How does one voice become synonymous with the radio calls of some of NASCAR’s most legendary moments of the past three decades, and yet be as familiar to Wayne County residents as jet noise and barbecue?

The answer…when that voice belongs to none other than proud Goldsboro resident Alex Hayden.

Today, Hayden is known for his work broadcasting NASCAR races for the Motor Racing Network, as well as athletic events for the University of Mount Olive on the Trojan Sports Network.

A native of Muncie, Indiana, Hayden grew up in the shadow of the iconic Indianapolis Motor Speedway. His late father Ed was a photographer for the Muncie Star, and Ed often took his sons, Alex and Timothy, with him when he was assigned to photograph auto races. 

Those formative moments running through the pit areas at race tracks and forging memories with his brother that would last a lifetime crafted Hayden’s indelible passion for not only motorsports but all sports.

“My dad being credentialed and having to work, and me and my brother growing up in the shadows of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the month of May was everything back in those days,” Hayden said. “I’m 53 now, so there was no Brickyard 400 back in those days with NASCAR. There was no Formula One. It was Indy and that was it. Dad would work the whole month of May, from Indianapolis 500 practice, to qualifying to race day. We were fortunate enough, especially on weekends, we would go to the race track. We would run around and have the best time in the world. It created a passion for being around sports. Not just motorsports, but all sports. To get to grow up and see how these events work, and have a little bit of knowledge on the behind-the-scenes stuff with the way my dad did things, it’s invaluable.”

When Hayden was in middle school, his father accepted a position as a photographer with the Goldsboro News-Argus. Hayden and his family moved to Goldsboro, and he and his brother would both later graduate from Eastern Wayne High School. 

Hayden briefly attended East Carolina University after high school, before his uncle Peter Smith, an executive at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida, suggested that Hayden spend a summer with him. Smith helped Hayden secure a few auditions and Hayden ultimately landed multiple roles during his nearly three years in Orlando. 

During his time in Orlando Hayden learned that the now-defunct Wayne County Speedway was in need of a public address announcer. Despite being the last of 14 applications to audition for the position, it was Hayden’s voice that left a lasting impression. 

“There was an audition process, in I guess it was, March of 1996,” Hayden said. “I was 14th of 14 people that came out to audition on a Saturday. The track had not opened for the season yet. The owner of the track, Ed Radford, was down in the infield doing work, but they had the PA speakers on. Teresa Richardson was up in the broadcast booth handling the auditions, and it consisted of scripts of commercial reads, and then you were to visualize in your mind cars on the track and do a couple of laps of play-by-play. I started off with the play-by-play and I closed my eyes and used NASCAR names like (Richard) Petty and (Cale) Yarborough. I didn’t even get to read the scripts. Teresa gave me the hand to let me know I could stop, and I thought I blew that. About three days later, I got a call from Teresa and she let me know I was the guy.”

Wayne County Speedway opened in 1990 as a 1/3 mile dirt track and was paved in 1992. A decline in attendance led to the track closing in 1994 before reopening in 1997. During its heyday, Wayne County Speedway not only offered racing on a previously untapped night of the week, but was also a shot in the arm for the local economy. 

Wayne County Speedway reverted back to its roots as a dirt track in 2000 and has been closed since 2006. Wayne County Drag Strip currently sits on property located near what remains of Wayne County Speedway. 

“Wayne County Speedway was huge to this area because it was a little paved short track in Nahunta that attracted racers and race fans from all across the state and not just in this area,” Hayden said. “They raced on Friday nights, and everybody else raced on Saturday nights. There was so much competition with all the race tracks on Saturdays, racing on Friday nights was different. It gave people a chance to race twice a weekend. It was huge for the economy in that area, and it was huge for that race track to grow a brand and give me the exposure to do what I was doing.”

It was during that fateful 1996 season at Wayne County Speedway that a gesture performed without Hayden’s knowledge would alter not only his career but the listening experience of NASCAR fans forever. 

