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How I Got Here with Mike Zizzo

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This is the latest in a weekly feature called “How I Got Here,” where I ask people in NASCAR about the journeys to their current jobs. Each interview is recorded as a podcast but is also transcribed on JeffGluck.com. Up next: Mike Zizzo, vice president of communications at Texas Motor Speedway.

First of all, what do you do here at Texas so we can understand how you got to this point?

I handle all the media relations, so that entails any driver events that we do, setting up credentials for media, working with the marketing team on certain initiatives we have there, and then being on the executive team here at TMS. We get to do advances with drivers. We have Daniel Suarez this year, we had a special guest in Jared Leto earlier this (month), which was really cool. And we’ll have Kevin Harvick in the fall. So a lot of media events and such. It’s basically just managing the media and making sure when they come and visit us that we get the coverage that we’re looking for as well as accommodating them as guests for the weekend.

How long have you been here working at the track now?

Feels like 50 years. (Laughs) No, I joined in ’05 after I left NASCAR, so I’m starting Year 13.

Obviously you didn’t just magically plop down here in Texas and start your career here, so where did this whole thing begin for you?

I was a scribe just like you back in the day. I graduated from Florida Southern College in Lakeland. I wanted to be a sports writer, and I was fortunate enough to land at a major paper at the Orlando Sentinel. Just like any young scribe, I started out on the agate desk and did a lot of box scores before I got my break.

People were calling in with their high school football scores and you were taking the stats on the phone?

That was the worst thing ever when we had to do it. We got a call-in and you’re like, “Oh, no stats, please.” And then you got to move up and you actually got to cover a game, which was awesome. But I worked at the Lakeland Ledger when I was at Florida Southern, so I got a lot of game type experience and live experience, which was great. That helped me at the Sentinel, and I covered everything from the Jacksonville Jaguars’ first year to the Tampa Bay Lightning to the Citrus Bowl to a lot of preps. So it was a great experience for me, and that actually led into racing, which was actually odd for me.

So did you cover much racing to that point. How did the move to go into racing get on your radar?

They put it on my radar. I was living in Cocoa Beach and I was covering Brevard County preps and some college sports and pro sports like spring training, and then I got the call. They’re like, “Congratulations, you’re our new auto racing writer.” I grew up in New England and my dad loved cars, but he never went to any races or anything. And they’re like, “You’re the auto racing writer.”

I’m like, “What? I don’t know anything about auto racing, I grew up in New York. The only thing I saw going around in circles is horses, like at Belmont.” And they’re like, “Well, you better learn it.”

I swear, I was so panicked because it was one of those sports I’ve never really followed. I did a little bit … growing up as a kid, I loved Mario Andretti because he’s Italian and I was rooting for him in the Indy 500. And then in NASCAR, (I knew) Richard Petty and all that, but I never really followed it enough that I could cover it.

So when they told me that, I was panicked and like, “What am I gonna do?” and my good friend in Cocoa Beach, Mark Tate, he grew up in Hickory (N.C.), grew up with the Jarretts, so he was over the moon that I was gonna cover NASCAR. I said, “You’re gonna be my mentor.” So I’ll never forget, I was so panicked that we went up to Daytona during testing and I said, “We’re gonna go around the garage and you’re gonna help me here.” And he was explaining everything.

It was awesome, and he knew a bunch of the guys that were on the crews, they were like, “Hey, Mark Tate!” and it put me at an ease. It was a great training period for me, especially at testing because it’s more laid back and not a lot of reporters there where I can ask that stupid question, and it was really cool.

We asked Jack Roush of all people about testing and trying to get that extra tenth of a second on a car, and he started telling us about this matrix system they did — they changed the springs with the shocks and they all these different changes to find the ultimate. So I’m thinking, “Everyone knows about the matrix system.” So who do I find of all people, the novice, I’m like, “Hey, that’s Hut Stricklin. I’m gonna ask Stricklin about the matrix system, if they use it on their team.” So Mark and I walk up to Hut, and we’re talking to him about racing and the system and I ask him and I say, “Jack Roush is talking about this matrix system. What do you know about it?” And he goes,”May-what?” And all of a sudden his crew guy goes, “Hut, get in the car.”

What year was this when you started on the racing beat?

1992 was my first race at Atlanta. which was Richard Petty’s last race, Jeff Gordon’s first race, and my first race. So it was ’92 I believe, right? 

That’s the other part of the story. People talk about Petty and Gordon, but they don’t say Mike Zizzo’s first race.

I’m way down on that list. But I also went with Mark Tate, he went with me to that race and I’ll never forget on that one, he said, “Before we ever get going, we’re gonna go to Turn 1. We’re gonna stand in Turn 1 outside the fence so you can realize what these guys do for a living.” And I was blown away and I said, “Wow, this is incredible.”

And if you recall that race, (Alan) Kulwicki wins the championship, Davey Allison gets in a wreck, Ernie Irvan’s involved, Bill Elliott, he stays out and gets the laps and he gets more points — there were so many storylines. I’m like, “This is awesome.” There’s so many great storylines and in fact, I got on the front page of the Orlando Sentinel for Richard Petty’s last race. So it was just an incredible experience, that first one. And then to be inside the community and see how accommodating they were and the drivers, it won me over immediately.

How many years did you cover racing before you went to the dark side of PR, as the journalists say?

