NASCAR on NBC podcast, Episode XX: Mike Bagley, Pete Pistone of The Morning Drive

Mike Bagley and Pete Pistone take a turn answering questions on the latest NASCAR on NBC podcast instead of asking them as they do every morning on SiriusXM Satellite Radio.

The hosts of “The Morning Drive” became a team nearly seven years ago and since have been a fixture from 7-11 a.m. daily on SiriusXM’s NASCAR channel. Blending a mix of irreverence and frivolity with a discussion of hot-button issues and news, the show has become a direct line to the pulse of NASCAR Nation through its newsmaker interviews and fan debates.

NASCAR executive vice president and chief racing development officer Steve O’Donnell is a weekly guest on the program, an indication of its sway as a sounding board for the sanctioning body.

“We’re very well aware the listen to us in Charlotte and Daytona Beach,” said Bagley, who has hosted the show since 2008 and was joined by Pistone after the April 2009 death of journalist David Poole. “Really, that’s flattering to us because that tells me they value what we put out. And they value our listeners and our callers and the feedback and emails we get. They use that as a test of, ‘Hmm, the boys are talking about this this morning. What are the fans saying?”

Other topics covered by Bagley and Pistone:

–How they handle controversial subjects, detractors and the fine line between hearing fans out and shutting down the unhealthy debates;

–Their divergent personalities and backgrounds in NASCAR and how it shapes the direction and tenor of the show;

–What’s worked and hasn’t among the show’s regular features and some of the best and worst interviews.

After the segment with Bagley and Pistone, NBC Sports motorsports researcher Christopher Lees stops by to add historical and statistical perspective to the triumphs of Indianapolis 500 winner Alexander Rossi and Coca-Cola 600 winner Martin Truex Jr.

You can listen to the podcast by clicking below or download and subscribe to it on iTunes by clicking here. The free subscription will provide automatic downloads of new episodes to your smartphone. It also is available on Stitcher

Here are times cues for easy referencing while listening to the episode:

NASCAR ‘back to the drawing board’ to improve passing up front after Coca-Cola 600

Executive vice president Steve O’Donnell said Martin Truex Jr.’s dominant victory in the Coca-Cola 600 has NASCAR heading “back to the drawing board” to improve its 1.5-mile racing.

O’Donnell, the chief racing development officer for NASCAR, credited Truex and Furniture Row Racing for its “blowout” victory in which the No. 78 Toyota led a record 392 of 400 laps at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

“Certainly great for Martin Truex Jr. and the race team and Furniture Row and (owner) Barney Visser,” O’Donnell told SiriusXM NASCAR’s “The Morning Drive” in his weekly appearance. “But also certainly a challenging race for us and things we’ve already learned and going to back to the drawing board, and one of our stated goals is passing up front. That was not what we saw (Sunday) night.

“Not to take anything away from Martin. He had the car to beat, and he didn’t give it up all night long.”

The quality of racing was in contrast to the Sprint All-Star Race the previous week on the same track. NASCAR changed its rear-toe alignment rules for the All-Star Race, restricting the amount of “skew” teams can employ to improve handling and stability. As a result, there hardly were any spins in the longest race of the season as several drivers said their cars felt more comfortable on the 1.5-mile oval.

O’Donnell said NASCAR used different rules in successive weekends at Charlotte to prove out whether the changes had a significant impact. Nearly four hours of mostly lackluster racing Sunday affirmed that.

“That’s one of the reasons we ran two different things to have some comparative data,” O’Donnell said. “We saw some really good things with the skew we had for the All-Star Race. It’s something we can immediately pull the lever on.”

NASCAR already announced last week that the skew rules from the All-Star Race would be used for the June 12 race at Michigan International Speedway and the July 9 event at Kentucky Speedway.

O’Donnell also said NASCAR would look at finding ways to improve tire wear in night races, which typically have cooler track conditions.

“More so than anything, you immediately look at the partnership with Goodyear and what we need to do to really look at how we wear tires as much as possible, particularly at night races,” he said. “We can go to work on that.

“Goodyear has been a great partner this year from the rules package and matching that up. We’ve seen some really strong results, particularly in the day races. Obviously, we’ve got some things to look at as we look at some of the future night races and see what we can do with that tire combination and the rules package.”

O’Donnell also conceded when a driver has a car as good as Truex’s was, there only is so much that can be done to improve passing at the front of the pack. There were nine lead changes across 600 miles Sunday, mostly during green-flag pit sequences.

