I write this with Southern Cindi close to heart as she was often the voice of respect for all drivers and their fans. 

I wanted to share some of my personal experiences meeting some of the NASCAR drivers from the 3 weeks I spent in the garages as the Miller Lite Next Great Sportswriter.  I also have some thoughts on how we relate to them as we head into the 2008 season.   These are only a fraction of the drivers, and notably Kurt Busch is missing.  Since I had so much access to him, he will get his own blog in the near future.  If you want to know about your favorite, just ask!

Jeff Gordon  -  I was very impressed with Gordon in person. He has a presence in the garage, and is very approachable.   He was also the only driver to do his media interview outside his hauler without his sunglasses on!  His PR guy was very clear Jeff was only available for 15 minutes, but when time was up, after the main media outlets had most of the time, Jeff said he would stay for as long as it took to answer everyone’s questions.  I would have never gotten a chance to talk to him if he hadn’t stuck around for longer.   

When I finally did get to ask my question, he made eye contact and spoke directly to me, just like we were having a private conversation.  He allowed me to follow up naturally and we had an actual conversation.  He was one of the only drivers I met who spoke to each individual asking the question, not just the camera. 

The perception I hear a lot is that he is “whiney.”  Quite the contrary, Gordon spoke well of himself and others, took responsibility for his mistakes and gave praise where it was due. 

Dale Earnhardt, Jr. – (AKA the ghost)  I rarely saw Junior in the garage area and when I did he was surrounded by fans, media and his “handlers.”  In the three weeks I spent in the garage, I probably saw him once a weekend.  He would appear at his car for qualifying and disappear from it just as mysteriously.   I saw him once outside his hauler doing PR with the NAVY and his PR team had a boundary set up so you couldn’t get anywhere near him due to the crush of fans trying to get a glimpse.  

I did get a front row spot during his press conference at Homestead to announce the new paint scheme on the NAVY car and Brad Keselowski’s extended contract for his Busch team.  Junior seemed shy, quiet, and a little uncomfortable in the formal press meeting.   He did an excellent job of keeping the questions away from himself as a driver and squarely on the Busch team.  He cracked a big smile when Brad said, “Gee, you know its an important event when you see Junior wearing a button down shirt!”   He also seemed much more at ease unveiling the new paint scheme and doing the pictures.  The media absolutely bombarded him afterward, so instead of trying to get in there, I spent some quality time interviewing Brad instead.  Brad and I had a great 10 minute private conversation about his upcoming year, his goals, and what it was like to drive for Junior.   That young man will definitely be one to watch! 

I also got to talk to Kerry Earnhardt for quite a while as he sat on the steps of Truex’s hauler next to us.   We started the conversation trying to figure out i####uy in the garage was Tom Cruise.  Kerry said he couldn’t tell from the back…he didn’t look at Cruise’s butt that much!  Too funny.   He said his brother was pretty emotional going into his final race with DEI and that he was a little worried about him. 

The biggest eye opener I had about Jr is that he is truly “hunted” and has so little privacy, so few he can trust, and it made me kind of sad to see the high price he pays for being so popular. 

 Matt Kenseth- Matt was very business-like in person, but very patient and thorough in his answers.   He was never in a rush with fans and had a good sense of humor.    When I asked him who his biggest competition was at Phoenix he laughed and said “I have no idea.”  Stupidly, I also asked if he thought he had a shot at the pole and he replied, “Well, we are terrible at qualifying but you never know…”  I was happy he responded good naturedly to something I should have known about him.   I am sure the drivers get very sick of answering not only stupid questions, but it also seems as if they answer the same questions over and over too.  

I also had a chance to chat with Robbie Reiser, Matt’s crew chief at the time, while they were waiting to go through inspection.   I just happened to catch Robbie’s eye and asked if he was excited about his new job.   Robbie proceeded to respond as if he knew me from long ago, dropping names like I should know who he was talking about, and really honestly engaging in the conversation.   He was openly excited about his new gig and clearly wanted to share it.  In fact, all the crew chiefs were much more laid back than I had anticipated and all of them were willing to talk to fans as long as they were not busy.

What I learned from Matt and others is the amount of patience they all must have in dealing with the press, some of whom never follow NASCAR, but who have the power to change our impressions of them with a strike on the keyboard.

 Sterling Marlin- At one practice, many of the drivers got into their cars and lined them up early so they were just sitting there with the window nets down waiting.  I moved along down the line and towards the end came upon Sterling Marlin.  I am a big fan of Sterling and I slowly approached him as he was talking to a crew member.  He told his crewman to get out of the way, took his helmet off, grinning, so I could get a good picture and then took the time to talk to me.  I told him how much I enjoyed watching him race and fans loved him.  He said he would hang in there as long as he could and it was still fun.  He was definitely happy to hear people were still rooting for him. 

