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12 Questions with Brad Keselowski (2018)

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The series of weekly driver interviews continues with Brad Keselowski of Team Penske. This is Keselowski’s eighth time doing a 12 Questions interview. The interview was recorded as a podcast, but is also transcribed for those who prefer to read.

1. How often do you have dreams about racing?

Probably three or four times a month.

That’s fairly often. Do you have nightmares? Just envision yourself driving?

A little bit of both. Sometimes it’s like I won a race. Sometimes it’s like the “I’m late to the car” thing. Or the “I don’t have any clothes on” dream, like you’re naked in the race car or at the race car. And then there’s sometimes the “Crash really hard and die” dream.

Oh! That took a dramatic turn there.

Yeah. It covers the whole spectrum.

2. If you get into someone during a race — intentional or not — does it matter if you apologize?

Eh. I don’t know. I mean, it’s racing. I feel like when you get in the car, you can expect those things are going to happen.

If you do something intentional, then yeah. You should have enough humility to accept the fact those things aren’t always necessary.

I was at Martinsville a few weeks ago and we were struggling — I had run into the back of somebody and broken the splitter. I’d been really good at Martinsville for the last few years, and we weren’t running as well as I know we were capable of. I didn’t know the reason was the splitter was damaged.

But AJ Allmendinger came up behind me and he was a little faster. I was already agitated because we weren’t running well, and then the second he caught me, he ran into the back of me. In my mind, it was like, “Dude, make a move! Don’t just run into someone.” So I was mad, and I ran into him.

A day or two later and I thought, “Man, I shouldn’t have done that. That really wasn’t cool.” So I said something to him, because I felt like I was wrong. Those scenarios are appropriate to apologize.

On the other side, if the two of you are racing and you get a little loose and run up into somebody a little bit? Nah. That’s just racing.

3. What is the biggest compliment someone could give you?

That one is pretty easy: It’s my wife or daughter when they say, “I love you.”

4. NASCAR comes to you and says, “Brad, we’re bringing a celebrity to the track and we’d love for you to host them.” Who is a celebrity you’d be really excited to host at a race?

Probably Elon Musk.

But I feel like you’d start debating about self-driving cars.

Oh, absolutely. That’s part of why it would be fun.

You’d want to pick his brain and also say, “Here’s why it’s not going to work out for you.”

Pretty much. And he might say something that makes me think about it differently. And that’s OK. That’s part of why I’d enjoy it. I would enjoy it not from the cult of celebrity perspective, I would enjoy it from the viewpoint perspective.

5. In an effort to show this is a health conscious sport, NASCAR decides to offer the No. 1 pit stall for an upcoming race to the first driver willing to go vegan for one month. Would you do it?

Yeah. I don’t think that one’s too hard. It’s achievable. It’d have to be a good race though, not one of those races where the first pit stall doesn’t mean much — like Pocono. The first pit stall at Pocono is like pbbbt. It’s not worth that much. So I would think it would be like a Martinsville or a Homestead.

No cheese, no meat, no milk…you could do all that?

Yeah. I try really hard not to drink milk now. I do a little bit of cheese; I try to avoid that, to be quite honest. If I eat cheese, it’s because it’s on something like pizza. But I could get around it.

It would be harder to me to give up bread, which I try do to that as well.

I don’t have a vegan diet right now, but I’m not far off it — other than I like steak, which is really far off it.

6. It’s time for the Random Race Challenge. I’ve picked a random race from your career and you have to tell me where you finished. This is the 2015 Kansas spring race, also known as the SpongeBob SquarePants 400. Do you know where you finished?

’15 and ’16 run together for me. My guess is fifth.

It’s actually seventh. You started third, led 43 laps and Jimmie Johnson won. You finished behind Matt Kenseth and ahead of Kurt Busch. Does that ring a bell at all?

No. Not at all. I’ve had a lot of forgettable races at Kansas, and I forgot that one, clearly.