“It’s one of those things,” O’Donnell said. “(NASCAR Chairman) Brian (France) said this. We only have one race to compare against vs. 14 to 15 NFL games, or 10 NBA games. But if you do look at, and we do compare ourselves in terms of being a playoff sport each and every week, and you’ll have those blowouts from time to time.

“I don’t want to by any means take anything away from what Martin, (crew chief) Cole Pearn and that team has done because they are more deserving of that win. He is a great story. When you look at it, he’s a guy who you expect could win a championship now. That is just great to see.”

Miesha Tate named grand marshal for Michigan Sprint Cup race

Miesha Tate, the UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion, has been announced as the grand marshal for the June 12 Sprint Cup race at Michigan International Speedway.

Tate will give the command to start engines for the FireKeepers Casino 400.

Tate, who is represented by Kevin Harvick‘s KHI Management, holds a 18-5-0 record in her professional MMA career and a 5-2-0 UFC record.

In March, Tate defeated then-champ Holly Holm in the fifth round of UFC 196 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. The next day she attended the Sprint Cup race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

“I’m excited and honored to be the grand marshal for the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway,” Tate said in a release. “There are a lot of things I look forward to doing at the track, but to give the command to start the engines is at the top of my list for sure.”

NASCAR America: Parker Kligerman makes triumphant return to the ARCA series

Camping World Truck Series driver and NBCSN analyst Parker Kligerman made his first ARCA start in nearly seven years a memorable one, winning Saturday at New Jersey Motorsports Park.

Kligerman was 2009 ARCA rookie of the year, winning nine of 21 starts.

During Monday’s NASCAR America, he discussed his victory and his affinity for road courses.

Post-Charlotte notebook: Truex achievements make for a long list

Martin Truex Jr.’s dominant victory in Sunday night’s Coca-Cola 600 was notable on a number of accounts.

Not only was it his fourth career win in 382 career Sprint Cup starts, it was his first win in nearly a year (34 races, last win was June 2015 at Pocono).

Here are several more nuggets that also are notable (courtesy of Racing Insights).

* In just 13 races this season, Truex has led more laps (809) than he has in any other season in the Sprint Cup Series. The most laps Truex had led in a previous season was 581 in 2007 and 567 in 2015.

* It was the first win by a single-car team in the Coca-Cola 600 since Bobby Labonte for Joe Gibbs Racing in 1995.

* Truex became the first driver in 40 years to win the Coca-Cola 600 from the pole. David Pearson last did so in NASCAR’s longest race of the year in 1976.

* Truex wasted little time in earning the win. In fact, all drivers wasted little time, as it was the quickest race in Coca-Cola 600 history: Just 3 hours, 44 minutes and 8 seconds.

* The average speed in Sunday’s race was also the fastest in Coca-Cola 600 history: 160.644 mph.

* Truex led 98 percent of the 400 laps. That’s the most dominating win in the last 714 races, dating back to September 2000 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, when current NBC NASCAR analyst Jeff Burton led 100 percent of the laps.

* With 13 races, 23 races remain in the 2016 Sprint Cup season. However, time is getting more crucial for drivers to qualify for the Chase for the Sprint Cup. Only 13 races remain to make the Chase. Truex is the eighth driver to win a race in 2016, meaning there still are eight spots remaining to fill the 16-driver Chase field.

* With his late May win at Charlotte, Truex began a new timetable of sorts. All three of his previous Sprint Cup wins came in June.

Jimmie Johnson impressed by Martin Truex Jr.’s dominance: ‘He was playing with us’

CONCORD, N.C. – Surrounded by throngs of microphones and recorders, Jimmie Johnson suddenly darted away from his No. 48 Chevrolet at the sound of an engine rumbling through the pits.

The six-time Sprint Cup champion wasn’t running away from the reporters who still had questions about his third-place finish in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Johnson was running toward the driver he and everyone else couldn’t catch Sunday night – Martin Truex Jr.

“He was too damn fast not to” congratulate, Johnson told reporters with a laugh after returning from high-fiving the Furniture Row Racing rival.

Few could relate to the dominant victory by Truex, who led 392 of 400 laps – a NASCAR-record 588 miles led. But if anyone had some perspective, it was Johnson, a four-time winner of the Coke 600 who led 334 laps at Charlotte in a May 2004 victory.

“It just means so much to the team,” Johnson said. “It’s a long night. It’s hard to stay that good for that long, and that’s something they’ll savor for weeks to come. It is so tough to start in the day and end in the night and have everybody covered like they did.”