I went to CART, which is IndyCar, in 1996. So I didn’t cover it a ton, but enough where I was pretty well-versed on both IndyCar and NASCAR. I got a call from IndyCar and they were looking for a news manager. Basically, they were looking for a former sportswriter who could write releases and such.

I didn’t know if I wanted to go that way or not. It was back in the day when newspapers were flourishing, and I loved what I did because I got to cover such a variety of sports from the World Cup to the Citrus Bowl to all kinds of major events, so it was a great experience. And then they said, “Well, with CART, you can travel the world. We go to Australia and Japan and Brazil.” And that kind of won me over.

Mike Zizzo during his days doing PR for CART. (Courtesy photo)

That would be a very attractive opportunity to take advantage of. So you got to do that. What was that experience like?

Absolutely incredible. Not only being part of a sanctioning body and seeing the inner workings of a sanctioning body, but traveling to different venues all across the world was just fabulous — meeting people, understanding cultures, like in Japan. Having a great time with drivers in Australia, Surfer’s Paradise. We have so many stories with Dario (Franchitti) and Greg Moore and all those guys.

It was just such a cool experience because you went to places I would probably never vacation to at times. For instance, I went to Tokyo. I would probably never vacation there, but I had an incredible experience. Going to down to Rio for Brazil, another place I would probably never vacation or think about. Australia, definitely. I want to go back there; I was so fortunate to go six, seven times, but I’ll go another 10 times. It’s a beautiful country.

And then even Canada. Living in the United States, I’ve never dreamed of going on vacation to say Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal — we hit all those cities and they’re absolutely fabulous. I tell all my friends, if you want to do a quick trip, go to Toronto in the summer, go to Vancouver, go to Montreal. They’re fabulous cities. So I was very fortunate to realize all the different countries and cultures and enjoy it.

Unlike some of the people we had that travelled with us who are like, “Where’s the McDonald’s?” I’m like, “No, we’re in Tokyo, I’m gonna try sushi, I’m gonna try some specialty items.” When we were in Australia, same thing — and they’d be looking for American food.

Why did you go from CART to NASCAR, then?

I loved CART, I loved open wheel, and that was during the split, so at times it was difficult. But probably the most difficult thing for me was we lost a number of drivers during that period — one in particular, Greg Moore, who I was extremely close with.

At Fontana.

Yes. And then also Alex Zanardi, another driver who I was very close with, lost his legs in Germany, which was over the course of 9/11, which was very difficult on me. I thought I was going to leave the sport then. I had so many friends in it that drove cars that every time we raced, it was just very difficult for me to watch it and hope we got through the race.

So that took a toll on you. It started to weigh on you, the danger aspect of it and it took an emotional toll?

Big time. I’ll never forget the whole 9/11 situation. We went over to Germany and if you recall, everyone in the United States, all the sports decided not to run at all or have any games (the week after 9/11). And we had to make a decision at the facility we were at. That entire region in Germany put their money in, and they told us, “If you don’t run here, you’ll bankrupt the region.” So we had that weighing on us as well.

Plus we already had everyone over there in Germany, so we’re like, “Why don’t we run and honor those victims of 9/11?” And we still got some criticism, but we thought it was the right thing and eventually we renamed the name of the race and we were all dealing with that as Americans.

We were scared. We got over to Germany and we landed, and we’re in our room and we’re exhausted and we all took a nap. Steve Shunck, who worked with us, calls me and he says, “Turn on the TV.” I said, “I have it on, there’s some movie on where a plane just hit the Twin Towers.” I couldn’t understand it. You couldn’t fathom that that was actually happening. He goes, ”No, that’s happening right now.” I’m like, “Oh, is it a private plane?” He’s like, “No, it’s terrorists.” And I’m like, “Oh my God.”

So after that reality hit, we’re like, “We’re stuck outside the United States.” And then we see CNN on the ticker it says, “The CART contingent in Germany is the largest American contingent outside the United States right now.” So now we’re all worried — is something gonna happen to us? Are we ever gonna get home? So we’ve got that weighing on us.

And then we have this great race and (the Germans) did fabulous tributes to us. People over there were just amazing how heartfelt they were about talking to us about the situation and how sorry they were and thanking us for running that race. We were a couple of laps away from (finishing) that race, and then Alex Tagliani and Alex Zanardi got into it. As soon as (Tagliani) hit him, I was like, “Oh my God, this is bad.” And he lost his legs.

They saved his life and Dr.  (Steve) Olvey called me, he says, “You need to come now, we’re getting on the helicopter.” So I went with Alex’s wife and then Ashley Judd was on that helicopter, too. I followed behind the main one, and we got to the hospital and they landed us on the pad. We had to go down (into the building) and we saw the stair where they took him down, and there was just blood everywhere.

And then we get down there and all the drivers are there — they got there as quick as they could — all his buddies, Tony (Kanaan) and Dario and Max (Papis) and Jimmy Vasser. We didn’t think he was gonna make it. We were so scared and we’re like, “God, please just let him make it.”

And then when we found out he was gonna make it, we need a little brevity in that room and we’re like, “Man, is he gonna be pissed when he finds out he lost his legs in that deal.”

So his wife was in there, and she came out, she’s like, “He’s doing alright.” And when we finally got to see him. He’s like, “I’m just glad to see my wife.” And he just had a child. He’s like, “I can do whatever I want without legs.”