7. Who is the best rapper alive?

That’s an oxymoron, because I don’t think rap is good. There can’t be a best rapper if I don’t think it’s good.

8. Who has the most punchable face in NASCAR?

Man, this one could get me in a lot of trouble. Is this like a driver? Media member? Has anyone gone media with their answer?

Not yet. If there’s someone in the media you want to take a swing at…

This is a very violent question.

It is, but Dale Jr. came up with this question for his 12 Questions last year, and I thought it was too good to pass up.

Most punchable face…definitely not Mike Helton. Let’s go ahead and write that one off. And not Steve O’Donnell. I mean, they’re big guys. Not going to end well.

Man, I don’t know if I have an answer for this one. You have stumped me. I’m trying really hard not to be a punching guy, and you have me thinking in a different gear.

Oh! I actually do know what this is — those damn Toyota mascots.

The ones that walk around with the big heads?

Yes. Yeah. They’re very punchable. Big heads, soft — you wouldn’t hurt anybody.

9. NASCAR enlists three famous Americans to be involved with your team for one race as part of a publicity push: Taylor Swift, LeBron James and Tom Hanks. Choose one to be your crew chief, one to be your spotter and one to be your motorhome driver.

I have to work backward from who shouldn’t do something. Taylor Swift should not be my bus driver, because that would not be good. There’d be some competition there and it’s not a good environment. That would not end well for anyone.

So that means she’d have to be spotter or crew chief, and I actually think she’d be a good crew chief. She has a very good strategy to what she does. I’ll give her credit.

I don’t think LeBron is a very good speaker, so I’m going to put him as my bus driver. Big guy, and bus drivers usually follow you around (to help with crowd control). Yeah, I like that idea.

So that leaves Tom Hanks as my spotter. And that’s perfect. Tom Hanks, we’ll go with him. He’s got one of America’s most lovable voices.

10. What is the key to finding the best pre-race bathroom?

Having a motorhome. I use the motorhome before the race.

Why don’t other drivers do that? No one has answered that way this year.

I don’t know. I guess they wait until the last minute. I can’t get inside their heads.

But having a motorhome is really important for a race car driver at this level. That’s hard to explain to people, because there’s some luxurious parts to having a motorhome. But there are also some basic necessities — traffic going to and from the races, the unforgiving schedule a race car driver has. But probably the one people don’t ever bring up is pure sanitary habits.

In the early days of my Xfinity career, before I had a motorhome, I would get sick at the racetrack almost every weekend. I’m absolutely convinced it’s from shaking hands and then eating — or from the bathrooms. Because the bathrooms at racetracks, let’s face it, are not good. So I’d get sick every race weekend. Once I started having a motorhome at the racetrack, I stopped getting sick.

That’s a big deal. You don’t want to be sick in a race car or during a race weekend; it hinders your ability to perform. So I try to use my motorhome for those things.

Not that there aren’t some luxurious things, but there are some practical applications.

What’s really interesting about NASCAR for me is in a lot of ways, it caters to having money and expensive things like that and then (also has) the blue collar (experience), camping in tents — but nothing in between. When I go to a football game or hockey game or basketball game, all the accommodations are right in the middle. There’s not a lot of rich guy accommodations at a basketball game. You could get a suite, but you’ll see a (celebrity) sitting courtside, and it’s just a normal chair. It’s not like he’s got a La-Z-Boy sofa or anything like that. He’s just closer. It’s not nicer, it’s closer.

Motorsports is set up so much differently. It’s either really blue collar or really nice and nothing in between. It’s so strange to me.

11. NASCAR misses the highlight reel value brought by Carl Edwards’ backflips and decides a replacement is needed. How much money would they have to pay you to backflip off your car after your next win?

Eh, I don’t think I’d take any money to do it. It’s not me. It’s not who I am, so I wouldn’t do it.

What if they offered you $5 billion?