“In the middle of the season, I didn’t realize it, but in the little PA announcer’s booth at the track, Teresa put a tape recorder back there and hit record,” Hayden said. “She recorded an entire night’s worth of stuff on a cassette tape and she sent that to MRN radio and said, ‘You gotta hear this guy.’ I actually still have those tapes. I’m forever grateful to Teresa Richardson for taking that chance with me.”

Shortly after that secret recording, Hayden received a call from John McMullen, an executive producer at the time for MRN. McMullen invited Hayden to audition prior to the start of the 1997 NASCAR season, and before Hayden knew it, he was hired and found himself in Turns 3 and 4 at Rockingham Speedway calling a Busch (now Xfinity) Series race for MRN. 

Hayden recently completed his 27th season with MRN, and he’s progressed in his career from being a turn announcer to being in the press box and being on the call for some of NASCAR’s defining moments over the last nearly three decades. 

During his time with MRN Hayden has seen advancements in technology and the advent of streaming, open up MRN broadcasts to fans over the internet who may not always be able to access an MRN terrestrial radio affiliate in their area. 

“I think it’s done wonders because in the world that we live in that is instant, we have at our fingertips what’s happening Prague right now if we want it,” Hayden said. “I think that translates. We’re in an immediate reaction world right now. So, if we can’t find a radio station, which you can find every one of (MRN’s) affiliates on our website, and we love our terrestrial radio stations, that’s our lifeblood, we have over 400 of those around the country. But, to have that other option to stream on your smartphone, or your iPad, whatever the case may be, we can reach everybody all the time now.”

Hayden’s rise to becoming the voice synonymous with the radio broadcasts of NASCAR has opened up further opportunities for his career. His voice can be heard in the “NASCAR 21:IGNITION” video game, and Hayden has also served as a first-tee announcer at the PGA Tour’s Arnold Palmer Invitational. 

“I am a race fan first and foremost,” Hayden said. “All of us that broadcast, there’s 10 or 12 of us with the Motor Racing Network, and we’re all race fans to start with. That’s where the passion comes from for our broadcasts. When we get excited as something happens as we’re calling it, it’s genuine because we’re fans. I think the opportunities I’ve had now since I started with MRN in 1997, I guess I’m wrapping up 27 seasons now, it’s something that doesn’t get old to me. I still very much love what I do, even though it requires airplanes, hotels, restaurants, rental cars, and everything else that comes with travel headaches. I hope it still resonates with people, and I’ve been very fortunate to see and witness a lot of great events in person. I’ve had the opportunity to make some of these calls at some of these races that may never happen again, like the Ross Chastain call at Martinsville (in October of 2022) last year to get into the final race of the playoffs at Phoenix. I happened to have that call. It just happened to be me. NASCAR came out with a rule that you can’t make that move, so that call that I had, it won’t ever happen again.”

Hayden’s involvement in motorsports extends beyond the race track to the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte. During the Hall of Fame’s annual induction weekend each January, Hayden hosts a panel with that year’s Hall of Fame inductees, as fans in attendance are guided on a trip down NASCAR’s memory lane. 

“I am very fortunate to be one of a handful of people to have a vote on who gets into the NASCAR Hall of Fame,” Hayden said. “When the Hall of Fame was founded Winston Kelly was put in the position as the Executive Director. Well, Winston was our lead pit reporter at MRN. I had known Winston for years, and I knew he was up for the Executive Director role, and it turned out to be a unanimous decision by the committee to put Winston in that spot. He’s since retired from MRN, and he’s full-time at the NASCAR Hall of Fame as Executive Director. That goes to my work relationship with Winston, he understands that I have a high level of professionalism. I like to have fun, and there’s always going to be humor involved, but it’s going to be respectful and it’s going to be professional. That’s enabled me to work with the Hall of Fame, in a lot of different aspects, specifically around induction weekends. They’ll bring me in and I’ll be on stage with that current list of Hall of Fame inductees, those who are alive, and we’ll sit on stage and we’ll tell stories. So, it will be my job to lead these drivers down storylines and talk about it. It’s a great opportunity to be a part of that, and more importantly, I think it’s a complete privilege and not one I take for granted or take lightly.”

