It goes without saying that the world of motorsport can still be hostile to diverse groups that don’t quite look like the traditional fan. Thankfully, we also live in a world of ample resources, where any fan can create their own community designed to connect the throes of people who might previously have felt isolated by their identity. In the racing podcast world, best friends Alex and Zack are curating that LGBTQ+ community by starting The Gay Racing Podcast.
Both Alex and Zack — who prefer to keep their surnames off the internet in place of their social media handles @newgayden and @DreamyZackRacin — both grew up in families that followed motorsport but found their own paths into fandom in different ways: For Alex, it was heading to dirt tracks every weekend as part of family outings, and for Zack, it was picking up NASCAR 07 for the Xbox.
“My neighbor across the street had a hobby stock car sitting in front of his house, and my grandma told me that I’d just stare at it all the time because I thought it was a NASCAR car, like what they raced on TV,” Alex said in an interview with Jalopnik. “I got to sit in the car and take pictures. It was life-changing.”
Motorsport remained a key part of both Alex and Zack’s lives as they grew up — but it also intersected with another key facet of their identities as members of the LGBTQ+ community.
“Zack was really the second friend I ever made that was also gay and also into racing,” Alex said. “I wasn’t really looking for gay racing friends, exactly, but it gave us something to bond over.”
“You get attached to each other because you stick together,” Zack added. “There weren’t a lot of us.”
The two friends joined a larger group of fans on social media that began watching races together, but Alex and Zack both mentioned feeling particularly close to one another; they’re the kind of friends that never run out of things to say, and who also can get caught up in hours-long discussions delving into the nuances of racing. And while their ultimate love of motorsport is the same as everyone else’s, their identities do impact the ways they perceive the sport.
“I’ve never felt unwelcome at the track, but I distinctly remember designing Pride paint schemes on NASCAR video games thinking, this will never happen [in real life],” Zack said. “I think I’ve just been very aware of the way I act in motorsport, maybe more than a straight person. There are a lot more accepting people in the fanbase now than in the past, but you never know who’s sitting by you in the stands.”
Both Alex and Zack are in their 20s, which means they’ve been raised in a more welcoming culture than they would have been had they been born a few decades earlier — but that sense of still not quite belonging led them to ask a bigger question: What if there are more people out there like us?
“That was really what made us consider a podcast,” Alex said. “We were always tweeting at each other during a race weekend, and people started replying to say, man, I love seeing what you guys do, you should make a podcast.
“So, we did! Like, literally the next week.”
The first episode of the Gay Racing Podcast was released in the fall of 2020 and has been released on a (mostly) weekly basis ever since. The first few episodes featured Alex and Zack breaking down what happened in major race series over a weekend, but they quickly grew to feature guests like journalist Marc Wiley and graphic designer Noah Sweet of Lefty Designs; Twitter users may remember Sweet being bullied off the platform for sharing his vision of a Pride paint scheme, only to be hired by Jimmie Johnson to make that Pride dream a reality. Other guests have included Devon Rouse, the first openly LGBTQ+ driver to compete in a NASCAR-sanctioned event; Travis Shumake, the fastest openly gay racer in the world; motorsport journalist Matt Weaver; and J. R. Hildebrand, an IndyCar driver who appeared to talk about mental health.
As the show grew, the friends realized that they were providing more than a podcast that highlights their perspectives. Alex noted that “people started reaching out to us, which made us realize how important this was.” Those heartfelt messages from a very dedicated listener base inspired the two friends to improve their organization, recording equipment, and publishing process while seeking out advice from professionals in the industry.
“People were saying that they didn’t know any other gay racing fans in their lives, and that has kept us doing what we’re doing,” Alex said.
While The Gay Racing Podcast may not be topping listener charts, this little homegrown operation between two best friends has grown steadily since that first episode in 2020, reporting a 54 percent growth of listeners in 2023.
And they have no plans to slow down, either. When I asked Alex and Zack what their plans were for 2024 and beyond, they’re more than prepared to shoot for the moon, with a dedicated YouTube channel, regular sponsors, and even more prominent guests.
“We have so much fun doing it,” Alex said, “and it would be awesome to make a living off of it.”