Though he lost the runner-up slot to Kevin Harvick late in the race, Johnson might have mounted the strongest challenge to Truex’s No. 78 Toyota. On the final Lap 345 restart, Johnson briefly took the lead, but Truex led the final 55 circuits on the 1.5-mile track.

“I had to give him something for being a good sport,” Truex said with a laugh. “I just wanted to give him a taste of what it might feel like to lead this thing.”

Johnson said it did feel as if Truex “was playing with us. He was so fast. I would flatfoot (turns 1 and 2) and have a nose on him, and he would drive right back by me.

“He just drove by me on the straightaways. His car was just very strong. There were many times I thought I’d get close, then he’d pick the pace up a couple of 10ths (of a second). I think he had plenty of speed on his side and could really control the race, which is such a neat position to be in; I’ve been very fortunate to be there in the past. I hope to get a car we can control the race like that in the future.”

Johnson, who has seven wins at Charlotte but none better than 17th in his previous three stars, found some solace in having more speed.

“It just drove really good all night long,” he said. “I could drive the car, it wasn’t driving me. The last two times we’ve been here, I’ve been hanging on, so I think we’re going the right way with the race cars.”

Truex and his team already are there, having also led the most laps on the 1.5-mile ovals at Texas and Kansas. He hadn’t scored a top-five finish, though, since a runner-up in the season-opening Daytona 500, and that made his win popular among peers, Johnson said. Brad Keselowski also congratulated Truex on his way to victory lane.

“I think from a fan and garage perspective, he’s been so close (to a win),” Johnson said of Truex. “I just think Martin is really well liked. I know in the garage area, he’s just a good dude. Very happy for him.”

What drivers said after Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway

CONCORD, N.C. – Martin Truex’s No. 78 Toyota did all of the talking during the race, but many drivers still had something to say after Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Here’s what they were saying:

Martin Truex Jr. – finished first: “It meant a lot to me. Just kind of sinking in now, you know? We won the 600, so just really proud of my team. Everybody that made this possible and believed in me and gave me this opportunity. Man, my guys are just … they’re something special, so just got to thank all them. This is a big day, you know? Got the troops on the car – it’s a special weekend. It’s really neat to bring – to bring that name home and to victory lane, so just a lot of emotion right not and not real sure it’s sunk in yet but just an amazing day, an amazing weekend for all of us and just a weekend you dream about. … I had confidence. I had faith. I had confidence in my team. I’ve got a lot of great people behind me. Sherry’s (Pollex, girlfriend) – she gives me a lot of inspiration and we just keep fighting. We never give up. We never quit. … It feels awesome. Coca-Cola 600, man, this is one everybody wants to win. I feel like we had this thing won last year when we gave it up and just I don’t know. There are so many emotions, I had to unplug my radio and just ride around and think for a few minutes, because I didn’t even know what I was going to say or what I was going to do.”

Kevin Harvick – finished second: “Yeah, we struggled the first 450 miles, but they kept swinging at it and were finally able to find some tire pressures that were better.  At the beginning of the race, we were just having the same problem getting in the corner and then sliding the back of the car up off the corner, and towards the end we got the car on the racetrack a lot better and were able to really start driving it like we needed to keep up.  I think we’d have been better off if they would have just kept running, but when the caution came out, because we had caught (Truex), passed (Johnson) and then once he got new tires and an adjustment on there, it seemed like he was kind of able to get out in front of us, and we were never really able to make up any ground once we got around (Johnson). … We ran 10th all day.  I’m just really, really happy with when you’re able to take a 10th‑place car at best, for the first 450 miles and make adjustments on it, those are huge gains.  I was just happy we were competitive at the end of the race. We didn’t have the fastest car, obviously.”

Jimmie Johnson – finished third: ““It’s nice when you have a car like that.  I’m so proud of the effort we put in tonight.  This is the best car I’ve had in Charlotte for a long time.  It just shows you how good (Truex) was, and (Harvick) got a little bit better than us at the end.  I thought we had a chance at them a few times, a couple of times on the long run we would get close. A couple times on the restarts we would get close, but all-in-all a very strong performance for this Lowe’s Chevrolet.  Very proud of the team work and the support that we have from all the employees at Lowe’s.  Just came up a little short today.”

Denny Hamlin — finished fourth: “It was a battle, but we kept good track position all day – had one bad restart where I lost some spots, but other than that fourth is about par for us today. The pit crew did an amazing job all day keeping us up front and our car was pretty good at the end. That’s about what we had, nothing else. (Truex) did a great job, and we saw it in practice, he had a bunch of speed and really a lot of the mile-and-a-halves those guys have really hit on something really nice. We’ll go back and work and figure out what we can do to be better, but obviously a good top-five is a good step in the right direction for us.”