I also had the pleasure of watching qualifying sitting on the pit road wall next to his crew.  They were, unfortunately, sweating bullets trying to get Sterling into the race because they were out of the top 35.  They said that rule was killing the single car teams and that their boss wouldn’t field the car for the full season if Sterling couldn’t get in the top 35 next year.   Sterling laid down a great lap and made the race, but only time will tell if he can keep racing and keep his team employed. 

Sterling and his crew showed me first hand, how much pressure the sport creates, how much the rules affect the small teams, and how many people are directly affected if they don’t make a race.

 Tony Stewart- Unfortunately, Tony’s dislike of the media is not a myth.  All drivers in the Chase were mandated to meet with the media each weekend yet Tony seemed to figure out ways to make that as difficult as possible.  He was the only one who scheduled his interview time “immediately after his qualifying run” and I never once caught him.  

He was present in the garage and tended to linger by his car until a mass of people surrounded and trapped him in there.  Then he would appear to toy with the fans as he would turn around, talk to various crew or sponsors, turn to leave, and then go back and read the computer scoring again.  He would then put on his game face and power through the crowd, rarely stopping despite lots of requests for autographs.   In fact, once I saw him tell a guy to “get outta my face if you don’t have a Sharpie.”  The guy was clearly a guest of one of Tony’s sponsors, because another guy grabbed the hat and went right up to Tony who was strapped in the car by that point and made him sign it!   Tony was clearly not very happy with the reprimand. 

This is a great example of how “owned” these guys really are and why it is no wonder they express frustration on camera at times.  Could you imagine people doing that to you at work all day every day?

 Kasey Kahne- I was lucky enough to be able to interview Kasey for his Busch race at Phoenix driving the Doublemint Car.  When my camera crew asked me to test the sound, all I could come up with was “Oh my God, he is cute!”   The other funny thing was that the local newscaster deferred to me (remember I am NOT a real sportscaster!) so I got to interview him first.  I launched into my first question, “So Kasey, can you drive and chew gum at the same time?”  Kasey looked at me with complete shock and then laughed saying, “yeah, I think so!”   I then asked him, “How many pieces of Doublemint do you need to blow a bubble?”   He thought, “at least 3 or 4” as he laughed along with me.  I then started asking him about his Busch ride and more racing topics.  Kasey was great about it and seemed to enjoy not having to be so serious all the time. 

Again, it was very interesting to see how unusual it is for these guys to let their guard down with the media.  They all seem to tread so carefully because they have so little power to change their image.  It also made me sad to see how careful they had to be at all times. 

 Ryan Newman- I had the pleasure of a private interview with Ryan during the Penske announcement event for Sam Hornish, Jr.  Ryan was very laid back and was the only driver who noticed, “I haven’t ever seen you before, who do you work for?”   I told him briefly about winning the contest and the grand prize and he said, “don’t be nervous, just ask ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions!”   I also saw Ryan being interviewed by a young boy in the garage area.  Ryan took the time to let the young man ask questions and answered them seriously.   Meeting Ryan definitely won me over as a fan since I had never seen that side of him on TV before.

Again, my impression of Ryan had always been that he was the “engineer” who was always serious.  Actually, he was one of the most laid back drivers and had a great sense of humor!  

One of the biggest lessons I learned is that they are all just people too.  I left with a whole new respect for all of the NASCAR drivers after spending so much time in the garages last year.   They are under a tremendous amount of pressure to perform on and off the track.   I witnessed them trying to just do their jobs and having to run the fan gauntlet between their cars and haulers like hunted animals.  It was clear not many people could put up with that kind of attention all the time.  

Many will argue that they get paid MILLIONS to deal with the fame and pressure, but really, they are being paid for their talents to drive a race car.   They are only human, trying to do their best and making mistakes all under tremendous scrutiny from fans, media, their sponsors, and owners.  Would you do it?

The only other time I was truly horrified while at the track was when I witnessed fans screaming insults and personal attacks at the drivers during driver introductions.   The insults and personal attacks we hurl at drivers from the stands, in the garages, even in our comments on these blogs and articles, are simply unacceptable no matter how bad you “hate them.”    

Remember, the media is our main access to the drivers and I now know many of my perceptions were skewed, yours could be too.  Be careful “hating” someone you don’t actually know and remember they are only human and those comments hurt.  They are also someone’s son, father, or husband and its painful for their loved ones to hear the comments too.

I know NASCAR thrives on good rivalries and rooting for and against drivers and teams, but next time your taking glee in “hating” on a driver or watching him wreck, ask yourself if you would say the same if you really knew him.  Have fun with it but let’s respect ALL the drivers for their talents AND each other no matter who your favorite is…