Nah, it’s not me. It’s just money, Jeff.

I guess. But you could be the next Elon Musk.

Yeah, but I’d have to take it from someone else who would have the same ability. It’s not like they’d just be generating money, printing it. It’d have to come from someone else. So essentially, I’d be stealing from someone else.

OK. I guess I wouldn’t mind that, but…

I mean, what would keep the person who had that money they were going to give me from doing great things?

The fact they’re dumb enough to give you the money.

That’s free will. Who am I to interfere with that?

12. Each week, I ask a driver to give me a question for the next interview. Last week was Jimmie Johnson, and he wanted to know: Do you wear underwear beneath the fire-retardant gear worn under a firesuit?

No, because it’s not flame-resistant.

But wouldn’t that block the —

No. No, that’s not how it works. Flame retardant underwear, which I’m wearing, is meant to do a number of specific things — from wicking away sweat to being flame retardant to creating an air barrier to your skin. The whole concept is to create an air barrier. So with respect to that, if you put something in between it, in theory, you’re creating another pocket — but that pocket isn’t flame resistant, and it could light up.

I see. The more you know.

Like you should never wear a cotton T-shirt under a firesuit. And you should definitely, never ever — if you’re a racer out there reading this — wear like an Under Armour shirt.

Really?

Yes. They’re extremely flammable. If you wear one of those (workout-type) shirts underneath the race suit and it gets even a little hot, it will melt to your skin and fuse with it. So in a fire, you take what might have been first-degree burns and up them by wearing that. The worst possible situation, if you’re anywhere near fire, is to wear an Under Armour type shirt.

The next interview is Matt DiBenedetto. Do you have a question I can ask him?

Matt! You know what I was always curious about with Matt is how did he become so Reddit-popular. I’ve never understood that. Was it like a person he met that runs the page? Like how did that happen? I feel there’s a backstory there. I’m really curious about that, because every time something comes up on Reddit, it’s DiBenedetto.

Previous 12 Questions interviews with Brad Keselowski:

— May 19, 2010

— June 29, 2011

— July 11, 2012

— Oct. 2, 2013

— Aug. 7, 2014

— June 10, 2015

— Sept. 29, 2016

 

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News analysis: France family reportedly exploring NASCAR sale

What happened: According to a report by the Reuters wire service, the France family is exploring a sale of NASCAR. Reuters said investment bank Goldman Sachs is working with NASCAR to find a potential buyer. NASCAR declined comment when I asked about this story and I have not been able to confirm it independently — but Reuters is a highly respected outlet and there’s no reason to believe this is a false report.

What it means: This is the first development in what could ultimately become one of the most important stories in NASCAR history. That the founding France family is even considering selling the sport and cashing out is a massive development that could have significant repercussions. And if the sale actually happens? NASCAR as we know it is likely to change forever, perhaps undergoing a transformation that could be similar to Formula One’s makeover. F1 was sold two years ago for $4.4 billion to Liberty Media.

News value (scale of 1-10): Like an earthquake too large to be accurately measured by a seismograph, this one is off the charts. Depending on what happens and who buys it and what their intentions are, this could turn out to be the biggest NASCAR story ever.

Three questions: With the potential of a sale now becoming public, what kind of immediate impact could this have on the sport? What entity has both the interest and billion dollars (at least) it would take to purchase and run the most popular form of racing in America? Would a new owner be able to save NASCAR from its decade-long slump, or would such a change only accelerate the decline?

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The Top Five: Breaking down the Dover race

Five thoughts after Sunday’s race at Dover International Speedway…

1. You see where this is going, right?

There have been plenty of NASCAR seasons when one driver stomps everyone and shows up as the team to beat every week. For example: Martin Truex Jr. last year.

But this year seems a bit different: There are two drivers on two different teams who seem evenly matched — and are collectively destroying the competition.

Of course, we’re talking about Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch, who have combined to win seven of the 11 races so far. After nearly one third of the season, the duo is on pace to win 23 races! Crazy.

