FOX NASCAR Reporter Cavanna Redefines the Mixing of Business with Pleasure this Weekend at Atlanta

Dual-State Couple Rendezvous in Atlanta during Cavanna’s NASCAR Duties for FOX Sports this Weekend

CHARLOTTE, NC – FOX NASCAR reporter Alan Cavanna and his CNN national correspondent wife, Dianne Gallagher, have been married for nearly one year. Unlike most newlyweds, though, their nights at home often require a suitcase – for one.

To further both their careers, Cavanna and Gallagher currently reside in different cities until work permits them a shared zip code. For now, Cavanna, a reporter for FS1’s NASCAR RACE HUB, NASCAR RACEDAY and the NASCAR CAMPING WORLD TRUCK SERIES, calls Charlotte, N.C., home. Gallagher, whom he met while working in local TV in Charlotte, is based in Atlanta, site of their next “date night,” compliments of Cavanna’s FOX NASCAR duties at Atlanta Motor Speedway this weekend.

“We see each other as often as we can, but this is the first time work has brought us together since we got married,” Cavanna said. “We’ve looked forward to the Atlanta race because it will allow us to feel ‘normal’ for a few days — both of us staying in the same place and going off to work in the morning.”

The Atlanta race weekend serves as a bit of a trial run for the geographic logistics of their latest living situation. The reporter duo had the Washington-to-Charlotte commute and its challenges down pat, logging mile after mile whenever possible, even if for only two hours of face time. Now, it’s time to negotiate the Charlotte to Atlanta trek, including the dreaded I-85 route.

“We are just coming off of spending the entire off-season together and trying to figure out how our commute will look with the new racing season,” Cavanna explained. “Now that she is in Atlanta, will we see each other much more than we did when she was in D.C. That means a lot of trips up and down I-85.

“It’s not always easy, but we do what we have to to be together, even it’s just a few hours,” he continued. “One time she was flying through Charlotte on her way to a story. We were only able to see each other on the opposite side of the security rope, but it was worth it.”

Prior to being transferred to Atlanta last October, Gallagher had been based in Washington, D.C., with CNN for two-and-a-half years. Cavanna says the distance comes with the territory, and there were no issues with her relocating either time.

“Although it’s not ideal, it was just natural for her to move both times,” said Cavanna, a Syracuse University grad who has grown to love watching his wife’s alma mater, Tennessee, play football. “We know how that goes in TV, so it never was a surprise because we discussed our career aspirations long ago – me in NASCAR with FOX Sports and her on a network news stage. There never was a question about whether or not she’d take either job. We support each other.”

For Atlanta, that support comes in the form of Cavanna taking her to the race track for the weekend.

“Dianne has been around racing and the folks in the sport because she worked in local TV in Charlotte, but she has never been nearly as immersed as I am on a daily basis,” he said. “She definitely will go to the Cup Series race on Sunday, and if I can coax her into it, I just might get to make the entire weekend a working date night.”

Cavanna and Gallagher met while on work assignment, so it is only fitting their together time sometimes involves business.

“We met when we were both news reporters — she was based in Rock Hill, S.C., and I in Charlotte, and my assignment that day took me there,” Cavanna recalled. “We literally met in a courtroom. I asked to borrow her laptop, hopped onto her Facebook account and ‘friended’ myself from her computer. In retrospect, it sounds a little creepy. But it worked.”

They quickly became friends on and off the social media platform, but that one simple word, ‘work,’ perpetually has played a large role in their relationship ever since.

“Work doesn’t often take us to the same town, but we knew going into this relationship that could be a possibility,” Cavanna said. “Obviously, it’s not an ideal arrangement, but we are making it work. That’s important for both of us at this stage in our lives. We’re happy. After all, as The Killers’ song goes, ‘I won’t shine if you don’t shine.’”