Meet the Man Behind the Channel

Back in the earlier days of the modern internet, when MySpace was king and Twitter and Facebook were in their infancy, YouTube was born — which ultimately led to a whole new form of NASCAR media.

Over the years, popular channels covering NASCAR and other sports emerged, offering an alternative source of entertainment for fans. One of those channels is Black Flags Matter, the brainchild of Darian Gilliam.

Since BFM’s inception in 2017, it has drawn in over 65,000 subscribers. Prior to the Phoenix Raceway weekend, Frontstretch had the pleasure of speaking to the man behind the channel. 

Gilliam’s content-creating career began when he was just 19 years old. Faced with the retirement of his favorite driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr., he wondered how he would continue his interest in his favorite sport — a sport that he had always loved and grew up watching with his mother.

“It was just a perfect scenario,” Gilliam told Frontstretch. “[…] I began making videos, and then I met [NASCAR YouTubers] Eric Estepp, Jared Lundberg and Danny Baldwin. That changed everything.”

From there, popularity and interest in his YouTube channel began to build in earnest, as he put out popular series on the channel like NASCAR Busts, Gone Too Soon and Championship Seasons, to name a few. When asked what his favorite of his series was, Gilliam’s answer was like one you would get from a proud parent asked to pick a favorite child.

“In the beginning, I would say it was Busts,” Gilliam said. “But I remember my stepfather saying something to me about making negative content, and he was like, ‘Can’t you make anything positive?’

“So I started making other things, more positive series, like Championship Seasons and such. I would say that all my NASCAR series are my favorite.”

Beginning in 2018, Gilliam and the aforementioned Estepp, Lundberg and Baldwin started up the NASCAR Weekly Podcast, which is exactly as the title says. The four of them sit down and discuss the week in NASCAR and have some fun guests stop by and talk about it with them.

Podcasting in NASCAR has grown just as YouTube has, as personalities like Denny Hamlin, Earnhardt and Corey LaJoie have taken to the airwaves for weekly episodes. Beginning in 2018, Gilliam, Estepp, Lundberg and Baldwin started up the NASCAR Weekly Podcast, which is exactly as the title says. The four of them sit…