30, you've never heard of her. Sterling Marlin is from nearby Columbia, and he was my catalyst into NASCAR. In the mid-1990s, Marlin Fever was a real thing in Middle Tennessee, and I know a lot of people who grew interested in NASCAR because of it, including me.

I graduated from Belmont University in Nashville in 1998 and immediately began working for The Sporting News as an online motorsports editor. After a few months of living in St. Louis, I began to miss the South, so I moved to Atlanta to work for Turner.

Turner acquired the rights to NASCAR.COM in late 2000, and I will never forget sitting on my couch at home on Dec. 31, 2000, frantically trying to build an adequate front page for NASCAR.COM before the clock struck midnight.