It’s just been a tag-team butt-kicking, and they’re not always on at the same time.

But together, the drivers have accounted for more than half of the playoff points awarded so far — and that’s after Harvick lost some with his encumbered win earlier in the season.

This is a battle that is shaping up to continue all summer. And you know what? While it might not be ideal for fans who don’t like either driver, it’s a hell of a lot better than just one guy dominating week after week.

2. Stewart-Haas is the best team

Sorry, Joe Gibbs Racing and Furniture Row. You’ve been dethroned.

Though the Fords in general have been strong, it’s clear Stewart-Haas Racing in particular is the team to beat so far. SHR has the fastest, most consistent cars among all four of its entries — with three top-five finishes at Dover to emphasize that point.

Harvick has been great, but it’s not just him. Clint Bowyer (second on Sunday) has won a race and shown potential for more. Kurt Busch has become a regular face in the top 10 again and Aric Almirola is making people say, “Damn! Aric Almirola can drive!”

One key to the team’s success, aside from moves like Tony Gibson coming off the road to help guide collaboration in the shop, is the drivers apparently require similar things from the car. Bowyer said the various setups “are all relatively the same, and it shows on the racetrack.”

That’s a pretty important factor, because it means only one driver or crew chief needs to find something for all of them to benefit each week.

“When you can get four cars that are running as well as these four did today, it’s an awesome feeling,” Tony Stewart said.

3. Suarez on the rise

Doesn’t it seem like Daniel Suarez often gets left out of the top young drivers conversation?

Sometimes it feels like it’s all about Chase and Blaney and Bubba (and maybe Larson, if you consider him young enough to be in that group).

But after a horrible start to the season which saw him sitting 26th in the point standings after seven races, Suarez has put together an impressive four-week stretch: 11th, 10th, 10th and now third at Dover.

Suarez’s best career oval finish boosted him to 17th in the standings — suddenly just seven points out of a playoff spot.

“Once you get to this level, it’s always tough for (drivers),” Joe Gibbs said after the race. “We brought him up a year early. I think he’s just now getting confidence as he goes.”

Suarez said it was a combination of both driver and team getting better at the same time. And he’s learning every week, he said.

“If I have confidence and the team doesn’t, it doesn’t work,” he said. “Momentum in this sport is huge. In the last five or six weeks, we’ve had good speed and consistency — and that’s something I’m very proud of for my team and myself.”

It feels like Suarez is starting to emerge as a driver who can consistently run in the top 10 — and on a good day like Sunday, perhaps battle for wins.

4. What about the 48?

Dover is Jimmie Johnson’s best track, so it was a good weekend to watch how his team performed and see if the 48 is any closer to a turnaround.

The verdict? Eh, maybe.

Johnson got to third place for awhile on Sunday before a pit call cost him track position he never fully regained. He finished ninth, which isn’t great by his standards — but it was the best result by a Chevrolet driver.

And maybe that’s the fairest way to judge Johnson right now. He might be the greatest driver in history, but even the best can’t just take a 10th-place car and manhandle it to a win.

If Johnson gets outrun by Chase Elliott or even Kyle Larson every week, then it definitely makes people wonder if he and Chad Knaus have lost their magic. But Johnson is actually the top Hendrick driver in the standings now (12th) and the second-best Chevrolet to Larson. He has four straight top-12 finishes.

That’s not to say his team is in championship form at the moment. But he might not be as far off as it has seemed at times.

5. Stage 1’s odd ending

NASCAR made an unusual call on Sunday at the end of Stage 1 that is worth further examination.

Typically, NASCAR lets TV go to a commercial at the conclusion of a stage and then opens pit road as the commercials end. That has been part of the rhythm of stage racing since it began last year.

But at Dover, with many cars close to running out of fuel thanks to a strategy play, NASCAR opened pit road as soon as it could. That allowed drivers to make it safely to pit road with a little gas left in their tanks.

