Speed cuts through the bull
Only a handful of drivers have led laps in both races in 2010. Scott Speed is one of them, which is saying something.
As a rookie in 2009, Speed struggled in his transition from the high-tech world of Formula 1 racing to the bulky taxi cabs of NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series. He recorded just one top 10 all season en route to a disappointing 35th-place finish in the standings.
So far, though, things have been different this season as Speed sits 15th in points heading into Race No. 3 on the schedule.
Speed talked to Yahoo! Sports about the difficult transition to the world of NASCAR, what the "Red Bull lifestyle" means to him and, in a moment of sheer honesty, what he wants you to know most about him:
1. Y! Sports: What do you attribute your progress so far this season to?
Scott Speed: A ton of it is experience. These cars are so different and the racing is so different from what I've done. It takes a while to make that transition; to make that change. You see it with every open wheel driver who comes here.
For us, things started clicking at the end of last year. We knew we were a lot better than we showed. We expected to be a lot better than we were all of last year, but we didn't expect to come out here and run top 10 in California.
Daytona is one of those places where we knew we were already reasonable at and it's one of those tracks where you have to miss the wrecks and if you do you're going to end up alright. So that finish there was more or less OK. The last time we came to the Daytona 500 we wrecked four cars and none of them were our fault. We were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. This year was a little bit of a balance out of that bad luck.
To say the least, things have turned around a lot from that race to this [Daytona 500], things were a mile better.
2. Y! Sports: You've led late in both races this season. Did you ever allow yourself to think, Hey, I might be able to win one of these races?
Speed: In the positions we were in, a lot depended on chance, but you do gotta put yourself in position to win.
At California, we put ourselves in a position to win like Joey Logano won his race. The rain was coming; we had a little bit better fuel mileage than everyone at that time, so we were able to stay out longer and take a bigger chance with the weather. But that also came at a price. Because it didn't rain, we had to come in to pit and we fell back in the 20s somewhere and we had to drive our way back up to the top 10. So, it came with a cost, but it was sort of being in a position to take a gamble and take a risk off pit strategy and as it turns out it was a very good idea for us, because not only did we lead some laps and get five bonus points for that, we also put ourselves in a really good position.
3. Y! Sports: Are you and Kyle Busch getting into any trouble out in the desert?
Speed: We're taking it easy with the Busch family out there. I've never been to the sand dunes, so I tried to do a little bit of everything. It was a good time for sure.
4. Y! Sports: Are you paying attention to the Olympics?
Speed: Of course. I'm watching a little bit of everything, but there's a special place in my heart for Shaun White and Lindsey Vonn, being Red Bull athletes.
5. We hear about this "Red Bull lifestyle." What does the Red Bull lifestyle entail for you?
Speed: I've never been the kind of racing driver who goes in dressed like a businessman, dressed in slacks and a polo T-shirt at the race track and tried to con people out of money to sponsor us. That's never been my thing. I've never been the one who's been very politician-like. I'd hate to talk and just say b.s. because that's what everyone wants to hear. I've always sort of spoke my mind. And I'm in a position now and have been since I was 19 since I've been supported by Red Bull – they encourage me to be myself and to speak my mind. And to that end, it's a really good fit for both of us. All good things with Red Bull.
6. Y! Sports: Who's the genius behind "Milk and Cereal?"
Speed: Oh, good lord. That was something that my buddy found on the Internet. We saw a couple of versions of it. At that time I was racing in Europe and we'd only come back to America in December and January. And what we'd do when we were in Arizona where my manager's from – that's kind of our headquarters – and we would train all day, about 20 hours a week.
During the off time of that, you didn't want to do anything like going out. So we just stayed in the house and kind of zombied out. So to entertain ourselves we'd do whatever we could not to waste any energy, I guess, so that's what we came up with.
Honestly, we did that whole thing in about 20 minutes. It didn't get on YouTube for almost three years after we did it. I still to this day do not know how it got in YouTube. I just remember the phone call from my buddy Colin [Fleming].
'Scott, Milk and Cereal just made YouTube.'
I was like, Oh boy.
7. Y! Sports: What is the competitive difference between being an F1 driver and a NASCAR driver?
Speed: Clearly Formula 1 is a bigger sport worldwide. I think it's the third-largest sport in the world. Could not be, but it was when I was there, only being smaller than the Olympics and World Cup soccer.
But worldwide, it gets everyone involved besides our country. It's kind of weird, you know, our country has never really been a huge part of Formula 1, and I can't really understand why.
You know, the sport is primarily based in Europe, and you have the whole rest of the world watching it and trying to compete in it.
So, you want to say it's more competitive in that sense, but in NASCAR you have 43 guys and all of them are very, very talented racing drivers and they all have very similar equipment. So, racing and sort of dog-fighting, if you will – that accounts a lot for how well you do in the sport – because it's not enough just to be fast, and that's just a little bit different than Formula 1. Although you get to race a little bit, for the most part you're by yourself.
8. Y! Sports: What's the most frivolous thing you spend money on?
Speed: Sunglasses. I lost nine pairs last year. I wouldn't necessarily say I waste a lot of money on it just because I don't want a sunglasses sponsor necessarily. They'd have to pay me a lot of money to wear one brand of sunglasses. I like the freedom to wear whatever I want.
It's the one thing as a racing driver you can always wear and kind of define your personality a little bit besides a branded Red Bull cap or wear something most everybody else has to wear. You know, at Red Bull we have the most lax rules ever. As long as I have something that says Red Bull on me – and I have a lot of options to choose from – they're happy. So it's a lot different than other NASCAR drivers.
9. Y! Sports: You're a California native living in North Carolina. So which are you – are you a little bit country or a little bit rock 'n roll?
Speed: Dude, I'm zero country. My wife is 100 percent country. And, I would say honestly I'm more influenced by the time I spent in Europe than growing up in California.
It's one of those things where I lived in California my whole life, and when I was 19 I moved from my parent's house and my parent's protection and I went out on my own and moved just outside of London in England for a year. And after that I moved and for about four years I was in Austria right next to headquarters of Red Bull.
So, obviously in Formula 1 and my time in Europe, I've travelled the whole world and I think that influenced me a lot in how I am today.
You know, just from the standpoint of when you move out from your own house and you move from your parent's station, you sort of develop what you are on your own and I did that in Europe.
9 ½: The one thing I want fans to know about me is …
Speed: That I was good at racing at some point. It's really hard making a transition into something when you were considered one of the best at what you do in the past industry, and that's why you were making the progress you were on the world stage in open wheel racing to trying to learn something as fast as you can and not look like an idiot. And it's hard. It was a very, very hard transition last year.
I tell my wife all the time, "You think I'm doing good now, but I wish you could have seen me when I was really actually good at something." Because this NASCAR thing is something I'm learning and getting better at, but I probably will never, ever be as good at NASCAR as I was in open wheel racing.
