Pete Pistone
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | Pistol Pete Paisan |
| Nationality | American |
| Ethnicity | Caucasian |
| Born |
June 15, 1964 Chicago |
| Residence | Chicago |
| Alma mater | Northern Illinois University |
| Occupation |
NASCAR commentator Pit reporter Radio show host |
| Years active | 1986–present |
| Employer |
Motor Racing Network Sirius XM MLB.com |
| Other interests | Chicago Bears, Chicago Blackhawks, Chicago Bulls, Chicago Cubs |
| Updated on December 29, 2015. | |
Pete Pistone is an American motorsports journalist and commentator who works for the Motor Racing Network. He is the lead writer for MRN.com and has worked for the radio network since 2009 after they purchased RacingOne.com. Since 2009, Pistone has been a co-host of the nationally syndicated Sirius XM show The Morning Drive on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio.
Born in Chicago, Pistone became "exposed to racing from day one because my family was in the sport (being his uncle Tom Pistone was a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver and winner in the 1950's). I spent one summer with Tiger when he was running the old late model sportsman division and I remember riding in the race car with my cousins on a hauler going to track after track after track on a nightly basis. When I got old enough to get my license the Chicago and Midwest short track world was my oyster and places like Grundy County Speedway, Illiana Speedway, Slinger Speedway were regular trips as well as following the old ARTGO Series and ASA. I landed the track announcer job at Rockford Speedway thanks to the Deery family and would drive there twice a week from our northwest suburban Chicago home to announce as well as at special races."
After graduating from Northern Illinois University, Pistone spent 10 years hosting a weekly motorsports show called "Victory Lane" on Chicagoland Television. In 1997, he was hired by the Chicago Sun-Times and spent six years as the motorsports reporter/columnist for the paper where he covered NASCAR and other forms of racing. In 2003, he was hired at the same position by CBSSports.com where he spent the next six years. In 2001, he along with fellow Chicago native Jeff Wackerlin created RacingOne.com which he described as "one of the first of its kind during the blossoming era of the Internet. It was a new experience writing and reporting in the online world and not in the more traditional manner of print or broadcast and to say there were some growing pains is an understatement. We had to prove to sanctioning bodies like NASCAR and IndyCar that we were legitimate media in order receive access and there were a number of tracks that wouldn't grant us credentials because they didn't recognize the scope or depth of digital reporting back then. In fact (David) Poole was a help in getting some tracks to allow us access. Long story short the original group ran out of money, which wasn't unique in the relatively early Internet days, and we went through a number of different ownership groups to keep going. Finally International Speedway Corporation (ISC) bought us and in time the site changed over to be aligned with MRN and amplify the radio network as a digital property. Since I had broadcasting experience as well as my writing and reporting background, our network president David Hyatt gave me a shot at working on air as a pit reporter in addition to creating content for the site. So over my years I've become a hybrid reporter for the network and company and get to work in the best of both worlds for me in both on-air and digital roles."
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