That was helpful to those teams, to be sure. But should NASCAR factor team strategy into their decisions? There’s no rule that says NASCAR can’t open pit road in that situation; it just hasn’t happened in other races.

NASCAR said it changed course primarily out of concern for the potential shitshow (my words, not theirs) it could cause if a dozen cars suddenly ran out of fuel at the end of the stage. NASCAR wouldn’t have had enough wreckers to get the potentially stalled cars to pit road, and then might have been in an even worse situation if pit road was blocked for a time. Because then other cars then would have run out of gas and created one of those only-in-NASCAR circus moments.

The desire to avoid that makes sense on many levels. On the other hand, if cars were going to run out of fuel, that’s not NASCAR’s fault. That’s part of the race; some drivers and teams would have played it better than others, and those who didn’t would suffer. Fans would understand that.

So if possible, NASCAR should avoid straying from its typical procedure — it looks bad, because some teams will always benefit more than others when that happens.

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Friday roundup: Dover news and notes

Here are some of the highlights from Friday’s media availability sessions at Dover:

Pressure for the 48?

Jimmie Johnson hasn’t won since last year’s Dover spring race (which was in June, so it’s not a full season), which means you might expect him to come here feeling a bit more pressure than a normal weekend.

After all, it’s his best track — he has a record 11 victories here.

But Johnson says there’s actually less pressure when he shows up at Dover, because he’s so confident in how to get around this place.

Still, with Johnson in the midst of a career-long winless streak, Dover could be the best chance to grab a playoff spot and turn his season around.

Can the 48 get back to its old winning ways?

“I think we have created an environment of very high expectations because of the success we’ve had, and I think people forget how special our run has been,” Johnson said.  “We certainly want to get back into those ways and have it happen again — but history shows it doesn’t happen very often. We were very fortunate to harness lightning for a long stretch of time.”

Johnson said he’s “a realist” about his team’s progress.

“The encouraging news is we are making our cars better each and every week,” he said. “… We’re a victim of our own success, and I hope to create the headlines that we want and the headlines being along the lines of ‘Well, they should have won. It was Dover.’”

Pit guns among drivers council topics

This is probably a big “duh” since you would figure the drivers would want to talk to NASCAR about the pit gun issue, but Joey Logano confirmed the topic was raised during Tuesday’s driver council meeting at the NASCAR R&D Center.

“We talk about everything — we talk about pit guns and lots of other things,” Logano said. “I think the pit gun thing will be fine. There will be growing pains with some changes. There is a learning curve for the teams and NASCAR, but we have to make changes to continue growing and sometimes there will be pain when that happens. You can’t stay in your comfort zone forever because there is no growth in your comfort zone.”

Logano praised the drivers council as a positive forum for competitors to air their concerns with NASCAR in a private group. And it’s not all bad, he added.

“Our sport is in great health and we talk about that,” Logano said. “We talk about the amount of fans that are still watching our sport and how great things are going and we have a lot to be proud of.

“There is also a lot to work on, and I don’t think that is a secret that we are trying to make our sport better and better each day.”

Pain in the grass

Austin Dillon was just trying to avoid a wreck last week when he cut through the Talladega grass and ended up destroying his car as a result.

“I saw the cars starting to come even lower, and I saw there was a gap in the grass, so I just cut left,” Dillon said. “When I cut left, the first part of the grass was OK — then all of a sudden it felt like I hit a tabletop jump or something and destroyed the car.”

Dillon speculated he may have hit a drain or a buried pipe that had raised the grass. Otherwise, there was no explanation aside from the grass itself.

“It completely destroyed the car,” Dillon said. “It knocked the front clip up and the rear quarter panel off of the car and punctured the radiator, too. We were done after that.”

Drivers like Kyle Busch have been vocal advocates of getting rid of grass at racetracks, but Dillon said he’d like to go back and look at the exact spot he hit before making a judgment on whether the grass needs to go in that area.

