Sitting Down with Indy’s Newest NASCAR Reporter, Bakery Owner and Dog Lover
If you’re an Indy sports lover who owns a television, there’s a good chance you already know Jamie Little. A Fox sports reporter for NASCAR and the first woman to broadcast as a pit reporter on live television, she’s covered eleven Indy 500s and just recently confirmed her place as the live PA announcer for next year’s race.
But while many Hoosiers know her, she’s still making our acquaintance. Having lived in Vegas until the end of 2017, when she and her family moved to Indianapolis and opened the Keystone franchise of Nothing Bundt Cakes.
To formally introduce her, we sat down with Little to discuss the bakery, her NASCAR career, rescuing dogs and finding happiness wherever possible.
You just moved to Indianapolis. What are some things you like about the city?
Top of the list are the people. Nothing against the people out West, but I always heard about people in Indiana and their Hoosier Hospitality, and it’s really true. It’s so family oriented, we love that. It’s the reason I decided ‘Let’s move,’ and didn’t have to ask my husband twice.
You’ve built a career in sports reporting for NASCAR. What has that been like, especially as a woman in a male-dominated field?
Being a tomboy, I met some boys that raced dirt bikes when I was twelve, and I just thought it was the coolest thing. And I thought, man, there’s no females doing this. I want to be the one telling the stories of these athletes.
There still aren’t enough women in the field, but we’re seeing more. I think when people first see a female pop up on their television covering a race or any kind of sport, their initial reaction is to judge you quicker than they would a man, because they just assume that a man knows that sport. But once they realize that you’re just like the others and you’re a good reporter, you have their trust and you’re one of the team. And that’s all I could ever ask for.
What made you decide to open up a Nothing Bundt Cakes?
Since they started out in Vegas, every time you have a birthday or celebration there, you get Nothing Bundt Cakes. It’s just a thing out West, everyone knows the brand and it’s so good, and unlike everything else. And the environment. It’s cake, so people are typically happy. You’re dealing with happy customers.
Cake seems to hold a certain power that makes it different from other desserts. As a culture we center so much sentiment around it. How have you seen this in action since opening up a cake shop?
We associate cake with a celebration. It’s always a happy thing. People love cake, they look forward to cake, cake is always good. And when it comes to our brand, people go nuts over our cake. Just the way that it’s made and the way that it tastes, it’s just so fresh and different.
There’s something about cake; it’s different if it’s a cupcake, it’s different if it’s a pie. Cake is a celebration-oriented thing. It makes people happy, and that’s one of the main reasons why we wanted to do a bakery. People are happy when they get cake, they’re happy when they buy cake, they’re happy when they walk in and smell the cake. It’s just a happy business.
Especially now, it seems people need to try extra hard to find things to celebrate.
With the pandemic, we’re food so we were essential, and it was such a blessing. People were stuck inside, but the one thing that didn’t change was celebrations--of birthdays, of anniversaries, of graduations. And the one thing people could do was get cake and balloons, and we offer both, so we were delivering like crazy to these people. To see their faces when they open the door and see that beautiful cake, that’s what it’s all about.\
We also delivered a bunch of cakes to the hospitals. We’d go to the ER pullup and just start giving them cake, and they were so happy. And we’re huge dog people, so we give to shelters and take cakes to volunteers. We just drop in on people and surprise them with cake, and it makes them happy! It’s the best thing ever.
Speaking of shelters, tell us about your foster dogs!
We have a zoo at our house. They’re all rescues, we have four of them. Little Stella is a pug Boston terrier mix from California, and we have a golden retriever from a shelter in Las Vegas. And we have Smokey named after Tony Stewart, who’s a little Pitbull mix. I got him when I was with Tony so I named him after him because Tony made me get him. And we just rescued another little purebred Pitbull puppy from another local rescue. Her name is Fancy.
Tell us about your work with the Children’s Bureau.
Whenever there’s a kid’s birthday, they’ll let us know their favorite color, and we’ll get that ribbon color, and their favorite flavor of cake, and we’ll deliver that to them.
It’s an amazing thing to be a part of, and it makes them so happy. Kids associate their birthday with cake, and for us to be able to do that is awesome. And it brings all the other kids in the shelter together, they get to celebrate together. It’s been a really beautiful relationship that we’ve built. The kids are just elated to have that time, even while going through such an awful time in their life, because they get to have a birthday party and feel normal and special.
It seems like your life is dedicated to happiness, whether it be pursuing happiness or spreading it to others.
That’s a really good synopsis. That’s kind of my mantra: just always find happiness. Whatever way to get there, it’s all about happiness because that fuels more happiness. And why be stuck otherwise, living a life that’s not? So making other people happy, that’s the way to do it.
Order here from Jamie Little at Nothing Bundt Cakes at Keystone at the Crossing, Indianapolis and follow her and her adventures and community giving on Instagram at @JamieLittleTv.
