A childhood love of E.T. and Kevin Harvick’s 2002 paint scheme sparked Davey Segal’s NASCAR obsession. The SiriusXM NASCAR Radio host shares how his father, unforgettable trips to Dover and Daytona, and a passion for racing shaped his broadcasting career.
Long before Davey Segal became a host on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, one colorful race car helped transform him into an obsessed young NASCAR fan.
It wasn’t a championship-winning car or one of the sport’s most recognizable paint schemes. It was Kevin Harvick’s E.T.-themed car at Bristol Motor Speedway in 2002.
Segal was approximately five years old at the time, and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial was his favorite movie. When he saw Harvick’s promotional paint scheme on the track, he immediately had a new favorite driver.
“My guy ran an E.T. paint scheme at Bristol in 2002 in the spring race,” Segal said during an appearance on Couzin’s Conversations. (You can watch the full interview below)
“He had a blue car for the Cup race, and it was like a pinkish-reddish car for what was then the Busch Series race.”
The young Segal couldn’t contain his excitement.
“I just remember seeing both those cars, mostly on Sunday, and freaking out to my mom, telling her that there was an E.T. car on the track and that was my new favorite driver,” Segal said.
That childhood moment helped ignite a passion that ultimately led Segal to a career covering NASCAR.
A passion inherited from his father
Segal’s NASCAR story began with his father.
His father attended races at the old Atlanta Motor Speedway while studying at Emory University and occasionally participated in track days at Road Atlanta. After Segal was born, he continued traveling to NASCAR events.
“I just remember very faintly he would leave for the weekend and drive from D.C. to Indianapolis and then back that night,” Segal said. “He would go to Charlotte sometimes here and there.”
Eventually, those trips became shared experiences.
Segal attended his first race at Dover Motor Speedway in 2002. He and his father later traveled to Richmond, Daytona and other tracks around the country. The Daytona 500 became an annual tradition until Segal’s professional responsibilities made attending together more difficult.
“Up until I started working in it on a more regular basis, we went to the 500 every year together,” Segal said. “He’s the one that really got me into it.”
Dover’s place in that story is why Segal still considers it one of his favorite tracks.
“I’m partial to Dover because that was my first track I went to,” Segal said. “That’s my home track.”
Kevin Harvick becomes his favorite driver
Segal was too young to fully process Dale Earnhardt’s death in 2001, but he understood Earnhardt’s importance to the sport.
Earnhardt had been the driver Segal heard people constantly discussing. After Harvick replaced Earnhardt at Richard Childress Racing and later drove the E.T. car, Segal found the driver he would follow throughout his childhood.
“That was kind of the catalyst for me becoming a very, very, very unhealthily obsessed superfan of Kevin Harvick,” Segal said.
As he grew older, that fandom developed into a professional ambition. Segal studied journalism in college, covered races for Frontstretch.com and eventually landed an opportunity with SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
“That kind of morphed into going to college for journalism, covering races for Frontstretch.com, getting this job with SiriusXM, covering races and doing all those things,” Segal said.
Moving from fan to journalist also required Segal to change how he viewed the sport.
“Obviously, the fan moniker, I shed that, which is very difficult to do,” Segal said. “But that was kind of how I started in terms of my passion for NASCAR—just watching it as a kid, being a very, very unhealthily obsessed fan and then trying to turn that into a mildly successful career.”
How radio coverage differs from television
Segal’s role with SiriusXM gives him a different perspective from those working on NASCAR’s television broadcasts.
The clearest distinction is that radio broadcasters cannot rely on pictures to tell the story. They have to help listeners visualize everything happening at the track.
“Radio, you can’t see it, so you gotta explain it a little bit more,” Segal said. “You gotta talk a little bit more, especially the MRN and PRN gangs. They do such a good job painting the picture of what’s going on during a live broadcast.”
A television audience can watch Hudson Logano climb through the passenger-side window of his father Joey Logano’s car during a Victory Lane celebration. A radio audience only hears the surrounding sound unless the broadcaster explains the scene.
“If you were doing that on radio, you gotta paint the picture because ambient noise is just ambient noise,” Segal said.
SiriusXM NASCAR Radio provides an additional layer because it operates continuously rather than only during a race broadcast. Fans can listen in their vehicles or through the SiriusXM app throughout the season.
That schedule gives hosts more time to examine complicated topics and include perspectives from fans throughout the country.
“Since we’re a 24/7 talk radio station, there’s a lot more opinions that get thrown into the mix,” Segal said. “There’s a lot more perspectives that get thrown into the mix.”
SiriusXM’s connection with NASCAR fans
Segal believes the direct connection with callers gives SiriusXM a unique understanding of the NASCAR audience.
“There’s nobody that talks to more race fans in NASCAR than SiriusXM NASCAR Radio,” Segal said. “I think that we take a lot of pride in that because we have a good pulse on the fan base, and we’re able to take the temperature on a lot of different topics that are going on in the sport.”
The channel combines those fan conversations with regular appearances from prominent drivers and team owners.
During one recent week, SiriusXM aired an hour with Joey Logano and another with Ryan Blaney. Tyler Reddick and Trackhouse Racing owner Justin Marks also appear regularly on the channel.
“There’s nowhere else that you get that kind of unparalleled access, in my opinion,” Segal said. “There’s not really any other place that you can get the quantity and the quality of stuff that we produce at SiriusXM.”
Daytona remains special
Dover may be Segal’s home track, but Daytona International Speedway holds a different type of significance.
“There’s something special about that place,” Segal said.
He particularly enjoys experiencing the speedway early in the morning or when the grandstands are empty and no cars are on the track.
“It feels kind of eerie,” Segal said. “That’s a really cool feeling to me.”
When asked to choose one favorite, Segal gave Daytona a slight advantage because of the number of memories he has accumulated there.
“If I had to pick one, I’d probably say Daytona just because I’ve been there more than any other besides Dover,” Segal said. “But Daytona and Dover—the double Ds—those are my picks.”
Both tracks represent important chapters of his journey. Dover is where his experience as a race fan began. Daytona became an annual destination with his father and later one of the places he visited professionally.
The journey connecting those tracks—and taking Segal from an E.T.-obsessed Kevin Harvick fan to a national NASCAR radio personality—has been anything but conventional.
