“¡Sale la blanca!”
With every dramatic finish of a NASCAR Cup Series event, you may have heard this Spanish phrase signaling the white-flag lap belted during a compilation of international broadcasts. But who is behind the iconic and exhilarating voice?
That would be longtime broadcaster Tony Rivera, the play-by-play announcer for Cup Series races on FOX Deportes since 1994.
Despite having a voice so recognizable, Rivera’s story remains largely unknown. But this summer, the Cup Series is set to make its maiden voyage to Mexico — Rivera’s home country — where NASCAR will venture to Mexico City’s Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez on June 15 (3 p.m. ET, Prime Video, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
MORE: Cup schedule | Cup stars take in sights of Mexico City
Before putting on the headset, Rivera grew up in Mexico loving sports across the board and developed a keen passion for cars.
“I’ve always been a fan of motorsports since I was a kid,” Rivera told NASCAR.com. “I want to say probably might have been around [age] 12, maybe around that time that I grew an interest in motorsports, car racing. That’s what I remember. I’ve always been passionate about cars, and then fast forward in life, many years later, I started my career in broadcasting.”
Rivera went to broadcasting school in Hollywood, California, where he would eventually land his first job in the sports media industry at a radio station in Southern California’s Inland Empire. From there, he went on to work at Telemundo and in 1993, applied to work at FOX Deportes where his race-calling chops were put to the test.
“They called me up. So I went back and got this casting — basically went blindfolded,” Rivera said. “I have no idea what they were gonna put on the screen. All they said was just get in that audio booth and do your play-by-play. I was like ‘OK, I don’t know how this is gonna be, man’, and they actually put some dragsters that I didn’t really know much about. But I was like, man, you gotta do what I gotta do, right?”
Thirty years later, Rivera has seen and called it all in NASCAR. From the Daytona 500, Darlington, Bristol to NASCAR’s first trip to Mexico City with the Xfinity Series back in the mid-2000s with Denny Hamlin, Martin Truex Jr., Juan Pablo Montoya and Kyle Busch all winning at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez.
He used to call races in the NASCAR Mexico Series, getting a firsthand look at then-rising star Daniel Suárez. While the two have only crossed paths a handful of times, the two-time Cup Series winner holds Rivera in high regard.
“Yeah, he’s a rock star,” Suárez said. “He’s been amazing for many, many years. Since I came into the sport, he’s been the guy. I personally wish we were doing more things with him internationally. I think he’s such a talent. He has so much experience, and already does the play-by-play for the NASCAR races here in the United States, but not everyone else. He’s just such a good talent, and very, very, very experienced guy that in my opinion, we should utilize him way more in Latin America.”
The key to a great play-by-play call is to have someone to add context to the picture on color commentary.
Insert Jessi Losada.
A longtime, decorated broadcaster, you’d be hard-pressed to find a sporting event Losada hasn’t lended his voice to.
With the Olympic Games, the World Cup and multiple Super Bowls already under his belt, the multitime Emmy Award winner joined FOX Deportes in 2015, ultimately crossing paths with Rivera a handful of years later.
“This was right before the pandemic. We had just started working together on the property. NASCAR is a fantastic thing to do, a great opportunity and what we did is we met and we started working right away,” Losada told NASCAR.com. “He’s very knowledgeable on anything that has to do with cars, but especially with NASCAR. And he started talking to me about, you know, NASCAR and this and that and then I started talking to him, and he was kind of impressed that like when I was a kid, Cale Yarborough was my favorite racer. I had a lot of experience with that. So we hit it off right away. He’s got a great sense of humor. He’s just really, really great to work with.”
As the two meshed in the booth, they began to banter and inject their personalities into the broadcasts while keeping fans informed of the action on track — perfectly towing the line of comedic timing and emphasizing when the drama ramps up late in a race.
“We always focus a lot on showing how things work in NASCAR and explaining things a little bit more than you would normally hear in a broadcast,” Losada said. “But we love to play around and just say things and jokes and whatever. Like I said, he has a great sense of humor. I mean, sometimes he makes me laugh so much that I have to stop in the broadcast to just catch my breath because he’s so funny. When the white flag goes down, everything changes. His tone and everything. He’s right into it because most of the races are resolved in the last couple of laps. So that’s where he really comes through and that energy that he has is just, it’s amazing.”
Many sports broadcasters have their signature phrases. Like Mike Breen’s “Bang!” in the most exhilarating moments of NBA Playoff games or Bill Raftery’s “Onions!” during March Madness, Rivera’s “¡Sale la blanca!” meaning “the white flag comes out,” is belted each time on the final lap of Cup races.
However, Rivera says it’s all come natural to him with how enveloped he becomes in the action.
“I don’t really think about it,” Rivera said. “It’s just when you are doing your play-by-play, at least I can speak for myself, right? I get all into it. Don’t think for a moment that I think on a Friday and say, ‘Hey man, what should I say this Sunday during my broadcast?’ It just happens. It’s very spontaneous.”
Both Rivera’s and Losada’s enthusiasm exuberates the rising international fanbase as NASCAR begins to expand outside the United States for points-paying events this summer. They will be in the booth for FOX Deportes when the Cup Series makes its inaugural trek to Mexico City on June 15 in the first points-paying race for NASCAR’s premier series outside the country since 1958.
MORE: NASCAR expands global reach with upcoming Mexico City race
It will be a tall task to deliver all the excitement that will come with the event, but with Rivera’s passion NASCAR and his 30-plus years of experience calling events, the booth will be in good hands for fans to feel the energy.
“He’s been doing this for a long time and to me, he’s one of the best I’ve ever worked with,” Losada said. “I’ve worked with quite a few very, very well-known sportscasters and Tony … he’s a gem.”
“I’m telling you if I’m not doing my play-by-play, let’s say I’m at home watching the race, I find myself standing up the entire race,” Rivera said. “It gets that intense. I’m telling you. It’s a blessing to call NASCAR.”
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