Kirk Herbstreit stunned to learn Al Michaels called NASCAR events

Three years into their partnership on Thursday Night Football for Amazon Prime Video and Kirk Herbstreit is still learning new things about Al Michaels.

While calling the Seattle Seahawks victory over the Chicago Bears, a 6-3 snooze fest in arguably the worst Thursday Night Football game of the season, Michaels was tasked with tantalizing the audience with an ad for NASCAR coming to Prime Video next year. The ad read prompted Herbstreit to ask Michaels whether if he ever called a NASCAR race during his career.

Al Michaels has done it all…except soccer pic.twitter.com/6OT8SvGsAN

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) December 27, 2024

“I have,” Michaels quickly answered, garnering surprise from Herbstreit who expected the answer to be no. “Wide World of Sports.”

“I knew Wide World of Sports,” Herbstreit said. “Was NASCAR on there? I’m talking about…you never were at the track…I knew you did Indy 500, I didn’t know you did NASCAR.”

Last year, Michaels told Pat McAfee “I think the start of the Indy 500 is as exhilarating as anything in sports,” which is saying a lot for someone with his sportscasting resume. Michaels proceeded to surprise Herbstreit even more by rattling off a few NASCAR tracks where he called races from throughout his illustrious broadcasting career.

Before the Indy 500, before the Miracle on Ice, two NBA Finals, eight World Series and 11 Super Bowls he called, Michaels worked several NASCAR events including the 1978 and 1979 Gabriel 400 from Michigan, the 1980 Atlanta 500 and 1982 Coca-Cola 500 in Atlanta, and the 1981 and 1982 Rebel 500 from Darlington.

“What haven’t you done?” Herbstreit asked, to which Michaels revealed has hasn’t called a  soccer match.

“Good for you,” Herbstreit answered. “That’d be tough.”

“It’s not over yet,” the 80-year-old Michaels said, perhaps teasing his next career pivot whenever his run with the NFL on Prime is up.

[Thursday Night Football]