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CUP: Yocum A Constant On Ever-Changing Pit Road
NASCAR on FOX and SPEED pit reporter Matt Yocum practically grew up on pit road...
Matt Yocum will serve as a pit reporter for NASCAR on FOX and SPEED this weekend at Talladega Superspeedway. (Photo: SPEED.com)
PIT REPORTER YOCUM THE ONE CONSTANT IN EVER-CHANGING NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES SEASON
Yocum: “When I was five years old, he’d (Richard Petty) show up at the house and take me to the annual Richard Petty Fan Club meeting, along the way showing me cool things like driving with no hands and using your knees.”
As Benjamin Franklin so eloquently and accurately stated, “In this world, nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes.”
Perhaps there should have been a footnote for Matt Yocum’s nearly permanent perch on pit road throughout each NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season since his childhood …
Yocum, who serves as a pit reporter for NASCAR on FOX and SPEED this weekend at Talladega Superspeedway, covers more Cup Series races from pit road than any other broadcaster. With dual roles for both FOX and TNT, Yocum also works Cup Series practice and qualifying sessions for SPEED during FOX and TNT’s portions of each NASCAR season.
However, his introduction to NASCAR didn’t come with his first on-camera standup. Yocum practically grew up on pit road, counting as friends legends like Richard Petty, Cale Yarborough and Bobby Allison. Yocum’s mother, Mary Yocum, owned a motor sports marketing and corporate entertainment company, affording Matt the opportunity to attend numerous races as a child and enjoy free rein in the garage. Mary knew everyone who was anyone in the racing world, and as a result, so did her son, who soaked it all in like a sponge.
“Richard Petty has been a family friend almost my entire life,” said Yocum, winner of two Associated Press Sports Feature Awards for NASCAR coverage in 1995. “When I was five years old, he’d show up at the house and take me to the annual Richard Petty Fan Club meeting, along the way showing me cool things like driving with no hands and using your knees. That’s big to a five-year-old.
“When my mom worked for Roger Penske, I’d draw pictures of race cars for him to look at on the plane rides back from the track,” he continued. “I hung on Penske’s every word. If he said the sky was orange, the sky was orange as far as I was concerned. And I’ll never forget after a test, Bobby Allison taking off from the MIS backstretch in his plane, and true to his word to a bunch of Montesorri kids there, he wiggled his wings to say ‘good-bye,’ making four passes just to be sure we saw him.”
While many small children were filling their piggy banks by selling lemonade in their front yards, Yocum was packing his coffers in a different, more enviable way.
“Mom always worked in racing, so I wanted to be involved in the sport,” Yocum, 44, explained. “I remember being paid $25 to hold Jackie Stewart’s ABC blazer at Michigan because he would lay it down and forget where he left it. They’d be ready to shoot a standup and no one knew where his blazer was.”
While Yocum graduated from Florida State University with a degree in Political Science and Communications, he learned a lot simply by experience and perpetual immersion in racing … perhaps too much by today’s education standards.
“I’m not exactly proud of this, but I missed 52 days of school in fifth grade because I was at the track, although I had such good grades I still passed,” Yocum confessed. “Kids today can’t do that, but my mom thought I was learning more about life and the arena of my future. To be able to listen to icons like Bill France, Jr., and Hal Needham of Cannonball Run and Smokey and the Bandit, and try to soak up their knowledge, was priceless.
“When a young person can hang out with the top people in the business world – everyone from the top executives at Ford and General Motors, CEOs, championship drivers, presidents of sanctioning bodies or movie directors -- he learns not only about the sport but also how to conduct himself by listening to and learning from them,” he added. “That, for me, was like going to graduate school.”
Unique experiences such as that followed Yocum throughout his childhood and college years. When he completed his sophomore year of high school, close family friends Jay and Barb Signore (former president of the IROC Series) offered to take him on the IROC circuit for the summer. He began as a tire specialist and eventually progressed to race car preparation and maintenance specialist, and finally, to the role of pit reporter.
“From then on, I spent every summer with IROC until I graduated college because it gave me a chance to be around the sport I love, learn about the mechanical side, and also be around the TV people,” explained Yocum, who has earned two Telly awards and a pair of NMPA awards. “It was special for me to be the pit reporter for IROC’s final couple of years because the series held such a place in my heart because of the connections I had to those involved.”
Yocum’s TV career formally began in 1992 as a sports reporter and anchor in Orlando, Fla., and Bristol, Tenn., following college. In the 20 years since, Yocum has served as a pit reporter or host for virtually every network that has covered NASCAR. .
He made NASCAR broadcast history in 2001 when he joined FOX, NBC and TNT to become the only broadcaster to cover every Cup Series race throughout the season, an unprecedented and still unmatched distinction he held for six years. Additionally, he notched 334 consecutive races on the grid beginning in the fall of 1998.
“Every day I feel like I’ve hit the Powerball lottery in being able to work with the FOX and SPEED family,” Yocum expressed. “We’ve been together for 12 years and haven’t had many changes, other than when Jeanne (Zelasko) left FOX to cover baseball within the FOX family, and Krista Voda came on board. The Turner team is made up of a lot of the same people. In racing terms, if Richard Childress called you up and said, ‘I’d like you to drive a handful of races,’ and then Rick Hendrick asked the same, you’d jump at the chance and be honored by the opportunity, which is how I feel.”
Four decades removed from his introduction to the NASCAR garage, Yocum remains humbled by not only the opportunity to continue to cover the sport, but also by the fortunate experiences in his formative years.
