Kevin Lee is a familiar face and voice to motorsports fans, and sports fans, of all disciplines. Since 2017, he has hosted Fox Sports 1’s broadcasts of the ARCA Racing Series presented by Menards in addition to his other gigs with the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network and NBCSN’s broadcasts of Verizon IndyCar Series events. Lee is also a part of the broadcast team for the Indiana Pacers radio network and he has served as a sideline reporter for the WestwoodOne’s broadcasts of Indianapolis Colts games in addition to numerous other broadcast and voice work in the Indianapolis area.
So chances are, if you’ve watched a sport based in the state of Indiana over the past 20 years, you’ve either seen or heard Kevin Lee. He will be revisiting a role he handled once before for the upcoming Primera Plastics 200 at Berlin Raceway: he will join play-by-play announcer Bob Dillner and color analyst Jim Tretow as pit reporter for Saturday’s live MAVTV broadcast.
Lee has worked pit road for an ARCA broadcast before. He’s called the action from the pits at Springfield in 2013.
For Lee, he enjoys both calling races from the relative comfort of the broadcast booth and working out in the elements down on pit road, even if the conditions and assigned tasks are completely different.
“Honestly, it’s a little more work in some ways and the conditions aren’t quite as cozy as the booth,” he said,describing the atmosphere in the pits. “But, there is also less responsibility in other ways. The lead voice has a little more pressure to quickly identify cars and help lead the broadcast. I’ve done quite a bit of both – pit road is where I spend most of my time for IndyCar races – and I think in a good broadcast, both spots have equal importance and share the load. I enjoy bouncing back and forth. Either spot brings a really cool vantage point to watch a race!”
While he may not do as much actual talking from pit road, that doesn’t mean he won’t be working. Pit reporters are constantly in motion, collecting information from crew chiefs, team members, officials, and from time to time, drivers that have been eliminated from the action.
“The preparation is pretty similar,” he said. “You want to find out as much as you can about the drivers and teams and stories in advance. But, during the race is where you can provide unique information. The booth has no access, so it’s the job of the pit reporter to find out why it’s going well or it isn’t. A pit reporter can be the direct outlet for a team to relay information to the fans and also help think along with the teams on strategy.”
The Primera Plastics 200 at Berlin is scheduled for Saturday, July 21. Practice will start at 2:30 pm ET, General Tire Pole Qualifying is at 6:30 pm ET, and the 200-lap race will go green live on MAVTV at 9 pm ET. ARCARacing.com will have live timing and scoring and track updates throughout all on-track sessions for registered users.
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