Who is Deb Williams? All about Dale Jr.'s latest podcast guest, who is also known for her trailblazing NASCAR career

Dale Earnhardt Jr. brought veteran journalist Deb Williams onto his Dale Jr. Download podcast this week. Williams is one of NASCAR’s most respected voices, a journalist who has spent more than 40 years covering the sport and breaking barriers.

Born and raised in North Carolina, Williams began her journalism career in the late 1970s with United Press International. At a time when very few women were present in the NASCAR media center, she became one of the first to consistently report on the series.

Her professional career includes 18 years with the NASCAR Winston Cup Scene, where she was editor for a decade. She also contributed to major outlets like USA Today, The Charlotte Observer, espnW.com, and Racing Today. She also worked as managing editor of GT Motorsports Magazine. Today, she writes as a correspondent for Autoweek.

Deb Williams has been honored repeatedly for her work. In 1990, she became the first woman to receive the American Motorsports Media Award of Excellence. She is also a two-time National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year and a two-time Russ Catlin Award recipient. Her reporting has also earned her recognition from the Eastern Motorsport Press Association and the North Carolina Press Association. In 2024, she was inducted into the National Motorsports Press Association Hall of Fame, a rare honor in motorsports media.

Most recently, NASCAR named Deb Williams the 2026 recipient of the Squier-Hall Award for NASCAR Media Excellence. This award is among the highest honors for a journalist in the sport. She becomes the 14th recipient of the award, which will be presented during the NASCAR Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Charlotte on January 23, 2026.

---

Deb Williams recalls Burt Reynolds and NASCAR’s Hollywood moment on Dale Jr.’s podcast

On the podcast with Dale Earnhardt Jr., Deb Williams shared personal memories that connected NASCAR to Hollywood. She recalled her time covering the filming of the 1983 movie Stroker Ace and an interview with actor Burt Reynolds. Williams said she was given only 20 minutes with Reynolds, but he left an impression. According to her, Reynolds admired the people within NASCAR, describing them as authentic and hard-working.

Williams also pointed out that the large driver contract featured in Stroker Ace was actually a parody of a real deal between Darrell Waltrip and Cale Yarborough. She explained that the sport was attracting mainstream attention at that time and being perceived by how it was portrayed in popular culture.

Later in the episode, Deb Williams and Dale Jr. discussed the filming of Days of Thunder. Williams pinpointed several filming locations, including the famous ice cream scene at Darlington Raceway. She noted that the sequence was shot when Benny Parsons drove and Harry Hyde served as crew chief. She told Dale Jr.:

“I was given like 20 minutes with him. He was very nice, very polite. And, you know, he talked about how he was impressed by the people in the sport. Brought a magic, I would say, to the sport. Created a lot of eyes on it that people had not paid really attention to it before. It put a little glamour in the sport is what it did. And, you know, the big contract that he had in there, that's a spoof on the Darrell Waltrip-Digard contract.”

“And Days of Thunder, I can pretty much pinpoint to you where all it happened. You know, like where they're eating ice cream. That was at Darlington when Benny Parsons was in the car and Harry Hyde was crew chief,” Williams added.

Her stories gave listeners a rare behind-the-scenes look at how NASCAR intersected with Hollywood during that era. They also showed how closely Deb Williams followed every detail of the sport, from garages and contracts to movie sets and, of course, the connection between the two.