It’s fitting that at Delaware’s most well-known sports landmark, Dover International Speedway, a native son would describe the action on the track.
Mike Bagley, who grew up in Milford, works as an announcer for Motor Racing Network (MRN), the “Voice of NASCAR.” With his laid-back, almost folksy demeanor, Bagley still remains a child of Sussex County.
Bagley calls the action in the booth, in the pits and in the turns. Being part of the MRN team is the culmination of a lifetime dream for Bagley.
“I used to listen to MRN as a kid,” he said. “And I used to have a box of Matchbox cars. We used to have shag rug in our den and whenever the race was that weekend I would mat the shag rug down in the shape of a track and I would turn the radio on.”
“Some of the guys I used to listen to as a kid, I work with now. Barney Hall, Mike Joy, who’s now with Fox Sports. Eli Gold, who’s been a longtime anchor, Ned Jarrett, Jerry Punch. I used to listen to their play-by-play and I used to move the cars around on the shag rug track,” Bagley said.
At age 15, Bagley began to pursue his dream of working for MRN. He sent in a letter to the president of MRN, John McMullin, asking for a job lugging boxes, driving wires, whatever he could do.
“I wasn’t expecting to get a letter or any response back. One day I got a letter and he said ‘Sure, we’d would love to have you help us when we come to Dover,’” Bagley said.
From there, Bagley found work as a production assistant with MRN, which he did for a number of years, getting his “foot in the door,” as he says. He’s now in his 22nd year with MRN and will be entering his 15th year as a broadcaster.
With MRN, Bagley serves as a jack-of-all-trades. For the June 1-3 race weekend in Dover, Bagley was in the broadcast booth for the Bud pole qualifying, in the backstretch turn for the truck series race and in the pits for both the Busch and Nextel Cup races.
While broadcasting in the booth and the pits is fairly straightforward, working the turns requires a little more improvisation. The lead announcers throw Bagley a battle between drivers or Bagley himself must find a battle and then do his play-by-play from there.
“What I love the most about being in the turns is, with radio, radio is all about theater of the mind,” Bagley said. “So for those that don’t have the luxury of watching the race on television, turning the sound down and listening to MRN, we are their mental television. We paint pictures for the people who are listening.”
While Bagley loves coming to Dover, his favorite track is the legendary Talladega Super Speedway.
“Talladega is the only track where I do play-by-play, where literally, the hair is standing up on the back of my neck, from the time the green flag falls to the time the checkered flag flies,” Bagley said. “Barney Hall coined this phrase years ago, ‘They don’t race anywhere in the world like they race at Talladega.’ And it’s 100 percent accurate.”
Still, Bagley hasn’t forgotten his roots in Milford. Whenever he’s in Dover, schedule permitting, he tries to get back to his hometown. He will stay a little longer after this race to visit his family, his old neighborhood and take a trip to Rehoboth Beach.
“Milford was, at the time when I was there, you didn’t realize how small it was until you were able to go to other places,” Bagley said. “Growing up in Milford was cool, but it was very, very small and it was very different from where we are now. It’s incredible to see how that place has just exploded, growth-wise.”
Contact Ryan Mavity at ryanm@capegazette.com
