CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — NASCAR is going even more mainstream. That’s the hope with a new reality show featuring driver Austin Dillon and his family.
The show also features the Dillon family and their experiences in and around the Charlotte area.
Filming of the show started in February right before the Daytona 500. Boom mics, cameras and producers followed Austin Dillon for more than 2 months.
Austin Dillon has victories in two of NASCAR’s biggest races, the Coca-Cola 600 and the Daytona 500. Now he hopes to win over new fans by tackling reality TV.
“The agency reached out and said, hey will you guys film a pilot for us? It was just over ZOOM and I said yeah that is fine, it’s our group so I will do it, but I really didn’t think it would get picked up or anything,” said Dillon.
USA Network executives picked up the show. The channel is available to more than 90 million cable and satellite subscribers.
The show is appropriately titled “Austin Dillon: Life in the Fast Lane.” It also features his wife Whitney and their best friends.
“I love reality TV and I had so much fun filming it. Really the best thing is it pushes all of us together to spend even more time together and I love that. We get to have fun and do all these amazing things and really highlight our lives. We live cool lives. This is not normal what we do,” said Whitney Dillion.
The Dillon’s say putting the show together was a unique experience. Crew members recorded it over a two-and-a-half-month period, totaling up to thousands of hours of video.
“The biggest thing was the time we spent with interviews. That was the hardest thing about the whole show. A lot of time where you sit in front of the camera and you have to kinda explain different things that are going on throughout the show,” said Austin.
Not everyone watching the show is a NASCAR fan. The Dillon’s say that’s okay. Their overall goal is to attract new fans.
“I hope a lot of fans tune and watch and love our show so they wanna know what happens on Sunday and see how the race plays out for us,” said Austin.
The series premiered last week and airs every Thursday on the USA Network at 9:30 p.m.