CHARLOTTE, N.C. — To race fans, his voice is unmistakable and instantly recognizable.
"Almost every day," Doug Rice said. "And you'll see them stop. And they'll look up, and I think -- race fan!"
That voice is an instant connection to cars on the track. And the memories that come with it.
"That's the most gratifying thing," he said. "People say 'I've listened to you all my life.' 'Me and my Dad used to listen to you.' That's the best."
On a Monday morning after a playoff race, Rice and the team at Performance Racing Network do what they always do. Break down the action, inform, and of course, entertain.
"We've always had that sense of tightness," Rice said. "We box above our weight, all the time. We've always been the little engine that could."
But in just a week, after doing thousands of shows and calling countless NASCAR races, Doug Rice will retire.
"I think it will become very real to me," he said. "Especially here at Charlotte. This is where I've called most races."
It was also where he attended his first race. The sounds of the speedway immediately appealed to a college kid in the mid-1970s who hadn't given racing much thought until that day.
"My first race my brothers drug me here to the Coke 600 way before I was ever a race fan, and we had a great time in the infield," he recalled. "I liked the smell, the tire smell, the gas, the noise. All the pageantry."
Rice did it all in radio, working as an engineer at WSTP and WRDX in Salisbury while also spinning records at his alma mater App State.
But soon he found out he was going to call NASCAR's Busch Series.
"Little places that are long forgotten and called races," Rice said. "It was a lot of fun. Six of us would pile into a van, make $25 a day and go call a race."
Soon enough, Rice was calling the big-time races and making big-time calls.
They included:
- Jeff Gordon's 1994 Coca-Cola 600 victory, his first in the Cup Series.
- Dale Earnhardt Junior's first Cup win at Texas Motor Speedway in 2000.
- Tony Stewart's victory at the Brickyard 400 in 2005.
- Ryan Blaney's thrilling finish in the inaugural ROVAL 400 in 2018.
"I love live play-by-play, and I love telling stories," he said. "I still think about that. Trying to be a communicator is to transport people. If you're driving down I-85, and you're listening to the race, we want to tell that story in such a way that we bring you to Charlotte Motor Speedway or Bristol or Vegas or wherever we happen to be so that in your mind's eye, you're there."
Now Rice is on a victory lap -- or -- Doug's Last Lap. It's included gifts and honors from all of the speedways, including Bristol, where the Last Great Coliseum gave Rice a gladiator sword, and named its radio room after him.
"It's been flattering. I mean, I would be a hypocrite if I said I didn't like it," Rice said. "It's been a joy and it's nice to think 'OK, I did this for 36 years, and I'm getting a little payoff at the end,' but it's been a little bit overwhelming. It has been a lot overwhelming. I'll say that."
At PRN, the place Rice helped to build into a NASCAR multimedia powerhouse, his office is filled with racing memorabilia and memories.
You can't talk about Doug Rice without mentioning his beloved App State football team, especially their 2007 upset of Michigan.
"And then when they blocked the field goal, I think everybody in the neighborhood knew we had won," Rice remembered. "It was pretty big. It was pretty big."
These next few weeks will be big for Doug Rice and anyone who's ever listened to him call a race on the radio. Next week in Las Vegas will be his final race.
But Sunday at Charlotte, where that college kid fell in love with the sport, and went on to call so many great moments?
That's full circle.
"I think that moment will be very real to me," Rice said. "This place has meant a lot to me. Charlotte Motor Speedway is special. It's special. So much NASCAR history has been written at this place. To think I've been a little bitty part of that? That's pretty cool."
Contact Nick Carboni at ncarboni@wcnc.com and follow him on Facebook, X and Instagram.
