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NASCAR on NBC podcast, Ep. 49: Mike Forde

Food City 500 - Practice

BRISTOL, TN - MARCH 15: View of the NASCAR logo during practice for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway on March 15, 2014 in Bristol, Tennessee. (Photo by Jerry Markland/Getty Images)

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NASCAR statistical guru Mike Forde was the guest on the latest NASCAR on NBC podcast, analyzing the Round of 8 and discussing how teams delve into numerology for advantages.

Forde explained the evolution of Loop Data, the statistics gleaned from scoring loops that were added to every track a little more than a decade ago. Its advent helped create a new category called driver rating, which compiles several statistics (such as average running position, average speed, average running position) generated by Loop Data.

While Loop Data mostly remains a niche interest, Forde said there has been increasing interest on social media (“fantasy players really devour that stuff”) and from NASCAR teams. Kyle Busch has been known to highlight his perfect driver ratings in postrace news conferences, and crew chiefs dispatch PR representatives to check with NASCAR’s Integrated Communications Department to check on discrepancies.

“NASCAR doesn’t’ get the credit for being as analytic as it is,” Forde said. “Teams have data analysts. We have data analysts. Something as simple as pit stall selection, the crew chiefs have the average finish of every single pit stall. … They’re begging NASCAR for (more stats).”

You can listen to the podcast by clicking on the AudioBoom embed below or download and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes by clicking here. The free subscription will provide automatic downloads of new episodes to your smartphone. It also is available on Stitcher by clicking here and also can be found on Google Play, Spotify and a host of other smartphone apps.

https://audioboom.com/posts/5210047-ep-49-mike-forde

Here are time codes for easy referencing while listening to the podcast.

mike-forde-time-codes