{"id":1550046,"date":"2023-02-17T10:37:27","date_gmt":"2023-02-17T15:37:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/?p=1550046"},"modified":"2023-02-17T10:37:28","modified_gmt":"2023-02-17T15:37:28","slug":"claire-b-lang-blazed-path-nascar-3-decades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports7.us\/news\/claire-b-lang-blazed-path-nascar-3-decades\/","title":{"rendered":"Claire B. Lang Has Blazed Her Own Path in NASCAR for 3 Decades and Isn't Done With What She Was ‘Born to Do'"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
DAYTONA \u2014 For two-plus decades, Claire B. Lang has provided NASCAR<\/a> fans with unique behind-the-scenes access to all the key players in the garage, including drivers, crew members, and team owners. <\/p>\n\n\n\n She does it every race weekend in her postrace interviews when she captures the emotions of the moment that sometimes result in headline-making quotes<\/a> and during the week on her Dialed In Show<\/em> on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio<\/a>, which is a must-listen for those who want to hear in-depth interviews and catch up on breaking news in NASCAR while sharing their own opinions on the sport. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Lang has undoubtedly broken down barriers throughout her career en route to becoming one of the most respected reporters in NASCAR. Here's a look back at her circuitous journey and some of the many interesting stories along the way, including why she uses her middle initial. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Claire Lang never planned on being a radio personality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n She wanted to be an English teacher and was a college student working toward that goal at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. However, during her junior year, her interest in a young man at the campus radio station would change the course of her career forever. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It happened one day when she showed up at the station to see the young man\/music director, but the person tasked with reading the news was out after having a little too much fun the night before. Lang was asked to serve as a substitute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “The staff dragged me into the studio to fill in,” Lang recalled to Sports7. “I was terrified. I yelled, ‘No, I can't!' all the way down the hall. But once they flicked the mic on and I started to read the news live, I knew that was what I was born to do. I changed my major to journalism major\/radio TV minor and never looked back.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Upon graduation, she began sending audition tapes to radio stations around the country. She landed her first gig as a co-host and news reader at KLWW in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where she worked for just over a year. Lang's next stop took her to St. Cloud, Minnesota, at KCLD, where she stayed for seven years and dramatically expanded her roles and responsibilities, working as a reporter, co-hosting mornings, and becoming the station's news director before she left in 1984. <\/p>\n\n\n\n After years on the air, Lang put down the mic and relocated to North Carolina with her family, where she started working as the PR manager at Carowinds Theme Park. While she eventually moved up to national PR director for Paramount Parks, she began working several side jobs, including re-entering the medium that she loved by providing news and commentary on the John Boy and Billy Radio Show<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n During an appearance at the station one day, Robert D. Raiford, who she was sitting in for, unexpectedly showed up and confronted her on the air. <\/p>\n\n\n\n “He showed up on a day he was supposed to be off, walked into the studio while I was on mic, and said, ‘I'm Robert D. Raiford, who the heeeeell are you?'” Lang recalled. “I was very young and shaking in my boots \u2014 but somehow live on the air, I mustered up all my courage and said, in my deepest radio voice, ‘I'm Claire B. Lang, what do you want to make of it?' It stuck. Listeners started calling me Claire B.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n By the way, the B stands for Bennett. <\/p>\n\n\n\n While on the popular radio show and at her next job as a morning co-host on a Charlotte radio station (WSOC), Lang started to get more involved in racing. That opened the door to opportunities in NASCAR, including writing a column for NASCAR Winston Cup Illustrated<\/em> and working as a reporter for TNN's Inside Winston Cup Racing<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2001, her previous work in the sport got her noticed, and XM approached her about working on its new NASCAR channel. She accepted. <\/p>\n\n\n\nClaire Lang gets an unexpected start in radio<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Introduces herself as Claire B. Lang in tense situation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Life in NASCAR<\/h2>\n\n\n\n