And he has been a huge inspiration to me ever since then because the way he handled that situation was absolutely amazing, and he’ll joke about it. I’ll never forget when I called him afterward, I said, “Hey, I just wanted to check in on how you’re doing, all that.” He goes, “I have a dilemma.” I said, “What’s wrong, Alex?” He’s like, “I have to get fitted for new legs. I’m like you — I’m Italian, I’m short. I can actually be over six feet now. But then I’m gonna have to get new clothes.”

So that’s the way he handled it. I’ll never forget from that day, he said, “I will play soccer with my son, I will go swimming with my son, I will do everything with my son and family that I’ve always wanted to do — with or without legs.” And he did.

That’s unbelievable. Wow. So how soon after that did you say, “You know what, I gotta do something else. I can’t be so involved in CART.”

I thought I was gonna quit then. I decided to just stick it out because I just loved the sport, and then Jim Hunter called me at NASCAR. Actually a head hunter called first, and then Hunter called me, and he said, “Hey, why don’t you come visit with me?” NASCAR was extremely successful like it is today, actually even moreso back then. And I met him on a Saturday, I drove up from Cocoa Beach and we talked for like three hours. It was an absolutely amazing conversation. I’m like, “I would love to work with this man.”

I’m not sure how many people they have in the Integrated Marketing Communications department now — I’m guessing at least 30 or something like that. How many people were on the PR staff when you went to NASCAR?

We didn’t have a fancy name either, we were just the PR team. We probably had, I’d say eight or 10 people — and that was with assistants and everything, so it was very streamlined. It had Hunter, it had a director, managers and coordinators, and that was it, and assistants. We all worked together really well. We got a lot done.

What I liked about it back then with Herb Branham and Kate Davis and everyone was we were extremely tight with the drivers, because we did so much with them. We worked with them on a daily basis.

I was fortunate enough that Hunter wanted me to handle the competition side of PR because of what I did in IndyCar. So he moved me up to the R&D Center and I got a lot more integrated on the competition side, which was a lot of fun, and dealing with Mike Helton. Also the R&D team with Gary Nelson and everything. So it was very educational to me.

Kate Davis and Mike Zizzo pose with Jeff Gordon. (Courtesy photo)

What did you learn from the CART stuff that applied to the NASCAR stuff that you could take there?

I guess the biggest one would have been crisis management (in the aftermath of serious accidents), unfortunately. Hunter quizzed me a lot about how we handled things, how we changed some of our processes in terms of crisis management. Because every time we had one, I got very involved in it because I knew we had to make changes ever since my first year when we lost Jeff Krosnoff. I saw a lot of things we didn’t do right. But it’s a crisis, so that happens.

So we talked a lot about crisis management, and I learned a lot on the NASCAR side about how integrated they were with each department to take one item and make it as big as possible, like the Chase back then — the “Chase for the Championship.” We would have meetings and they would integrate all the departments and say, “What are you gonna do to make this big?” whether it was marketing or PR. That was very educational for me about seeing a big company take something and raise it to a higher level.

So you’re living in Florida. Now you’ve worked for a newspaper, you’ve worked for CART, you’ve worked for NASCAR itself. Why Texas Motor Speedway?

I had no plans to leave NASCAR. I loved it, I loved working for Hunter. I loved the sanctioning body, it was a lot of fun. I felt very privileged to work there. And Eddie Gossage calls me and he says, “I’ve got an opening down here. I want you to come down.” I said, “I don’t have an interest, I’m happy here.” I’d only been to Texas for the race. He’s like, “Why don’t you come down and just talk to me?” I said alright.

So I came down, we had lunch, he took me out to the facility. Even though I’d been there, when it’s empty, it was massive. I was like, “Wow.” And we talked and had a great conversation. I’ll never forget he said, “You’ll be working for me.” And I said, “We’ll see about that.” He says, “I can give you something NASCAR can’t.” He goes, “It’s not money, it’s not this, it’s not that — I can give you time off.”

I had gotten to that point with NASCAR where I was doing 28 to 30 races because Hunter’s back was going out, so Mike Helton liked me to be that No. 2 guy on the competition side. So as much as I loved it, I started to feel the burnout a little bit. And I called Eddie the next week, just like he said, and here I am.

But the backstory on that was that CART incident at Texas.

Which is what?

This would have been 2001. So we came down here, the first CART event at Texas, a big deal. And you know Eddie makes everything big, and it was gonna be exciting. We did the premiere of Driven — not a great movie, but it was part of the week — and we didn’t run the race.

The G forces were so high on the drivers that the drivers were passing out. It got extremely dangerous. Mauricio Gugelmin hit the wall in Turn 2 here and wound up in Turn 4. It was crazy. There were going like 236, 238 miles an hour on a mile-and-a-half track.

So the G forces were taking such a toll, even on the CART drivers who were used to high G forces, that they just could not get around the track?

Correct. You’re not supposed to do sustainable Gs at more than four to six seconds, I think. And I’m trying to remember back then, but on a 22-second lap they had, 18 seconds of sustained Gs. Michael Andretti talked about it feeling like he had a 100-pound weight on his lap the entire lap. Max Papis was talking about he didn’t know if he was on the frontstretch or the backstretch. We had another driver black out for a little bit. And it was scary.

But then we had to do the press conferences (to announce the cancellation). Eddie wanted to do one and we were gonna do our own.

