“America on the Road” hits the highway to the Midwest in this edition. Over the course of just a couple of days at the wheel of a new Mazda CX-9 Signature, our intrepid crew set down in Kansas City, Missouri. The goals were multi-fold: attend a Kansas City Royals baseball game at Kaufman Stadium, sample the legendary Z-Man sandwich at Joe’s Kansas City Barbecue, tour KC’s now-revived Union Station, and witness a country concert featuring Thomas Rhett, Conner Smith, and Parker McCollum. Almost too much good stuff for a 48-hour visit.

The challenging itinerary included a drive from Kansas City to Columbia, Missouri, in time to see the concert held on the campus of the University of Missouri. On the face of it, that’s not too hard. But we left KC after touring all the major sites in that city hoping to have enough leeway to get prime Midwest steaks at CC’s Broiler in Columbia. Oh, and then we had to drive back the 120 miles to KC after the concert before getting some scant minutes of sleep. Just to increase the degree of difficulty, the state of Missouri decided to shut down all the northbound lanes of Interstate 70 between the two cities in the middle of that dark and rainy night. The good news is the Mazda CX-9, one of our favorite crossovers, took it all in stride. All four of our AOTR crew arrived at each destination fresh, relaxed, and ready to devour another mammoth meal.

In addition to full road trip coverage, this week we have the details on the just-announced all-new Maserati GranTurismo, and it is one hot car. It comes with not one but instead two very innovative powertrains — a 550-hp twin-turbo gasoline engine and a 760-hp all-wheel-drive electric. The car keeps its classic proportions, but it is obvious that the very best of Italian design and technology has been brought to bear. In an era when so many cars are “international,” the Maserati Gran Turismo wears its Italian heritage on its sleeve.

And speaking of Italian heritage, our guest co-host Matt DeLorenzo is also our special guest this week. He is the author of the just-published book How To Buy An Affordable Electric Car: A Tightwad’s Guide to EV Ownership. Certainly, the heat has been growing under the EV movement lately, but is there more smoke than fire? DeLorenzo and host Jack Nerad will sort out the situation in the interview segment. Our guest isn’t just a renowned auto expert, but he has also walked the walk by buying his own affordable electric car. And he will detail what the future for battery-electric vehicles will hold.

All that and a look at auto sales coming up in this episode of “America on the Road.”