“I am extremely privileged that my mom's heyday in the sport also was its best time,” Yocum recalled. “I got to be around so many great people and icons in NASCAR before it exploded in popularity, people got so busy and things began to change. Days like those made for a prime learning environment for a young person, and I count myself extremely fortunate to have been one of the few able to lay that foundation for myself.”
Yocum: “When I was five years old, he’d (Richard Petty) show up at the house and take me to the annual Richard Petty Fan Club meeting, along the way showing me cool things like driving with no hands and using your knees.”
As Benjamin Franklin so eloquently and accurately stated, “In this world, nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes.”
Perhaps there should have been a footnote for Matt Yocum’s nearly permanent perch on pit road throughout each NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season since his childhood …
Yocum, who serves as a pit reporter for NASCAR on FOX and SPEED this weekend at Talladega Superspeedway, covers more Cup Series races from pit road than any other broadcaster. With dual roles for both FOX and TNT, Yocum also works Cup Series practice and qualifying sessions for SPEED during FOX and TNT’s portions of each NASCAR season.
However, his introduction to NASCAR didn’t come with his first on-camera standup. Yocum practically grew up on pit road, counting as friends legends like Richard Petty, Cale Yarborough and Bobby Allison. Yocum’s mother, Mary Yocum, owned a motor sports marketing and corporate entertainment company, affording Matt the opportunity to attend numerous races as a child and enjoy free rein in the garage. Mary knew everyone who was anyone in the racing world, and as a result, so did her son, who soaked it all in like a sponge.
“Richard Petty has been a family friend almost my entire life,” said Yocum, winner of two Associated Press Sports Feature Awards for NASCAR coverage in 1995. “When I was five years old, he’d show up at the house and take me to the annual Richard Petty Fan Club meeting, along the way showing me cool things like driving with no hands and using your knees. That’s big to a five-year-old.
“When my mom worked for Roger Penske, I’d draw pictures of race cars for him to look at on the plane rides back from the track,” he continued. “I hung on Penske’s every word. If he said the sky was orange, the sky was orange as far as I was concerned. And I’ll never forget after a test, Bobby Allison taking off from the MIS backstretch in his plane, and true to his word to a bunch of Montesorri kids there, he wiggled his wings to say ‘good-bye,’ making four passes just to be sure we saw him.”
While many small children were filling their piggy banks by selling lemonade in their front yards, Yocum was packing his coffers in a different, more enviable way.
“Mom always worked in racing, so I wanted to be involved in the sport,” Yocum, 44, explained. “I remember being paid $25 to hold Jackie Stewart’s ABC blazer at Michigan because he would lay it down and forget where he left it. They’d be ready to shoot a standup and no one knew where his blazer was.”
While Yocum graduated from Florida State University with a degree in Political Science and Communications, he learned a lot simply by experience and perpetual immersion in racing … perhaps too much by today’s education standards.
“I’m not exactly proud of this, but I missed 52 days of school in fifth grade because I was at the track, although I had such good grades I still passed,” Yocum confessed. “Kids today can’t do that, but my mom thought I was learning more about life and the arena of my future. To be able to listen to icons like Bill France, Jr., and Hal Needham of Cannonball Run and Smokey and the Bandit, and try to soak up their knowledge, was priceless.
“When a young person can hang out with the top people in the business world – everyone from the top executives at Ford and General Motors, CEOs, championship drivers, presidents of sanctioning bodies or movie directors -- he learns not only about the sport but also how to conduct himself by listening to and learning from them,” he added. “That, for me, was like going to graduate school.”
Unique experiences such as that followed Yocum throughout his childhood and college years. When he completed his sophomore year of high school, close family friends Jay and Barb Signore (former president of the IROC Series) offered to take him on the IROC circuit for the summer. He began as a tire specialist and eventually progressed to race car preparation and maintenance specialist, and finally, to the role of pit reporter.
“From then on, I spent every summer with IROC until I graduated college because it gave me a chance to be around the sport I love, learn about the mechanical side, and also be around the TV people,” explained Yocum, who has earned two Telly awards and a pair of NMPA awards. “It was special for me to be the pit reporter for IROC’s final couple of years because the series held such a place in my heart because of the connections I had to those involved.”
Yocum’s TV career formally began in 1992 as a sports reporter and anchor in Orlando, Fla., and Bristol, Tenn., following college. In the 20 years since, Yocum has served as a pit reporter or host for virtually every network that has covered NASCAR. .
He made NASCAR broadcast history in 2001 when he joined FOX, NBC and TNT to become the only broadcaster to cover every Cup Series race throughout the season, an unprecedented and still unmatched distinction he held for six years. Additionally, he notched 334 consecutive races on the grid beginning in the fall of 1998.
“Every day I feel like I’ve hit the Powerball lottery in being able to work with the FOX and SPEED family,” Yocum expressed. “We’ve been together for 12 years and haven’t had many changes, other than when Jeanne (Zelasko) left FOX to cover baseball within the FOX family, and Krista Voda came on board. The Turner team is made up of a lot of the same people. In racing terms, if Richard Childress called you up and said, ‘I’d like you to drive a handful of races,’ and then Rick Hendrick asked the same, you’d jump at the chance and be honored by the opportunity, which is how I feel.”
Four decades removed from his introduction to the NASCAR garage, Yocum remains humbled by not only the opportunity to continue to cover the sport, but also by the fortunate experiences in his formative years.
“I am extremely privileged that my mom's heyday in the sport also was its best time,” Yocum recalled. “I got to be around so many great people and icons in NASCAR before it exploded in popularity, people got so busy and things began to change. Days like those made for a prime learning environment for a young person, and I count myself extremely fortunate to have been one of the few able to lay that foundation for myself.”
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