Like dueling press conferences?

Yeah, and it almost turned into a duel between me and him because we’re trying to protect our brand. And we did two separate press conferences, which I didn’t want. We took our stance, he took their stance and that occurred and we left here and that was a disaster.

Then I went to NASCAR, and what’s the first race I go to? Hunter sends me to Texas. And I said, “Jim, you know what happened at CART?” He goes, “Oh, I know. And you’re going there.” And I said, “Oh, hell.”

So there was a lot of bad blood with Eddie?

I thought so. I’m like, “I’m gonna go in, I’m gonna take my beating from him.” And we had the safety meeting, and he was in there and he said, “Can I grab you for a second?” And after this meeting, I said, “Oh, I’m gonna get berated and he’s gonna tell me to pack up and leave the track.” Although Hunter had said, “If you get that from him, you’re staying.”

So he pulled me aside and he said, “Hey, I hope there’s no hard feelings. I realize what you were doing, and I hope you knew what I was doing.” I said, “Yeah, we were both protecting our brands. I appreciated how you protected your brand and I had to do the same. That’s our lifeblood. You can’t compromise on that, and I don’t expect you to do so either.”

And that conversation, I don’t know if it led to him making that call where he said, “Hey, I want Ziz to work for me.”

That had to help the respect level you guys still share today, and you’ve been able to work together obviously really well. I don’t know how many other lengthy PR guy/track president combos are out there, but I imagine that you’re probably the longest.

Probably. Although he says I’m day-to-day all the time. And I believe it.

So you’ve made a home here. Is this is where you see yourself ending your career? What else do you want to accomplish in your career?

I love it here, got married here. My wife’s from Fort Worth, and we’ve got two great kids that love living in Texas. I still miss Florida, but I love Texas. I see myself staying here.

Really, over the years, I like to help people. So I think as time goes on, if I have the opportunity, I’d like to do something where I can help make an impact on a community. I deal with the “Speeding to Read” program at Texas Motor Speedway with literacy and elementary school kids, which is dear to my heart just because of the impact you can make with just a little work. Seeing the kids’ faces and all that, so whether it’s on the charity side, whether it’s with education, it’s just something dear to my heart. I just love the look you see on someone’s face when you can help them, whether it’s with education or just a charitable good deed.

Speaking of helping people, you get some people who want career advice from you and say, “Hey Ziz, how do I get to where you’re at? I’d love to work at a track someday.” If somebody’s reading this and is interested in that kind of career path, how would they go about getting started these days?

I thought journalism was a great route for me and I think journalism to this day is still very important to what I do in terms of writing press releases, strategic writing, script writing, all that type of writing, as you know as well. It’s very important to write intelligently and also creatively.

I’d say internships would probably be the one I think is most beneficial. When I look at resumes, I look at what they’re done in terms of internships. Because I know when I was in college, I was a good student, I was a B student. But when I worked at the Lakeland Ledger, I learned so much more. It wasn’t about the inverted pyramid while writing a story, it was about deadlines and hustling your butt off and getting that story to them in nine minutes or whatever that was, and you’re in a panic mode, but you have to learn that.

I think internships give you a great perspective on a racetrack, how things are run. And you also get some mentorship if you have someone that works at a racetrack or with a baseball team, and they want to spend some time with their interns. I think you can learn a lot.

Mike Zizzo and longtime friend Tony Kanaan. (Courtesy photo)
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Tommy Joe Martins: Compelling but hidden mid-pack battle in Xfinity Series

Editor’s note: Tommy Joe Martins is a driver in the Xfinity Series. He occasionally writes blog posts about the triumphs and struggles of lesser-funded race teams in NASCAR.

By Tommy Joe Martins

In each NASCAR Xfinity Series event, you get two races in one: a race for the win and a season-long race for the top 30 in the owners point standings.

Both races matter.

On any given weekend, there are roughly 20 Cup-affiliated teams in an Xfinity Series event. Over the course of a 33-race season, those teams are basically guaranteed a top 30 position in the points. The other teams are left scrapping over the remaining 10 spots.

The importance of those spots lies in a $6,000 bonus guaranteed to any team in the top 30 that attempts every race, runs half the race and doesn’t put a Cup driver in its car.

Now, $6,000 on a single weekend doesn’t change much for a race team — but $6,000 for 33 races is close to $200,000. That’s 25 percent of a projected prize money budget for an Xfinity team.

Despite the general perception that you want to run as well as possible in any given race, the truth is where you finish in one race doesn’t matter that much from a money standpoint. The difference between 35th-place purse money and 10th-place money is usually around $2,000.

So is it really worth it to try to chase after 10th place? Think of the money it takes to run 10th against Cup teams! A full allotment of tires at Auto Club Speedway this season would have cost more than $18,000 — and the race paid an average of $23,000 through the field.

The main gain from a good finish is points. They are the most valuable currency in NASCAR.

What makes this tough to follow is points are relative to who you’re racing. It’s why my team can be excited about a 22nd-place finish while JR Motorsports can be mad at finishing 10th.

For example: I could finish 22nd and beat everyone that WE race against. A small team could be 26th in the owner’s standings — like my team, BJ McLeod Motorsports — and basically guarantee itself into every race because it’s ahead of the majority of the other smaller teams. Teams at the back of the standings find themselves in danger of missing races when the field is over 40 cars.