Suarez still healing

Daniel Suarez has been posting workout videos lately where he’s using his injured left hand. But while the thumb has made progress from the avulsion fracture Suarez suffered at Texas, he’ll still have to race with a brace on it for now.

“It’s not 100 percent,” he said. “I can use the front palm of my hand very well, but when it’s time to push, my thumb is not quite there yet.”

Suarez said he thought about trying to race without a brace this weekend, but his doctor said to wait two more weeks. The thumb no longer causes him pain inside the car (because it’s stabilized with the brace), but Suarez can’t grab the wheel the way he’s used to with the brace on.

“It’s still stiff and it’s still a little sore when I move it too much, but it’s much better than a couple weeks ago,” he said. “I’m excited to finally have a regular glove and to not wear this thing (later this month).”

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How I Got Here with Kyle Novak

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Race director Kyle Novak (white shirt) monitors practice at the Long Beach Grand Prix from IndyCar Race Control. (Photo: Jeff Gluck)

Each week, I ask a member of the motorsports community to shed some light on their career path and explain how they reached their current role. This week: Verizon IndyCar Series race director Kyle Novak, who is in his first season on the job. This interview was recorded as a podcast, but is transcribed for those who prefer to read.

Can you tell us a little about your role now so we can understand how you got to this point?

Sure. So I’m the race director for the Verizon IndyCar Series, which means you handle all aspects of the on-track operations of any event. We have a great staff that handles the details of every single department. I manage that staff in the room. It’s a pretty big undertaking, but we have great people that help us get it done.

Was racing on your radar? Was this a goal of yours when you were growing up or anything like that?

No. I always knew I wanted to work in the sports industry and had a calling in motorsports growing up. My dad and I are big car guys — muscle car guys. We both drag race when we can on the weekends; we have a small two-car hobby operation when I’m not at the racetrack for IndyCar that we’re racing on the weekends.

You still do that?

We still do. We have two cars that we take a lot of pride in. It’s a lot of work, but it still keeps me close to kind of the grassroots side. We have a lot of fun with it.

But growing up in that atmosphere, always being a huge NASCAR fan, huge IndyCar fan, even more recently Formula One, anything with four wheels has been a big part of my life. So never really intended it, but I’m glad it worked out that way for sure.

How did you get your start? What were you doing in college that started to put you on this path?

I did my undergraduate work at Bowling Green State University; I was a sports management major there. As part of my major program there, you had to do two internships, and of the two internships that I did, one was with the football program. And (now Ohio State coach) Urban Meyer was the coach there. He was in his second year of his two-year tenure at Bowling Green.

After that — and this is the gateway drug into racing — was working for IMG Motorsports when they still promoted the Cleveland Grand Prix. It was an event that’s very near and dear to me, a very special event. But that got me into the racetrack/race operations side of things. And it spooled eventually into where we are today.

Before we continue more into the racing part of it, tell me a little about what it was like to work for Urban Meyer. I mean obviously, he wasn’t the star coach that he is today, but I’m sure the makings of one were there. What did you learn from him?

It was very special. When you go through life and you come across people, there’s probably a few that are mentors. He was one of those people. When he was there, he was really on nobody’s radar screen, but you’d just tell he had that presence.

I’m a taller guy, I’m a bigger guy, and I have to have thick skin to deal with a lot of these drivers and team managers who are some of the sharpest people I’ve ever met. But there’s not a whole lot of people I’ve ever met who intimidated me or if they looked at me in the eye put that fear of, “You’d better do a good job,” and he’s one of those guys — maybe the only guy besides maybe my parents. Just a very intense, clear guy that can just get every last ounce of energy out of anyone. And that’s a tribute to his success as well.

Have you taken any of those leadership things along with you at different stops throughout your career? Or are they two different things?

