Fox NASCAR reporter clings to Clinton-bred smalltown sensibility
Krista Voda is living life in the fast lane while driving a 1997 Honda Civic.
“My car is made fun of by more people,’’ said the 1992 Clinton (Iowa) High School grad who is one of the central faces of Fox TV’s weekly NASCAR coverage. “It is a base-model, two-door, no power windows, with two cracks in the windshield and at one time it had a bungee strap holding up the plastic casing under the wheel well.’’
The car also has a leaky seal in the trunk that allows windows to ice over inside the car during frostier mornings in her adopted hometown of Pittsburgh.
“So I am possibly one of the only people in America who is scraping the inside of my car at 5 a.m. on the way to the airport,’’ Voda said, readily and easily laughing at herself.
As a second-year Fox network pit reporter — as well as anchor for the weekly Sunday night “Speed Report’’ on the Speed Channel and prerace host for Speed’s weekly coverage of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series — it is a safe bet Voda can afford a considerably racier set of wheels.
Apparently, though, you can take the girl out of Clinton, but ...
“Everyone is like, ‘When are you going to get a new car?’’ said Voda, whose backup auto is a ’96 Ford Explorer with 200,000 miles on the odometer. “I say, ‘Are you kidding me? The way gas prices are right now, this car makes gas. Plus, I haven’t had a car payment in years.’’
‘NASCAR found me’
The 32-year-old daughter of Richard and Sue Voda quickly has risen to national heights from a start as a do-it-all 6 p.m.-to-midnight disc jockey at KROS-AM while attending Clinton Community College in 1993.
“Just a little of everything — play music, read news, sports and weather,’’ Paul Clark, the Clinton station’s program manager, recalled of Voda’s humble beginnings in the broadcast industry. “The thing that I guess struck me about her is how quickly she adapted to it and picked it all up.
“It just seemed like this definitely was the right business for her.’’
Voda graduated from the University of Northern Iowa after hosting a TV show on the campus station and working for a Waterloo network affiliate.
Her first job out of college was in sales for a radio station in Lexington, Ky., but it wasn’t long before she moved up to an on-air job and then into the weekend sports anchor’s seat at neighboring TV station WLEX.
She was there, covering college football, basketball, the Kentucky Derby and numerous other traditional sporting events when the Speed Channel came calling with an offer to be a reporter for a new show called “Totally NASCAR.’’
Voda — who played basketball and volleyball and qualified for the state track meet in 400 and 800 while at Clinton High — grew up in a sports-crazed household.
But motorsports? Those weren’t on the menu.
“I grew up a stick-and-ball sports fan all the way,’’ Voda said. “Obviously, growing up in Iowa, I was a big college sports fan. ... NASCAR kind of found me.’’
That happened when a former Lexington cohort, who was working on the Speed crew toward “Totally NASCAR’s” debut, phoned to recommend that she apply.
Voda still covers college football — she was a sideline reporter at the past two Cotton Bowls — and as many three NFL games each year but figures she has found her niche with auto racing.
That still amazes her.
“If somebody had told me that I’d be working in motorsports eight years ago,’’ Voda said, “I would have laughed at them.’’
A man-driven sport
Eight years ago, Jeanie Zelasko, the Fox network staple who Voda last year replaced in the NASCAR pits, was the only female broadcaster in auto racing.
The ranks since have expanded considerably in the still-testosterone-driven sport, but Voda deferred when called a pioneer.
She said a handful of female newspaper reporters really paved the way and said her entry into the sport was aided by her involvement with a credible network and a well-received program.
Too, she said, “I had covered horse racing. I had covered basketball and baseball. I was used to being in, I guess you’d call it a man’s world.’’
Voda said inroads made by female racers — Danica Patrick and Ashley Force recently scored groud-breaking wins on the IRL and NHRA circuits — also has eased the transition.
And while NASCAR especially remains “a male-driven sport,’’ Voda stressed that it mostly is meritocracy built into a family atmosphere.
“It doesn’t matter if you are polka-dotted, as long as you are doing your homework and justifying you belong there,’’ she said. “You obviously have to show your face and be out there in the trenches every week. But once you do that, and if you’re respectful to people involved, you are part of that family.’’
Racetrack as an office
Working for the three networks and doing three shows a week, Voda most assuredly has earned her respect through diligence and hard work.
Her’s is a hectic existence, even now that Fox has yielded the NASCAR tracks to NBC for the remainder of the year.
“I spend a lot of time in the airport,’’ said Voda, who typically flies out of Pittsburgh on Thursday and returns home on Monday. “My hometown post office, the one I use the most, is the one in the airport.’’
Some weeks, Voda doesn’t get home at all. And, even when she is back in Pittsburgh for a day or two, she often is doing research for one or more of her on-air gigs.
Still, Voda said, “It’s great. It’s a normal job. Once I get to my office, which is the racetrack, that’s really when the fun begins.
“There is really a lot of self-discipline involved, but, gosh, look at what I do for a living. Anytime I am having a bad day at the racetrack, I need to remember what I am doing and the fact a lot of people would give up body parts for it. That’s not lost on me at all.’’
Neither is it lost on her father, who now oversees a brood of NASCAR nuts.
Voda’s sister, Kim Ottens, and brother, Scott, are die-hard fans as is her grandma, 81-year-old Barb Jurgenson of Clinton.
“She doesn’t miss much NASCAR,’’ son-in-law Richard Voda said. “Especially when Kris is involved.’’
As for the parents, “(Krista) told somebody in an interview that her father is living through her vicariously,’’ her dad said without denying the charge. “It really is a kick.’’
Voda’s parents attended races last year in Chicago and Milwaukee and had pit passes to the former.
“She knows a lot of people would give their left arm to know,’’ said her dad. “We talked to Dale Earnhardt Jr. and he said ‘Hi Sue, how are you doing?’’’
Smalltown girl
While Voda won’t forget where she is, she also hasn’t forgotten from where she came.
She gets back to Clinton twice a year.
“A lot of times, I’ll just come home whenever I can find a little time,’’ she said. “But it’s never enough. It’s never as often as you’d like to get home.’’
Away from home, Voda remains a fun-loving, small-town girl, modest and infinitely approachable.
“She has got a celebrity status,’’ Richard Voda said, “and she doesn’t brush anybody off. She would talk to a fencepost.’’
Voda’s head wasn’t turned when she turned up last winter in a poll gauging the sexiest female broadcasters in sports.
“It did not bother me,’’ said Voda, who finished third. “It was a little strange, to be honest with you. And, yes, I was flattered.’’
She won’t deny she dared to dream she could reach these professional heights while growing up but also said doesn’t give much thought to being recognized by millions.
“I don’t know if that many people do know (her),’’ she protested. “But, of course, I get a lot of e-mail from folks, whether they are from the Midwest or former teachers, friends from school, people I meet at the racetrack as well.
“That’s great because obviously it shows how popular NASCAR is,’’ she said. “But I’m still the girl who drives the ’97 Honda Civic with two cracks in the windshield.’’
Craig DeVrieze can be contacted at (563) 333-2610 or cdevrieze@qctimes.com.