Building the NASCAR Channel with Dan Barker

Dan Barker has one of the best career arcs in sports media. English teacher. Cruise-ship poker. And now Senior Managing Director of Content Strategy and Distribution at NASCAR.

In this episode of #Storyteller, Sky Muller sits down with Dan to go behind the build of the NASCAR Channel, NASCAR's free ad-supported streaming (FAST) channel that launched in January 2025. We get into why being late to FAST actually worked in their favor, why they almost didn't call it the NASCAR Channel, the fan-first content strategy driving it all, and how the live L-bar (powered by Tagboard) keeps the channel fresh 24/7.

Plus Days of Thunder, the first-time Daytona 500 experience, Memory Lane, and why "if you're not winning, you're losing."

Skip Ahead Guide:

01:06 Cold open: Days of Thunder

01:46 Feeling American: growing up in England

03:31 Two Truths, No Lies: English teacher to media exec

04:44 Poker, cruise ships, and testing games

07:57 Pinch-me moments and the first Daytona 500

11:42 Behind the build: launching the NASCAR Channel

12:52 Why it's called the NASCAR Channel

13:25 Getting it right: vendors, content, and hiring

15:45 Tubi, 10+ platforms, and "we're cooking now"

17:27 Who the channel is really for

18:48 Feeding a 24/7 channel + the Concord studio

22:10 The live L-bar, powered by Tagboard

26:28 The Production Playbook: what makes a great partnership

28:34 "If you're not winning, you're losing"

30:00 Time Machine: a culture of experimentation

32:43 Original content: Rising and NFL athletes in race cars

35:14 Kidney stones, Panthers, and Leicester City