The USA Network show Austin Dillon’s Life in the Fast Lane premiered this past week, and new episodes will hit TV screens every Thursday evening. It follows NASCAR Cup Series driver Austin Dillon, Dillon’s wife Whitney, the No. 3 team’s lead tire carrier Paul Swan and Swan’s wife Mariel, a former Monster Energy Girl at the track.
The quartet have been a unit of friends for years now: North Carolina-raised Austin and Wisconsin’s Paul were best friends for years before they met Whitney and Mariel, both from Tennessee, and grew ever closer with their respective relationships. The connections don’t end there: the Dillons have a now-two-year-old son, Ace, while the Swans welcomed a daughter, Bella, just over a month ago. Each couple are the godparents of the other’s children, as well, and Life in the Fast Lane follows the four as they begin the 2022 Cup Series season and how their lives revolve around NASCAR.
I caught up with Austin and Whitney ahead of the show’s premiere, as well as Paul and Mariel a week later, to discuss the longtime friendships between them and what it was like working on the show as production commenced. This piece is split chronologically: the interview with the Dillons first and the Swans second.
Adam Cheek, Frontstretch: Tell me about the genesis of the idea for the show — were you guys approached by the network, was it your idea or a little bit of both?
Austin Dillon: We were approached by an agency, and they wanted us to pretty much put out a reel for them to go shop, and then USA ended up picking up the show and we couldn’t believe it. We really didn’t do a whole lot, we kind of did some Zoom interviews over the computer, just kind of talking, doing interviews with our family and our friends. […] I didn’t know what to expect, because I told the girls and Paul, I was like, ‘Look, I’m not doing a show unless it’s just our group and we’ve got control over it.’ And every time I made an ultimatum, it just kind of got answered, and I was like darn, so we got a show.
Cheek: Take me through how you guys met. Austin, you knew Paul, [and] Whitney, you knew Mariel prior to the two pairs meeting, but take me through that process of how you guys all ended up meeting.
Whitney Dillon: So we all met the same night and it was at Kentucky Speedway. I had been talking to Austin, just through text messages, and so that was actually the first time that we met in real life, and then I brought Mariel with me…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Frontstretch…