When the Job Chooses You

© ESPN Mike Dunn

By. Jennifer Ready- Mike Dunn, a Southern California native, just returned from the West Coast as he took my phone call in Eastern Pennsylvania. Still adjusting to the time change, Dunn sounded tired but happy to be talking to me about his love for drag racing and his unexpected career in broadcasting.

 From his father’s influence at a young age, Dunn says he always knew what he wanted to do for a living. He wanted to race. For nearly twenty years, he had a successful career racing with wins in 22 national events, including the US Nationals in 1986. However, he says he didn't think about what was next.

“As far as TV, it wasn’t my chosen profession you know, it kinda chose me.”

During his career as a drag racer, he realized that in a sport constantly changing he needed to improve on his interviewing skills to benefit his racing career, but little did he know those skills would become useful when it was his turn to ask the questions.

“Part of being viable and staying in the sport I had to work on my interviews.” Dunn said “ I worked on getting better, not knowing that in 2001 I lost my ride and there was an opportunity to audition for the on-air analyst.”

It is the practice Dunn took upon himself that has opened so many doors for him. After auditioning for the on-air analyst position, Dunn was offered a one-year contract with ESPN that has evolved in to a 12 year gig of traveling coast to coast covering events. The career change has been a growing experience for Dunn who openly admits to his performance imperfections. To move past the mistakes he makes on the job, he says its the advice he got from a great friend of his that he remembers. 

“Try to do two things really, really well on the show, cause that’s what they’ll remember.”

To listen to the full interview, click here: https://soundcloud.com/jlready/mike-dunn-interview

The Interview

Jennifer Ready: My first question for you is, before becoming a NHRA Drag Racing Analyst; you were a drag racer yourself. What led you to become a drag racer?

Mike Dunn: I grew up around the sport, my dad raced. I grew up in Southern California, my dad raced. He didn’t race professionally so I got the bug from him, it’s kind of what we did, it became our family vacations and weekends we went to the drag races and I decided that’s what I want to do for a living, so I set out and tried to make it happen when I was still a teenager.

JR: What was the biggest moment in your career as a drag racer for you?

MD: Hm.. Biggest moment. There was a bunch of big moments. But I guess, our biggest race is the US Nationals in Indianapolis and I was able to win that in 1986. That was a pretty big moment.

JR: What was the biggest challenge you faced?

MD: As a drag racer?

JR: Yeah.

MD: The biggest challenge was I think just keeping up with the changes in the sport. It went from just being a driver and working on the car to then having to do PR and interviews and public relations working with sponsors because sponsors came in to the sport much more so in the late 80s and early 90s and staying up with the technology and being able to keep driving and being viable and being competitive and winning races. It was a lot of work to stay on top of it.

JR: Following your career as a drag racer, how did you then become an analyst for ESPN?

MD: It was kind of luck and being at the right place. Back to the previous question, part of being viable and staying in the sport I had to work on my interviews cause my wife and I both sat down, I actually lost a ride I didn’t have a ride, what was it...in 84, 85 right in that range. So I sat down, even though I could drive the cars and work on them. We just realized that as the sport changed I needed to learn to do better interviews to make it more appealing to sponsors. So I worked on that, I practiced my interviews and stuff and got much better at it because I wasn’t that good at it at the beginning. Cause they interview you after races and before races and stuff like that. So I worked on getting better on that not knowing that in 2001 I lost my ride there and there was an opportunity to audition for the on-air analyst for the drag race series. I went and auditioned and because of being able to do that I got the job and it worked out and I’ll tell ya what the original deal was a one year contract to see if they were gonna like me and see if I wanted to do it cause I didn’t know if I wanted to go back driving again, and it worked out. 12 years later I’m still doing ESPN broadcasts.

JR: When you are on the job, what is a typical day like for you?