Two different things. Keep in mind when Urban got to Bowling Green, the program was in shambles. Bowling Green, being a small, mid-major school but with a proud football tradition, especially in the state of Ohio, it was in shambles. The biggest thing he instilled in his players and all of his staff is that of accountability.

And I remember one of the coolest stories is one of the players, a wide receiver in a drill or something significant in practice, dropped a pass. (He said) “Oh my bad, Coach, my bad.” I remember him jumping that player saying, “My bad? Of course it’s your bad. Everyone saw it was your bad. Just catch the ball, you don’t have to say it.” It was this issue of excuses leading to accountability, it was something that always stuck with me for my career and something I’ve always taken with me.

So you said you got the racing bug, or at least even more from that side once you did the Cleveland Grand Prix stuff. What was your next step after that in Cleveland?

Cleveland led to more track construction. So I actually did that event from ’03 until Champ Car was absorbed into IndyCar I think in ’08. During that time I had the opportunity to work on the Denver event — the Grand Prix of Denver — consult on a couple more street courses. I did three races in 2006, and that kind of led to me meeting so many people and a few people who I still work with today in race control. I met them in my racetrack construction operations capacity, and that kind of started helping me meet people on the sanctioning body side.

That led me to an opportunity to be series manager for the Volkswagen Jetta TDI Cup, and that got me onto the series management side.

With the racetrack construction thing you were talking about, is it like somebody gives you a design and they’re saying, “Go make this happen, go put the walls here and fences here?” And you’re trying to figure it out?

The firm I worked for, we actually did the design work, too. We did it all, soup to nuts, so to speak. But what was cool about the race operations side was, now as race director — especially coming to a street course like Long Beach — you really have a really ground-up understanding of what it takes to put the event together and the challenges that the promoter has. And there are many: the event’s cost, down to how the cabling runs, which might affect how your race control is laid out.

So it all comes together, and that fundamental knowledge I’ve learned on the racetrack construction side really gave me a good foundation for now being on the sanctioning body side when running the race. It’s really a holistic view of the whole event from the ground up.

What was your path moving up the ladder once you ended up on the sanctioning body side of things? How did you go from level to level?

I’m actually a lawyer. So after the TDI Cup stuff, times being what they were in 2008, 2009, I thought it was time to pursue a personal goal and find some more growth. So I got a law degree.

After all that, you got a law degree?

Yeah, a law degree. I passed the bar in Michigan. I went to Ohio Northern University for law school. Kind of practiced solo for a while and always stayed in touch with a lot of my good friends.

A good friend of mine from IMSA who I stayed in touch with came calling and said, “We have the Lamborghini Super Trofeo race director race job open.” It was halfway though the 2015 season. He said, “Are you interested?” I went out to VIR (Virginia International Raceway) for the race and really was just blown away by impressive IMSA’s race operations were.

The next race at COTA (Circuit of the Americas in Austin), I’m the race director for Lamborghini Super Trofeo. And that was a really cool season for me because I’m a rookie race director, but IMSA hosted the Lamborghini Super Trofeo World Finals in Sebring. So it was a smorgasbord of racing with eight races including the world championship shootout on the last day. That was a good way for a rookie race director like myself to get acclimated quickly to a high level of sports car racing.

So you were doing that, and then how did this opportunity present itself?

I worked up through the IMSA race director ladder, so to speak. The following year, had the opportunity to do Porsche GT3 Cup USA, and IMSA also sanctions a Canadian counterpart to the series and there’s some joint events. I did that for two years, ’16 and ’17.

In ’17, in addition to those two series, I was the race director for Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge. So I had a very full plate in 2017. But some of our IndyCar staff works with IMSA as well, especially in race control — it’s just such a small community. So I had the opportunity to come in contact with (IndyCar president) Jay Frye though my travels at some of the joint IMSA/IndyCar events, just stayed in touch and here we are now.

What’s the key to being a good race director? What do you have to do right?

