Kenny Wallace recalls turning down $500,000 FOX offer to continue racing - "He offered me a lot of money"

Former NASCAR driver Kenny Wallace recently talked about a broadcasting offer he received from FOX NASCAR during his racing days as a professional. Wallace reminisced about turning down the hefty offer and intended to focus on his racing.

NASCAR analyst Wallace retired from the world of professional racing in 2015, after a career span of over 25 years in NASCAR's national series. Over the course of nearly 547 races in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, he secured a total of nine victories.

Wallace made his Xfinity Series debut replacing NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt at Martinsville Speedway, piloting the #8 Chevrolet in 1988. He competed full-time in the Xfinity Series the following year with his brother's team, Rusty Wallace Racing. That year, he also won the 1989 Rookie of the Year award.

In the latest video on YouTube, NASCAR veteran Wallace recalled the time when he turned down an offer worth half a million from FOX Sports so that he could continue his racing stint. Wallace, on his YouTube channel, said (at 2:00):

"I was right in the middle of my career I was 36 years old and Ed Goren who at that time was the president of Fox Sports, he called me...I just said, hey thanks for the offer but I can't do it so he offered me a lot of money at that time I'm going to go ahead and say it, at that time he offered me $500,000 just to do TV and he said of course you can go over to NBC and make a little more money with your friends too in other words we'll share you." (2:53)

"I was asked you know to be a major part of the original NASCAR on FOX and I turned it down because I was a racer," added Wallace (at 4:20)

With NBC Sports taking over for the rest of the regular season and playoffs from FOX Sports, NASCAR heads toward the second half of the 2024 season, where drivers will go head-to-head in the run for the championship title.

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Kenny Wallace's short stint at FOX Sports

After retiring from NASCAR in 2015, Wallace had a brief working stint with FOX Sports. The 60-year-old quit FOX Sports after working for only three years.

In a conversation with The Athletic's Jeff Gluck, Wallace revealed a bizarre yet relatable reason for him to quit his broadcasting job. Wallace shared an incident and explained why he left FOX, saying:

"The reason I quit Fox Sports is because of that question. The more you go to the airport, the angrier you get. I cannot stand the airport. It’s filth. It’s a bunch of people who want their space, and you’re not going to get it because you’re all piled on top of each other."

"If I’m traveling every week and I’m one of the traveling NASCAR media, I’m pissed all the time. I despise the airport because everybody’s about themselves," Wallace said.

After quitting the job at FOX Sports, the St. Louis native now occasionally races on the local dirt tracks in his UMPDirtCar modified and continues his passion for racing.