In what we can only assume is an elaborate honeypot operation meant to lure all of America’s dads into a single viewing location—possibly to extract their vital “How to grill a burger while changing your oil” strategies—AMC has announced that it’s launching a new TV drama set in the world of NASCAR, with Dennis Quaid set to star.
This is per Deadline, which reports that Quaid has been attached to star in Thunder Road, a new drama series from Young Guns writer (and Marco Polo creator) John Fusco. And while it would be reductive to say the series sounds like an attempt to steal the “red-state Succession title” away from Paramount’s Yellowstone, it probably wouldn’t be too reductive: The series will see Quaid play Duane “The Wrecking Ball” Whitlock, a “a towering figure who built a racing empire from a legacy of moonshine runs and dirt tracks and refuses to let it die,” and who’s described as an “old king fighting to hold onto his crown.” Quaid is fresh off his own Taylor Sheridan show (Lawmen: Bass Reeves), a memorable turn playing into his own shrimp-slobbering vibe in 2024’s The Substance, and, because reality is getting thinner and thinner by the day, being on Air Force One with Donald Trump during the flight when Trump ordered the bombing of Iran.
Thunder Road is being produced with official help and approval from NASCAR, which should make it easier to get actual footage of stock cars going extremely fast. (The alternative, of painting a big Tide logo on a Honda and yelling vroom at the top of your lungs from the backseat, would presumably be too awkward for long-term filming.) Former Justified writer Taylor Elmore has been tapped to serve as showrunner on the series, which is being described as being in “fast-track development” at AMC, so please prepare the nearest father in your orbit for this upcoming injection of pure, uncut Dadicules.
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