Owning a race team with limited funds is a balancing act. It’s a season-long grinder made up of short and long-term choices. One race weekend won’t ruin your season, but each weekend shapes course of the year.

Take MBM Motorsports, for example. They’ve had a ton of bad luck to begin this 2018 season. They’re near the bottom of the standings of the full-time teams. They’re missing the bonus each race. They just crashed a car last weekend at Texas (it wasn’t Chad Finchum’s fault, it was just a bad deal). And they’re not guaranteed into any race, so they have to qualify into each event on time (top-33) or they might go home.

That’s incredibly difficult to recover from. How do you get any extra funds needed to gain positions in the standings? You never get the bonus. Drivers who bring money want to take their funds to teams with guaranteed spots. Sponsors want teams with guaranteed spots. It’s an uphill slope.

Plus, it’s incredibly difficult to gain points on your direct competition. At Texas, the No. 8 car finished 22nd, four laps down. The No. 45 car finished seven laps down — in 24th! Three extra laps on the racetrack only gained you two extra
points.

So the only chance you really have to gain points is when your competitors run into bad luck. A finish of 36th or worse only gets 1 point.

That said, there are two primary options when it comes to setting out the strategy for your season:

— Outspend the prize money and guarantee yourself a higher position in the points while relying on sponsorship to balance the budget.

— Budget-race as cheaply as possible while putting yourself at risk to miss races.

But at each race, that strategy can come into question.

Do you spend more money on tires to try for a better points day? No guarantees there.

Do you take money from a lesser-skilled, paying driver? It’ll help balance the budget, but could hurt your points position in the long term.

If you struggle in practice, do you start-and-park to preserve the car for another day?

If it’s a high tire wear track and there aren’t any scuff tires available, do you start-and-park to save money?

Do you risk gaining spots on a restart, or drop your driver back to preserve the car for the next race?

Upgrading your motor costs money. Upgrading your car costs money. Upgrading your personnel costs money.

And every choice is about survival.

That’s why I find the race in the midfield so compelling. Each team is doing what it has to do on any given weekend while balancing how each choice affects its position in the bigger picture of the season.

I think my team owner, BJ McLeod, has found a terrific balance between being as competitive as possible without breaking the budget. It’s the only thing that’s allowed me to have the opportunity I have to drive his race cars.

When Bayley Currey stepped into the No. 8 car at Texas and finished 22nd, that was huge a huge boost to our team. With a rookie driver in the seat, that could have been a very rough weekend. Instead, he did a fantastic job surviving a difficult race.

My role at BJMM is to win our race. So far, I feel like I’ve done my job. There are a few racetracks each season that can provide a major shakeup in the standings for small teams — superspeedways, road courses and short tracks. And the next three races on our schedule are Bristol, Richmond and Talladega.

I just received the news I’ll be in the No. 8 car for all three of them. I couldn’t be more excited to get back in the seat and keep building on what’s already been a terrific start to our season.

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Survivor Ghost Island Power Rankings: Week 7

Each week, I’ll be ranking the remaining castaways from Survivor: Ghost Island by their best overall chance to win the game. Here’s how things look heading into Week 7 (the eighth episode of the season).

Just when it looked like another Original Malolo member would get the boot, Bradley surprisingly got taken out in a momentary blow to the Original Naviti alliance. Still, there are eight Original Naviti left and only five Original Malolo as we approach the merge this week.

To help you keep track, I’ve added a (O-Nav) or (O-Mal) by the names below. These are ranked by best chance of winning the whole game.

Note: If you are confused on which player is which, click on their name to see a photo of them.

Survivor Power Rankings: Week 7

1. Domenick (Last week: 2) — (O-Nav) The removal of Bradley was actually a power move by Domenick — according to Bradley’s interview with Rob Has A Podcast. Bradley claims Domenick was running circles around everyone with his gameplay in the pre-merge tribes.

2. Wendell (Last week: 1) — (O-Nav) I have a lot of faith in Wendell, but now he’s going to have to pick a side between Domenick and Chris. I think he will ultimately go with Domenick, but the fact he’ll have to alienate some members of the tribe probably isn’t great.

3. Kellyn (Last week: 3) — (O-Nav) Did you know Kellyn had a SUPER tight alliance with Bradley? The edit hasn’t shown us this, but the players have revealed this info afterward. They were basically viewed as a power couple. Kellyn is very smart and strategic. How will she fare on her own?

4. Chris (Last week: 7) — (O-Nav) You would think Chris has no chance of winning based on everything we’ve seen, but if he somehow prevails in getting Domenick booted — watch out! He could make a run. I don’t see it happening, but I’m putting him up here in case it does.

5. Chelsea (Last week: 5) — (O-Nav) She is with a strong group on Domenick’s team. If that core stays together, it could be the final four. (I don’t think she can win, though)

6. Sebastian (Last week: 4) — (O-Nav) He’s tight with Chris, and if those two convince Wendell to go with them over Domenick, then he could be in solid shape for awhile. That said, I’m not sure how strategic he is.

7. Michael (Last week: 13) — (O-Mal) It would be a near-miracle if he somehow wasn’t targeted in the next few weeks, but if he can somehow stay in the middle as Domenick and Chris do battle, he might emerge with some numbers on the other side.

8. Laurel (Last week: 10) — (O-Mal) Now that the merge has arrived, she might have more of a shot. It’s still going to be tough to break up Original Naviti, though.

