2026 Media Guide

2025 WRANGLER NFR PERSONNEL

Dusty Myers – Barrelman Dusty Myers’ dreams of climbing in the barrel on the biggest stage in rodeo came true this December. For the first time since 2019, the NFR featured a new clown in the center of the arena, and Myers made his debut in Las Vegas. “I can’t explain it. This is a lifelong dream,” Myers told The Chute Bosses ahead of his first NFR. “I’ve been dressing up as a clown since I was a little kid. (ProRodeo Hall of Famer) Lecile Harris was my role model, and when I was two or three years old, I dressed up like a clown. Now I’m at the National Finals. There’s not a better feeling, I promise you.” Ahead of this year’s vote, Myers finished as a top 5 barrelman in the NFR voting six times. He’d been named a finalist for comedy act of the year twice and he’d made a name for himself at rodeos across the country since he joined the PRCA in 2018. Myers has performed at the Southeastern Circuit Finals three times and also appeared at the First Frontier Circuit Finals and Prairie Circuit Finals. He’s also been a staple at rodeos in other associations and even put on a show at the U.S. Embassy in front of the Prince of Saudi Arabia. John Harrison, who won a fourth-straight triple crown at the PRCA Awards Banquet (comedy act of the year, Coors man in the can and clown of the year), manned the barrel 11 times from 2012-24. This year marked the first NFR since 2017 with a clown other than Harrison in the barrel. “John Harrison is a veteran here. He’s been here for years and years,”Myers said.“John said, ‘Soak it up, every night is different. You’re in front of eighteen thousand screaming fans that come from all around the world to see you.’ That’s it, I’m speechless. All week long, you’re not going to see anybody with a bigger smile on their face than me. I’m so glad to be here.” Myers remembers exactly what he was doing in October last year when he received the call from the PRCA that’d he’d been selected to work the NFR. “I was at a rodeo getting ready to go in the arena,” Myers recalled. “I had to stop. I’ve never messed up my clown makeup that many times. I was literally shaking. I was speechless because this was a lifelong dream. This is anybody’s dream that does what we do. That call, I’ll never forget it.” Austin Ashley – Bullfighter Austin Ashley received the call of a lifetime this past year, when he was selected to serve as a bullfighter at the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo for the first time. The 24-year-old from Ada, Okla., joined the PRCA in 2022. In less than four years, he advanced to the top of the sport, protecting bull riders at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. “I’ve always had a deep desire ever since I was a little kid to be a bullfighter,” Ashley said. “Even on Halloween (when I was a kid) I’d dress up as a bullfighter.” At the NFR, Ashley worked alongside two of the most accomplished bullfighters in PRORODEO history, 10-time PRCA Bullfighter of the Year Dusty Tuckness and six-time reigning PRCA Bullfighter of the Year Cody Webster. Ashley has looked up to that duo since he was a young kid going to rodeos with his stepdad, who raised bucking bulls not too far from his hometown of Ada. “When I was 8 or 9 years old, one of the young hot kids that was coming around fighting bulls was Cody Webster,” Ashley said. “He was probably 17 or 18 around that time and just getting going. So I’ve known him ever since I was little, around 12 or 13, he had his own place, going with a practice pen, and really took me under his wing. “Around the same time, Dusty Tuckness got a place (in Oklahoma), and he’s not too far away. There have always been great bullfighters who moved to Oklahoma. So I’ve always been surrounded by the best guys to help me succeed and spread their wisdom over me. I’ve tried to soak it all in from everybody.”

BULLFIGHTERS, CLOWNS AND BARRELMEN

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2026 PRCA MEDIA GUIDE