MD: We get in on Fridays because events are 3 days, we start out with a production meeting and we discuss what we’re, what the big stories are for the weekend then we all get our assignments then we’ll go out and get information about those stories. We’ll go out and shoot some features, for myself its tech pieces, things on how things work on the racecars and stuff like that. May do some interviews with some of the racers too ya know depending on what assignment they give me. We’ll come back and then on Friday night we do an internet show that is live during the second round of qualifying for the race. Whatever time that ends up being, I don’t know, it varies obviously being on the West Coast. This weekend we’ll be doing more shows on the east coast. Then Saturday we have another production meeting after that for Saturdays show, we do Saturdays show qualifying and then we have another production meeting Saturday night after that to set up for Sundays show. Once it starts Friday after the first production meeting we’re pretty non stop until Sunday night when the race is over.

JR: How do you prepare for an interview or an event that you are doing for the job?

MD: A lot of stats, our sports based on numbers, big numbers probably second to baseball as far as actual numbers because there’s so many of them. So I’ll go over and look over a lot of stats, see whose hot look for stories, talk to different crew teams and drivers you keep in touch with and if you hear about a story and follow up and see if its interesting and if its interesting ya know the producer has the final say you’ll say here’s what I heard, here’s what I think might be a good story or a good piece to do for the show and he makes the decision okay lets go ahead and do that. Like right now I’m doing a lot of research on the last couple years who has done well at this upcoming race in California. So it’s a lot of stats, phone calls and just trying to keep up with what’s going on.

JR: What is one goal you still wish to achieve in your career?

MD: One goal I wish to achieve…I haven’t really thought about it…retire? As far as my racing career I didn’t achieve all the goals I wanted to there. I did well; won a lot of races…never won a championship so that was one that was never fulfilled. As far as TV I never, it wasn’t my chosen profession ya know, it kinda chose me. Drag racing was my chosen profession. But there was talk about us possibly getting an Emmy a couple of years ago which I never even thought about but that would be cool to get an Emmy for work and for on the show but I never thought about it until a few years ago when they said we possibly could have gotten one, but I guess to get that the producer has to submit it into whatever they do for that. But I don’t know my goal is just to go out there, do my job and then hopefully people will look back and say I did a good job and was fair on the job and had a decent career I guess.

JR: With that said, what is the best advice you have for future journalists in sports?

MD: For journalists in sports?

JR: Yeah.

MD: I think, ya know I’m no expert because I came from the drag racing field I get a little bit of a pass because ya know on air as a former racer, if I stutter and stare a little bit they don’t get on me as someone who was trained as a journalist. I think ya know the best thing from my point of view, I don’t know if this would to all of journalism, I think more than anything else you need to learn every aspect of the job your going in to like if its television production obviously journalism is an important part and being able to write is very important. I didn’t realize when I took the job how much writing you have to do for the show.  Even though we kind of, we’re live, and we just talk about what’s going on but we do write our own opens, our own lead-ins for the tech pieces and stuff like that and I think writing really helps an on-air personality because you understand the process and your able to communicate better and the biggest thing for me is try to keep it simple and try to explain things. Especially in our sport it’s real technical and the one thing that the producers I started out with told me is ya have to remember the people who are watching your show don’t understand everything you do. In drag racing we have our own language so we can talk different things that only other drag racers would understand so I had to take that out of it when I was explaining and keep it simple as far as explaining things on the show. I think being able to write well, which also includes being able to explain ya know what your trying to say to the common person and remembering that most people don’t understand everything they are just trying to understand a few things. And the best advice I ever got from doing the show was, a guy started out with, he was an ex Indy car racer and he was a pit reporter on the show and we hit it off well, worked well together and he told me the best thing for doing the show, and this might not necessarily be for journalism but he said try to do two things really, really well on the show, cause that’s what they’ll remember, I mean the little things as long as you don’t mess up and bomb, cause I stutter and stammer and mess up on every show I do at certain points and its just not very good TV but he said if you do two things really good that’s what they’ll remember and that was very good advice. Ya know and it does work well, when fans come up the next race and they’ll say hey I remember that thing you did so good, so that covers a lot of blemishes I guess. That’s the best I could say.

JR: Great, thank you so much again for talking to me this morning I appreciate it.

MD: Your welcome, good luck with your school I hope everything works out.

JR: Thank you very much, have a good day