9. Desiree (Last week: 8) — (O-Nav) She has the numbers, so there’s no reason to think she is an immediate threat of getting voted out. Let’s see what she can do with a few extra weeks to make some moves.

10. Donathan (Last week: 12) — (O-Mal) The other players need to be careful. If they completely overlook Donathan while taking out bigger threats and he makes it all the way to the end, the jury might give him the money.

11. Angela (Last week: 9) — (O-Nav) She’s at the bottom of Original Naviti. Now with the merge upon us, she has to make a move or risk going down with the Chris ship.

12. Libby (Last week: 11) — (O-Mal) In reading some of her interviews leading up to her job at Texas Motor Speedway (she was a “Great American Sweetheart” model), I realized she was not a Survivor fan before the game. The producers found her, not vice versa. Not sure how well that bodes for her now that the merge is here and strategy becomes a huge thing.

13. Jenna (Last week: 14) — (O-Mal) Apparently she won Sebastian’s heart at some point on the island, but I don’t think she will win the game.

 

ELIMINATED:

Week 1: Gonzalez (ranked No. 8 of 20 castaways) and Jacob (ranked No. 4 of 20).

Week 2: Morgan (ranked No. 14 of 18)

Week 3: Brendan (ranked No. 2 of 17)

Week 4: Stephanie (ranked No. 1 of 16)

Week 5: James (ranked No. 10 of 15)

Week 6: Bradley (ranked No. 6 of 14)

 

 

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12 Questions with Martin Truex Jr. (2018)

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The series of 12 Questions interviews continues with defending Cup Series champion Martin Truex Jr. of Furniture Row Racing. This interview is recorded both as a podcast and is transcribed in written form. Truex has participated in a 12 Questions interview for every year of the series (2010-present); an archive of his past interviews can be found at the bottom of this page.

1. How often do you have dreams about racing?

Do I ever dream about racing? Yes I do. I can tell you in your dreams, you always win. (Laughs)

Do you ever have a winning dream and then it comes true for that race?

Eight times last year. (Laughs)

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

I think it matters. There’s a line there where you kind of know if that might not have been intentional and might have been an accident. And then when you hear somebody say, “Man, I’m sorry, I really feel bad about blah, blah, blah,” it kind of makes you feel a little bit better. Like “OK, I think he’s not lying.” But you can usually tell when they’re completely full of crap.

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

I think the biggest compliment is just somebody that respects who you are as a person. If somebody says, “Man, he’s a good guy.” In my opinion, that’s a pretty big deal to me, you know?

4. NASCAR comes to you and says, “Hey, we are bringing a celebrity to the race and we’re wondering if you have time to say hi.” Who is a celebrity you’d be really excited to host?

I’m not huge on celebrities. Like I don’t get starstruck or anything.

By anybody?

It’d have to be somebody old school, like some old (guy) like Hank Williams Jr. or something like that, like a legend. It couldn’t just be some guy that’s on TV or a movie star. It would have to be somebody who is legendary. Hank would do it.

5. In an effort to show they are health-conscious, NASCAR offers the No. 1 pit stall selection for an upcoming race to the first driver willing to go vegan for a month. Would you do it?

Heck no! That’s insane. Who doesn’t eat meat? How could you live? How could anyone live? I don’t know. Like Sherry (Pollex, his longtime partner) tries to do it somewhat because it’s good for her and stuff, but she can’t even do it. She tries, but she has to eat meat, too. It’s impossible. If you don’t eat meat, there’s something wrong with you.

6. It’s time for the Random Race Challenge. I have picked a random race from your career and you have to guess where you finished. This is the 2014 Spring Dover race.

’14, that was a pretty rough year. But we did run good at Dover both times. I’m gonna say sixth.

Wow, that is correct! Sixth.

We finished sixth in both races at Dover that year.

How do you remember that stuff?

I remember everything.

So you can remember most races?

I remember a lot of races and what I did and what happened. I can remember racing my Modified and what setup I had and what springs I ran in at what race and this and that. It’s pretty crazy.

But I can’t remember people’s names for crap, just so you know.

Is that a trade you would make?

Not yet. Not until I’m done racing. (Laughs)

7. Who is the best rapper alive?

I don’t know.

You don’t know any rappers?

I don’t.

You’re not into rap at all?

Not really, no.

You don’t strike me as a rap-type person.

No. There’s some songs that I think, “That’s not terrible.” Like I don’t turn it off, but I’m not really into it much.

So that’s the highest compliment you can give a rap song. Like, “Yeah, I won’t turn it off.”

I won’t change it.

8. Who has the most punchable face in NASCAR?

Man, I love this guy, but Joey Logano.

So it’s not like you want to punch him, it’s just his face seems punchable, is that what you’re saying?

Yes. It’s just sitting up there on that long neck, just right there for the taking. And he’s always squinting so much, it’s like he wouldn’t even see it coming. (Laughs) I love Joey, he’s a great guy, so I would never do that. There have been a few times in racing that I wanted to punch him, but that’s pretty much for everybody out there at one point in time.

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.

Tom Hanks is definitely gonna be the crew chief. He seems like the smartest of the bunch to me. He may not be, but it seems like he would be. Motorhome driver, I’m gonna have to go with LeBron, just because it would be hilarious.

Your motorhome driver takes you around in the golf cart and things?

