Many consider him the voice of eNASCAR today, but Evan Posocco’s way to the top was a scrappy one.
[i]Photo Credit: Evan Posocco/iRacing
If you tune into an eNASCAR or iRacing broadcast, you will hear the voice of Evan Posocco roaring through your headphones: “And we are live! From the Homestead-Miami Speedway for the finale of the 2020 eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series!” With his energetic style and lively commentary, he has electrified many thousand viewers.
We spoke with Evan himself about how he went from casting small series with a few viewers to being the man behind the mic for one of the biggest iRacing series to date.
Hey Evan, thank you for taking the time. At first I would like to know: how did you get into the world of sim racing?
Evan Posocco: iRacing was originally contracted with a company called PSR TV. They used to cover the series for the first four or five years of its existence. While that was happening, that’s when I got involved with sim racing and saw those broadcasts on YouTube. I bought my iRacing subscription and a microphone before I even ever owned a wheel. I then just started commentating. I would send emails to the broadcast companies, and a couple of people there gave me an opportunity. That’s how it all started. As of today I’ve been commentating the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing series, formerly the NASCAR Peak Antifreeze iRacing series for six years now.
Are you a life-long racing fan?
Evan Posocco: I grew up just outside Toronto in Canada. But I moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, in 2012, and I had very little NASCAR knowledge. It’s not big in Canada. When I moved out here, the Las Vegas Motor Speedway was just down the road. I really got involved, and that was the first year that I started to be engrained in the racing culture. I was about 15 at the time.
How was it for you when you started commentating?
Evan Posocco: Really exciting, although I was very nervous. I had no idea what I was doing, and I kind of mumbled everything. There was no established hierarchy to speak of in the commentating community, so I wasn’t even getting paid to commentate in my first couple of months. I was the unpaid pit reporter, and then I moved into five bucks a race, then got 10, and eventually got paid better. Being able to grow into that allowed me to be in that hierarchy, and it also allowed me to meet the people that were kind of the cornerstones of that broadcast community. I was able to build good connections with most of them.
Were you always interested in casting?
Evan Posocco: When I started being invloved on iRacing, I always had the goal to cast. At that point where I started, I had no proper schooling or actual experience in the field. Since getting involved with simracing commentating, I have gotten my bachelor’s in journalism and media studies and turned it into a career path.
How did your schedule look like when you started?
Evan Posocco: It went up, and then it went back down. When I first started, we did once a week for the same series, and then eventually, it turned into two. When I got to 2015-2016, those bigger roles and the opportunity to do the Coca-Cola Series came by. It was every night of the week, if not multiple times a night, every week, and eventually, that did burn me out. I still love doing it, and I felt like it was a really good way for me to be in different situations. But it got to the point where I was doing nine or ten broadcasts a week, and I couldn’t really focus on any of them. It was very taxing. I started going to University, so it was a little bit of overload. So I tried to step back and focused on eNASCAR.
How did the commentating scene change over teh years?
Evan Posocco: Being there in 2012 did help a lot. If I had gotten into the community three years later, I don’t know if I would have been given the same opportunity. Now there’s a ton of talent. Some people are well established that have only been in the game since 2018-2019 or so. Of course, it’s easy to build a reputation if you’re that good, but there is less chance for an amateur to grow into everything the way I did back then. Trying to get to that same spot now would be a lot more difficult and competitive.
Looking back at all those years of casting, what are the most memorable moments?
Evan Posocco: There are three ones that are close. First was the Mobil 1 Virtual Showdown with Tony Stewart (NASCAR driver). I was 17 or 18 at that time and probably sounded like I was 13. Tony Stewart raced against all the iRacing guys, and I got to interview him afterward.
The second one would be my first Coke series race because that is my main thing now.
Lastly, it would have to be my first Coca-Cola series final. It was the first time we went live on a TV network with the whole production crew and everything. It was extraordinary. What was even crazier is: I talked to the producers at NBC afterward, and they told me how there was a decision between having the standard casters for NASCAR on and bringing me in. It was fantastic to get that kind of recognition.
Lastly, What would your advice be for upcoming casters?
Evan Posocco: It is going to sound super clichéd, but you need to have fun with it. If you don’t have fun calling the race, nobody will have fun listening to you. You can’t overstress and overwork yourself, but still, if you want to get into it, you need to call a lot of races. There is a certain balance you will need to find for it. You also need to be confident in what you are saying. When I was interviewing Tony Stewart, I was scared beyond death because I didn’t want to say something dumb. But I went through with it. You have to believe that what you say makes sense.
Follow Evan Posocco on Twitter at: @evanposocco
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