Liz Clarke looks back on her “accidental career” as a sportswriter with the same thoughtfulness she always put into her stellar work. Much of our conversation focuses on NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt. Hear how she gained his trust in part by not being in awe of him, how his tough-guy exterior hid a soft heart, and how covering his death in the 2001 Daytona 500 shook Liz. She takes us along for “pinch-me moments” – such as the crowd’s emotional response to seeing Nelson Mandela at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa – from years of traveling the globe for The Washington Post. And we talk about the stress, the challenges, and the special camaraderie shared in a job that captured her heart amid sport’s wide range of emotions.

Clarke retired in April 2023 after 37 years as a reporter, the last 25 of them at The Washington Post, where she focused on enterprise stories, the Olympics, college sports, auto racing, and tennis. She also spent eight seasons covering Washington's NFL team and the scandals surrounding team owner Dan Snyder. Liz covered nine Summer and Winter Olympics, three World Cups, multiple Super Bowls, NCAA Tournament Final Fours, more than a dozen Daytona 500s, a half-dozen Indianapolis 500s, Wimbledon, the French Open, and thoroughbred racing’s Preakness and Belmont Stakes.

Before joining The Washington Post in 1998, Liz worked as a sportswriter at USA Today, the Dallas Morning News and The Charlotte Observer. She covered NASCAR for those three newspapers, and she is the author of the 2008 book, "One Helluva Ride: How NASCAR Swept the Nation." Liz was twice named National Motorsports Writer of the Year, in 1996 an ’98. Her other honors and awards include best sports feature in 2017 from the Society of Features Journalism, and best game story from the Associated Press Sports Editors in 2009.

Clarke began her career as a news reporter for the Raleigh (NC) News & Observer, covering higher education. She earned a BA in history at Barnard College, Columbia University; and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, graduate studies in journalism.

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