Absolutely.

So you get to spend time with them?

Yeah, that’d be fun. 

But then Taylor would be your spotter.

Yeah, I mean, I listen to half of what my spotter says anyway, so it’ll be fine. (Laughs)

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

Honestly, I just go to the closest one. I got a new PR guy (David Hart) this year and he’s kind of been scouting them out for me. Over the years, I’ve always had to go and find it by myself and I always see Kyle (Busch’s) motorhome driver standing there holding the door for him and waiting and I’m like, “Seriously?” But now my guy, he actually scopes it out. When I see him after I get out of the pickup truck, we do the ridearound usually, he’s like, “There’s a bathroom right there,” and I’m like, “Sweet, man! Thanks!” So it’s working out pretty good so far.

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?

Well it depends on what there is there to land on — or in. If there’s a foam pit or a swimming pool, I’d probably do it.

I don’t think there’s gonna be that.

But on the grass or asphalt, no. They couldn’t pay me enough, because I won’t be able to go race the next weekend, because I would have damn sure busted my ass.

Well if it was Homestead, you have the whole offseason to recover.

I can’t do a backflip at all. Period. I can’t do it into a pool. I can’t do a backflip.

What if they give you $50 million bucks?

I would just fall on my face and then put $50 million bucks in the bank. And then I wouldn’t do anything different than I do right now, so what’s the point?

12. Each week, I ask a question given to me from the last interview. Last week, I interviewed Noah Gragson. He wants to know: Does NASCAR need more road courses?

I think there should be. I think two is not quite enough. Maybe four would be good. There’s so many good road courses around the country that we could go to. It’d be fun. I love road racing too, so I think it would be fun. Four would be good. I don’t think we need any more than that.

The next interview I’m doing is with Ty Dillon. Do you have a question I can ask him?

Did it surprise you just how much harder Cup is than Xfinity? Because I think everybody kind of gets surprised. I just want to see kind of how he feels about it.

Previous 12 Questions interviews with Martin Truex Jr.

— Aug. 18, 2010

— May 18, 2011

— April 25, 2012

— May 15, 2013

— April 1, 2014

— Feb. 25, 2015

— March 16, 2016

— March 1, 2017

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News Analysis: Monster Energy extends NASCAR Cup sponsorship for one more year

What happened: After months of speculation, NASCAR and Monster Energy announced a one-year extension of the Cup Series title sponsorship. Monster’s deal was up at the end of this season, but it will now run through 2019.

What it means: Monster seemed to have all the leverage after reportedly requesting two extensions on its decision deadline. It already had the Cup Series sponsorship at a steal of a price in the original deal (at least compared to Sprint) and since has spent parts of two seasons as a relatively quiet sponsor. When NASCAR and Monster first announced the deal in December 2016 at a hastily arranged news conference in Las Vegas, there was talk of a culture change and injection of Monster’s youthful, “fun” approach into all things NASCAR. But that hasn’t happened. Today’s NASCAR is the same as it was when Sprint was around, and aside from a Monster display area and Monster girls in victory lane, the sponsor has had little impact on NASCAR itself. Nevertheless, it was crucial for NASCAR to try and extend the deal, because the optics would have been terrible had there been yet another title sponsor change after just two years. At this point, the value of the naming rights themselves seem diminished compared to a decade ago, which could be why NASCAR told reporters it is looking at a different model starting in 2020. It might just be better to try something else than to engage in an annual dance of will-they-or-won’t-they when it comes to signing a new deal, and that seems to be the direction NASCAR may go.

News value: Six. It’s above average because it’s the series title sponsorship, but there’s a lot of fatigue around this story since it dragged on for so long. It would have been much bigger news at this point had Monster decided not to come back, because NASCAR would have been in a real bind.

Three questions: What was the holdup in signing the deal that prevented Monster from meeting the original deadline last December? What other options would NASCAR have had if this deal hadn’t been worked out? Will Monster do anything to increase its role, or will its investment stay relatively the same over the remaining two seasons of its sponsorship?

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The Top Five: Breaking down the Texas race

Five thoughts after Sunday’s race at Texas Motor Speedway…

1.  Busch is back

It had only been nine races since Kyle Busch last won, which isn’t much of a drought by anyone’s standards.

But the “losing streak” (I’m putting it in quotes because it was a pretty weak slump) may have felt longer for Busch because of some frustration along the way.

A second-place finish at Homestead last year (and in the championship) was one of four runner-up results since November. For a guy who is never happy with anything but a win, finishing second that often didn’t sit well.

“Certainly being that close, it gets a little old a little faster, you know?” Busch said. “… Being as close as you are, that kind of hurts a little bit more. Especially that final one — that one that matters, that Homestead one. That’s probably the one that stings the most.”

Much of the focus this season has been on Kevin Harvick — rightfully so, since he’s been a dominant force and has three wins. But don’t overlook Busch when talking about the best team of the season so far.

His last five races (starting with Las Vegas) have resulted in the following finishes: second, second, third, second, first.

And Busch now has seven playoff points — tied for second with Martin Truex Jr. Clearly, his season is off to a much better start than in 2017, when Busch didn’t win until late July.

“We’ll just keep plugging along,” he said. “I still feel like we need to improve more and more. It feels good to be able to run as fast as we are and still have the improvements that we can make.”

2. “Our bad!”