Hayden’s broadcasting prowess has been felt in Wayne County through his contributions to the broadcasts of high school football and basketball, as well as sporting events at the University of Mount Olive, on the television station formerly known as PACC-10. 

PACC-10 was a public-access television station available to Time Warner customers that aired local athletics, as well as City Council and County Commissioner meetings. 

“It’s funny that you bring up PACC-10, which stands for Parker Advertising Community Cable,” Hayden said. “Bobby Parker and his family were the ones that had that. It was a cable access channel, unique to Wayne County. It was a great outlet and a great tool for this county from school board meetings broadcast live, you could watch City Council meetings and County Commissioner meetings, and yes, you could catch sports including, University of Mount Olive sports, and high school sports, high school football and high school basketball. I was privileged to work with them some on the side during mid-week if we could do basketball games, and some football games once my racing season ended. To work and get that experience in PACC-10 TV was huge because it gave me that discipline and it gave me something to put on a resume. NBC Sports came calling and gave me an opportunity to work pit road for NASCAR races for three years because I had some TV experience. I got to do a couple of races on FOX as well, so to have that experience, I’m forever grateful for it, it was a great learning tool.”

Since 2010, Hayden’s voice has been associated with perhaps one of Eastern North Carolina’s best-kept secrets, the University of Mount Olive. Hayden initially called Trojans’ athletics for PACC-10, before the Trojan Sports Network was formed in 2017. 

The Trojans’ athletic programs attract athletes from all over the world, and the Trojans Sports Network provides the friends and families of those athletes, and opportunity to stay connected to their respective athletic pursuits. 

“We have an NCAA-affiliated university in our backyard here in Wayne County,” Hayden said. “It’s right here in Mount Olive. The level of competition is so much higher than in high school. I was in Target or someplace chit-chatting with someone who had watched a UMO broadcast, and they were completely caught off-guard by the high level of play. High school athletics is one thing, but the percentage of high school athletes that make it to the next level is so minute. You have to be elite to play NCAA athletics, and the University of Mount Olive is NCAA Division II. So, it’s just one step below the ACC. And the University of Mount Olive draws athletes from around the globe, and that’s another thing I think is important, is that people in Wayne County, and the surrounding areas here don’t quite grasp that. They know about the University of Mount Olive, and they know they have athletics, but I don’t think they understand the high level that they are.”

The Trojans Sports Network not only allows Hayden to channel his passion for broadcasting away from the race track, but it also provides him an opportunity to mentor aspiring broadcasters. Hayden is often paired with young broadcasters, to whom he offers feedback on their strengths and room for improvement. 

“Alex has been a tremendous asset to the Trojan Sports Network and brings a level of professionalism that UMO Athletics strives towards to create the best student-athlete experience,” said Alex King, Director of Athletic Communications, at the University of Mount Olive.  “His preparation and voice are at the top of the Conference Carolinas, giving our students an excellent insight into the effort that goes into a successful broadcast and production. Several students under his guidance have secured jobs in the sports industry and the University of Mount Olive is grateful for service to our athletic department.”

Regardless of where he travels to call NASCAR’s next legendary moment, how well-known his voice becomes, or what desirable career opportunity comes calling, one thing Hayden doesn’t forsee changing anytime soon is the place he calls “home.”

“Goldsboro’s just a great little city,” Hayden said. “The more there’s been progress with this city, and obviously with the growth of the Triangle area, and spreading southeast towards Goldsboro. It’s made it that much better. I stay here in this area because I have everything I need right here. It’s a small town that has a big-town feel to it. We’re close enough to everything, whether it be the beach, the mountains, to good shopping, whatever the case may be. I have no reason to leave. I have a place in Orlando, Florida, so I spend quite a bit of time there as well, but Goldsboro’s just home.”