Brad Keselowski – finished fifth: “On the long green-flag runs, it seemed like we would be able to move up a little bit.  On short runs we would fall back, but we definitely didn’t have anything for those guys.  (Truex) and (Harvick) were just really fast, and Martin Truex deserves this finish.  He had a good run. It’s a long 600 miles and to come home fifth is decent.  It’s not what we want, but we needed a little bit more to be able to run with those guys. The day to night transition is always a challenge, but some places more than others.  I think this track in particular it’s more about the temperature and how hot it is during the day and the long mileage.”

Matt Kenseth — finished seventh: “We were kind of off all weekend. We obviously didn’t qualify good. I think that’s the worst I can remember qualifying since I’ve been over here at least, so we had pretty good pit stops most of the night. (Crew chief) Jason (Ratcliff) and those guys made good adjustments, and we worked out way towards the front as far as we could. … All weekend, really, just at times we could get the balance sort of OK, but we were way off on the speed and just had a hard time getting a nice corner balance and enough speed to be able to go race the good cars. (On colliding with Austin Dillon) Well, whenever you get hit on pit road it’s a surprise. I was just leaving honestly, and he was leaving his spot and I don’t know. They must have cleared him out of there and didn’t see me or something.”

Chase Elliott – finished eighth: “Definitely a long one, very difficult.  We fought hard and we are trying to get that next little bit.”

Joey Logano – finished ninth: “We got a pit road penalty. You’re trying to make pit stops so fast and you’re going to push everything to the edge.  I guess we jumped off the wall a little bit too soon.  I haven’t seen it, but unfortunately, that kind of made us make a green-flag pit stop, which is really hard to overcome.  Overall, we were able to get our lap back by racing up there, which was kind of cool.  We didn’t have to take a lucky dog or any of that.  We actually raced back to the lead lap, but we lost the balance a little bit on the last run and I couldn’t make much time once we got going. … As it got cooler and cooler out I felt like we lost a little bit of speed compared to the field.  Obviously, the more grip in the racetrack the tougher it was to try to pass, so there were a lot of things going against us there. … Yeah, we got a pit road penalty during one of those super-long green flag runs and had to make a pass-through and went down a lap.  We did a good job recovering without a caution because we were able to pass the leader back and be able to get back on the lead lap and then we finally got a caution, but it was so late in the race and you can only pick a couple off on the restart.  We kind of settled in there and it was hard to pass tonight, so I had a lot better car than ninth – that’s for sure.  I had something that could have finished in the top three or four, and maybe second.  We didn’t have anything for (Truex).  Martin Truex was on fire tonight and really all weekend.  They had it figured out. … We had our own battle to worry about.  There were times that we were racing him up front for the lead on restarts.  We’d run with him for a while and then eventually on the long run he just took off.  We had nothing for him, but at times I thought we were definitely a second-place car, but unfortunately it’s a distant second.”

Ryan Newman – finished 10th: ““I messed up and sped on pit road and it sent us back.  I don’t know that it cost us a whole lot.  I’m just proud of everybody on the Whelen Engineering Chevrolet. They came on board for this race to sponsor us.  Got a decent finish and decent point’s day, I guess, but congratulations to my buddy Martin. He deserved that one.”

Greg Biffle – finished 11th: “That’s all the speed we had.  It was a hard-fought battle and I think we’re gaining on it.  It’s frustrating that we didn’t get up to the top-five, but at times we could run top-five lap times.  It’s a huge amount of progress from where we’ve been, but we clearly have a little ways to go.  Everybody is working hard and hopefully we’ll get there soon.”

Ryan Blaney – finished 20th: “It was a long night, man. A really, really long night. Nothing could go right for us. That was the frustrating part. I didn’t do us any favors speeding on the first stop. I think we got most of our track position back after that. Then we had a green-flag stop, and there was a total miscommunication. The next stop we were able to line up with the lead-lap cars and the left-front wheel was loose and had to come back and change that tire. We just struggled from there on out. We definitely didn’t do ourselves any favors tonight. There’s some stuff we have to work on with the race car. I probably didn’t do the best job tonight.”

Kyle Busch — finished 33rd: “It was a tough night, start to finish. The car had great acceleration toward the end, but we were tight all night and really never able to pass anybody. Definitely not the run we wanted for our M&M’S Red, White and Blue Camry.”