Two things I takeaway are one, you have to trust your staff. You have to trust everything they do, because there is no way any one person can manage these sessions as complex as our technology is now, and as layered as our approach is now with video replay and all that stuff. So you have to trust your people and they have to trust you, especially when it’s a pressure cooker in there during in some races.

And the other thing is when you interact with the drivers and teams, you have to listen and you have to be open to their feedback and you have to take care of them in the sense the perspective they have is incredibly meaningful.

The very impressive thing about the IndyCar paddock — and I’m still blown away by this — is how lucid our drivers are. There was always the urban legend they could see a quarter at the apex, and you’d laugh about that, but now I believe it. They come to me with, “Kyle, did the wall at Turn 3 move six inches left or right?” Well yeah, it did. They can see this sometimes without being prompted. The level of what they see and how they can think about it, communicate it — even during a session — I’m just blown away by it.

That raises our game, because you can’t let anything fall through the cracks or assume that they won’t see it or know about it. They do, and it’s very impressive.

Let’s say someone is reading this and they’re like, “Man, that’d be so cool to be a race director of a series and get to call these races.” How would somebody get their start? What would you recommend?

Talk to everyone. Reach out. Email people. Go find the officials. So many of our fans, they’re here obviously for the drivers, and that’s the show. The show is the drivers and we never pretend we’re the show and fans come to see us. We prefer for everyone to not know who we are; it’s like an umpire, you’re doing a good job if you don’t know who the umpire is.

But you’ve gotta meet people. The key to any industry, especially in motorsports, is who you know. One of my really good friends who works for IMSA started out by just saying, “Hey, I think race operations is for me, can I come to a race?” And that was truly his gateway into where he is now, and he’s a very successful young race operations guy. That’s all it really takes, (saying) “I want to get involved.”

It is such a small industry that we’re always happy to see young people, anybody that’s interested in what we do, because it’s an unsung side of the business — maybe in a good way — but we really appreciate anyone that has an interest in that. That’s what I recommend anyone doing.

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News Analysis: Spencer Gallagher suspended for violating NASCAR drug policy

What happened: Spencer Gallagher, who just won his first career Xfinity Series race on Saturday at Talladega and is the son of GMS Racing owner Maurice Gallagher, tested positive for a banned substance and was suspended indefinitely by NASCAR. The test result was received by NASCAR on Tuesday, although NASCAR did not say whether the test was taken before or after the Talladega race. Gallagher will go through NASCAR’s “Road to Recovery” program in order to race again. In a statement, Gallagher called his failed test a “one-time error in judgment” and said he had “not upheld the behavior that is expected of me.”

What it means: A deeply disappointing situation for all involved. Gallagher is one of NASCAR’s most entertaining personalities and just experienced the highlight of his career — putting himself into the Xfinity playoffs as a result. It was a great storyline, and Gallagher would have been fun to watch in the playoffs. But that’s all gone now. NASCAR officials indicated they will not give Gallagher a waiver for the races he will miss, meaning he will not be playoff-eligible even if he wins again. That’s a major setback to both his young career and the race team owned by his father, who is also CEO of Allegiant Airlines (which happens to be an official NASCAR sponsor). It’s unclear how long Gallagher’s time in the NASCAR rehabilitation program will take, but AJ Allmendinger was suspended for eight races after he went through a similar process in 2012.

News value (scale of 1-10): Eight. Pretty notable, especially since Gallagher just won and there’s the possibility he could have taken the banned substance before racing (NASCAR isn’t saying either way). This news might be a 10 if Gallagher was a Cup driver in a similar situation, because it would make headlines well beyond NASCAR.

Three questions: What was the substance, and did taking it put any of Gallagher’s competitors in harm’s way? Though almost all NASCAR drug tests are conducted at the track, is there a chance this one was done after the victory celebration (when Gallagher said he would “party like it’s 1999”)? Finally, what was Gallagher thinking?