Mike Joy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mike Joy (born November 25, 1949 in Chicago, Illinois) is a TV sports announcer, who currently serves as the lap-by-lap voice of FOX Sports' NASCAR Sprint Cup coverage. His color analysts are Darrell Waltrip and Larry McReynolds. Joy has broadcast more than 30 Daytona 500's, NASCAR's biggest event. He is also Speed Channel's expert analyst for their coverage of collector car auctions, and vintage auto racing events.

While attending the University of Hartford and later Emerson College, Joy began his public address work at Riverside Park Speedway in Massachusetts in 1970. He added Thompson Speedway in 1972 and in 1975 began working at Stafford Motor Speedway in Connecticut, joining Jack Arute, Jr., the son of the track owner, establishing the track as a hotbed for announcers. He began freelancing for NASCAR's radio network Motor Racing Network in 1976, joined MRN full-time in 1978, and quickly rose to co-anchor announcer and network general manager and executive producer. In 1981, he was the lead broadcaster for ESPN's first live NASCAR telecast in Rockingham, North Carolina.

In 1984, Joy became a pit reporter for CBS' TV coverage of the Daytona 500 1984, working with Ken Squier and Ned Jarrett.

Joy also launched The Nashville Network's NASCAR coverage in 1991, as lap-by-lap announcer, continuing through 1995, and participated in NASCAR coverage for TBS.

In 1994, Joy was named as chief announcer of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Radio Network inaugural broadcast of the Brickyard 400, holding the position through 1999.

In 1998, CBS made Joy the lap-by-lap announcer with Ken Squier moving to studio host, where the pair worked until the end of 2000, when CBS lost the rights to televise NASCAR racing.

He joined FOX Sports for three years of Formula 1 coverage in 1998 with Derek Bell, and moved full-time to FOX with the NASCAR TV package starting the 2001 season.

Joy's CBS career also included Formula 1, CART, covering the Winter Olympics and NCAA championship events in soccer, swimming and diving, track and field, and wrestling.

An avid SCCA amateur race driver, he has won events at Lime Rock, Watkins Glen, Pocono and New Hampshire, and raced professionally in the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1993. He has tested in NASCAR stock cars and race trucks, and raced vintage TransAm cars and sports cars.

He previously had developed special events advertising for a Detroit auto manufacturer, managed and promoted a major auto racing facility, Lime Rock Park, and served four elected terms to the Windsor, Connecticut town council.

Joy was one of the first announcers to embrace the Internet. In 1997, he encouraged Usenet and Jayski readers to e-mail TV coverage suggestions that he could present in a CBS seminar. A member of many Usenet newsgroups, he reads them for preparation for broadcasts.

Joy resides on Lake Norman, in North Carolina with his wife Gaye and their two children, Scott and Kaitlyn. He restores vintage MG's, and retains his New England roots as CEO and equity partner in New England Racing Fuel, Inc., distributor of Sunoco Race Fuels.

[edit] Joyisms

  • "Engine, engine #9 is headed towards the finish line" --Referring to Kasey Kahne when he takes the checkered flag.
  • "Claim jumper" --describes well-funded and supported Sprint Cup teams racing in the Nationwide series and taking the top finishing positions and prize money from the Nationwide series regulars.
  • "Silly Season" --the flurry of late-season rumors about who would race for what team in the following season. Joy brought the term to NASCAR, attributing it to Henry N Manney, who covered Formula 1 racing for Road & Track magazine.
  • "Overdrive" --Mike's term for the green-white-checker sequence that NASCAR uses to try to achieve a green flag finish when a race is under caution at the end of the scheduled distance.
  • "Now it's time for "Let's you see what you've got" time--referring to the end of a race.
  • "That car's just about gone"--referring to a wrecked car
  • "Here's Kasey Kahne coming like yesterday's train"--referring to NASCAR driver Kasey Kahne.
  • "The yellow line is your best friend"--referring to the yellow line on the bottom of the race track at Daytona and Talladega.
  • "A melee ensues"--referring to "The Big One" a wreck at Daytona or Talladega.
  • "The front cars are the fast cars. They are in clean air... behind them are the furious."
  • "If that wall has one more coat of paint on it, he hits it."
  • "This... changes everything" --when a caution comes out altering many teams' tire and fuel strategy.
  • "Money lap next"--the white flag
  • "The throne of the king"--referring to Richard Petty's Pontiac(now Dodge).
  • "(Driver) has made no friends making his way to the front"
  • "What will they do?"--Mike wondering whether the drivers will pit or stay out during a caution period.
  • "It's right about that time"--toward the end of a race.
  • "The eye of the storm..."---Mike describing a pack of cars racing fiercely with high accident potential... while the "eye of the storm" is the calmest part of a hurricane, cars in "the eye" that trigger the wreck can often continue racing, while the cars behind them are swept up in the crash.
  • "20 years of trying, 20 years of frustration, Dale Earnhardt will come to the caution flag, and win the Daytona 500 -- Finally! The most anticipated moment in racing - if John Elway can win the Super Bowl, Dale Earnhardt said he could win the Daytona 500." -- February 15, 1998, when Joy called Earnhardt's Daytona 500 win.
  • "Have you ever?" to which Darrell Waltrip responds "No, I've Never!" --This series of lines was used after the finish of the 2003 Carolina Dodge Dealers 400, when Ricky Craven and Kurt Busch had a last-lap shootout and Craven, running second, finally passed Busch after many attempts, and won the race by .002 seconds. The line was also used at the 2007 Daytona 500 when Kevin Harvick passed Mark Martin on the final corner to win. This time Waltrip responded by saying, "Well, a couple of times."
  • "Put four wheels on a brick (or cockroach), and he could win races with it." --Mike describing Tony Stewart's driving skills.