Dan Mullen

From TM Pedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This article is not long enough.
This is an important character and/or events with an article that is far too short. Please fix this problem post-haste by being awesome and clicking the edit button and contributing to this article. They deserve a lot more love than this.

Dan Mullen is a current TM Master Cup series broadcaster for Channel 44, racing journalist, and the host of his own radio show. Along with former driver Lance Andrews, Mullen does the play by play for TM Master Cup Series events as well as the TM Lights races that are on Channel 44. Mullen is known for speaking very quickly, occasionally repeating what he says, using different words to phrase it. Leonid Roderick described Mullen as; "every driver, crew, and official's biggest fan and biggest hater". Mullen himself rejects this description, on the grounds that he claims to have never been a fan of TM Master Cup race director Ryan Reinhart.

Controversies[edit | edit source]

In 2019, Mullen's contract with Channel 44 was revealed to give him more freedom to say how he feels than any in years past. Mullen has strongly suggested that some of his seemingly out of character praises for certain drivers may not have been genuine, and may have been studio direction.

The first sign of what new freedoms Mullen had did not become apparent until after the 2019 Round of Sweden. After sitting in on pre and post-race press conferences, Mullen became annoyed with various questions directed at a Lynxe Racing representative about driver Liv Eklund's "lack of professionalism" and "obsessive" social media activity about shoes less than 15 minutes before practice. During practice for the Karjala Grand Prix, when the cameras panned past the media center, Mullen referred to it as "a place I'm going to sit in later and watch English language print media try and make this sport more boring by telling drivers they can't enjoy things". Despite criticism from SpeedFacts, among other reporters, Mullen did not retract his comments.

Mullen and SpeedFacts writer Steve Payter have a long-standing mutual dislike of one another. According to Payter, the feud started because of Mullen's "diva" attitude when both worked at KLtv. Mullen, conversely, claimed that Payter would regularly exaggerate or fabricate quotes and information in his reporting. Unsurprisingly, Mullen is often criticized in SpeedFacts columns.

Mullenisms[edit | edit source]

  • Mullen has been accused, along with many other commentators, of favoring Ethan Everett and Kevin Dwyer. Mullen, however, has hinted several times that his "favoritism" is not personal favoritism, but rather who the studio feels that fans would be interested in.
  • He also has offered his opinions on paint schemes, calling a yellow and white livery used by Cameron Taylor "very ugly". The team later changed the livery to a design Mullen liked. Mullen is usually very critical of paintjobs with numbers that are very hard to see, once saying that Xenos "have a phobia of putting halfway decent numbers" on their ARLA cars.
  • He is also critical of cars that can easily be mistaken for other cars, occasionally expressing his annoyance with the number of blue cars in the TM Master Cup series, or by finding it annoying to tell the Majestic Motorsports cars apart.
  • Mullen stated that he liked the American-flag livery used by Team Saar USA at the 2010 Round of Talladega, saying "they make me proud to be an American".
  • Has randomly mispronounced Brandon Lareau's last name as "Larry-oh" on a number of occasions during his TM Master Cup and TM Lights races.
  • Referred to Kellan Rogers as "he" during his guest appearance at the ARLA Radii Radiators 300, much to her chagrin after the race.
  • "Why is the slowest car in the field the first to pit?" -- During the 2012 Round of Brazil, Referring to Morgan Hamburg's mindless strategy.
  • "Oh my, that's too much pink one shot, almost..." -- During the 2012 Round of Brazil, when both Ian Cooper and Divina Henton were fighting for the lead.
  • "I mean, 25th place is very important, I mean, you'll get a lot of points if you win the battle for 25th place, you know, like zero." -- 2012 Round of Sweden, referring to Charlie Waters and Rene Recamier's lack of courtesy towards the leader.