For the most part this season, NASCAR has officiated consistently. That did not appear to be the case on Sunday, when Ryan Blaney received an uncontrolled tire penalty but Kevin Harvick did not (when the situations looked to be at least somewhat similar).

After initially defending the decision, NASCAR released a statement acknowledging the non-call was an error.

“It was a judgment call, and after conducting a post-race review of the incident, an uncontrolled tire penalty for the 4 car would have been correct,” said Scott Miller, NASCAR’s senior vice president of competition. “We missed that call.”

There’s certainly an argument to be made that NASCAR shouldn’t have waited until after the race to determine the call was incorrect. Obviously, it would be preferable to get it right in the moment (and this would have been a MUCH bigger deal if Harvick ended up winning the race).

But honestly, I can’t ever remember NASCAR coming out like this a few hours after a race and saying, “Hey, we screwed up.” So that’s good! Kudos for that. They are human, after all.

Personally, I think it reduces some of the outrage to just admit a mistake when one happens and it makes it easier to move on. In the past, officials would have doubled down on the spin and put forth a “nothing to see here!” messaging strategy.

Fans can live with the occasional error if it is acknowledged.

3. Gunning it

 In comments to reporters after the race, Harvick shredded NASCAR’s new common pit guns and called them “embarrassing for the sport,” according to NBC’s Nate Ryan.

He emphasized that point in a media center interview, saying his team has had pit gun problems in four of the seven races this season.

“We had a pathetic day two days on pit road because we can’t get pit guns that work in our pit stalls,” he said. “Today we … got ourselves a lap down because the pit guns work half the time, they don’t work half the time.  Yesterday (in the Xfinity race) we had four loose wheels because the pit guns can’t get the tires tight.

“I feel bad for the guys on pit road because they get handed just absolutely inconsistent pieces of equipment. Today it wound up costing us a race.”

As crazy as it sounds, I hadn’t been on board with dumping on the pit guns because it seemed like only one or two teams was having a problem during a race — this out of roughly 200 pit stops.

And after all, it’s the teams who asked for NASCAR to step in and regulate this (it wasn’t even on NASCAR’s radar before the teams requested it).

“We’ll continue gathering information on the pit guns’ performance like we do after every race,” NASCAR’s Miller said. “It is too early to make assumptions without all the facts. It’s also important to remember that this is a collaborative initiative with the race teams.”

But as teams continue to struggle with the guns — and have their races altered by them — it’s looking like this concept should be scrapped if pit gun maker Paoli can’t get the guns to be more reliable.

As Busch crew chief Adam Stevens pointed out, teams can’t change their strategies — they have to take tires. And when the race comes down to something that isn’t in their control, it’s an uncomfortable situation.

“Is it concerning? It is,” he said. “I think it puts a lot of doubt in the (tire) changers’ minds, probably makes them make more mistakes up and down pit road than maybe what they would have if they had more confidence in their equipment.

“You’re definitely on edge, listening for a problem, looking for a problem.”

And despite being a member of the council that worked with NASCAR to implement the common pit guns, team owner Joe Gibbs has seen enough.

“I don’t like things not in our hands,” he said. “So to be quite truthful, I’ve taken a stand on that (with NASCAR). That’s something that I hope we continue to really evaluate.”

The last thing anyone wants is to see this impact the playoffs. If the pit gun issue can’t get resolved by the middle of the summer, NASCAR should give the teams six weeks’ notice and let them use their own guns once the final 10 races begin.

4. New kids

The veteran drivers ruled once again on Sunday, going 1-2-3 (Busch-Harvick-Jamie McMurray). They’ve won all the races since Daytona, although Harvick’s average age observation got reduced slightly with Busch’s win (he turns 33 in May).

But some of the “New Kids On The Track” — who appeared on a large cartoon poster outside the garage this weekend — had pretty respectable days.

Rookies Bubba Wallace and William Byron both had top-10 finishes (Wallace battled Harvick for the free pass spot at times and Byron held off Jimmie Johnson for the same position earlier in the race).

Other names on the banner with good days included Erik Jones (fourth), Ryan Blaney (fifth) and Chase Elliott (11th).

Maybe Eddie Gossage was onto something with his idea.

“We needed that,” Wallace said on pit road after finishing eighth. “Each weekend, something happened after Daytona (when he finished second). The only thing we did was shake it off and look ahead to the next weekend.”

5. What’s next?

We still don’t have a great idea which team is best suited for the long run this season.

Stewart-Haas Racing has four wins (Harvick three, Clint Bowyer one) and the Joe Gibbs Racing/Furniture Row alliance has two (one each for Truex and Busch).

In addition, the drivers from those teams make up eight of the top 12 spots (Team Penske’s three drivers and Kyle Larson are the others).

Harvick had boldly said on Friday he was better than Truex on 1.5-mile tracks, and perhaps that was going to be the case on Sunday (before Truex blew a tire and finished last). But then Harvick got beat straight-up by Busch — they were on the same strategy and restarted on the front row together with 23 laps to go.

Anyway, the point is: We still don’t know! There hasn’t been a decisive race yet where none of the contenders had a problem on a normal track (in other words, not an abrasive surface or a superspeedway or a short track).

And now with Bristol, Richmond, Talladega and Dover coming up, it’s going to be more than a month — until Kansas — when we get another chance to see which team has best figured out the intermediate tracks.