"Overtaking from the outside will take some getting used to"

At the ARCA RE/MAX race at the Kansas Speedway, Scott Speed bagged the first stock car victory for Team Red Bull. Why playing golf doesn’t make him happy, why a stock car is easier to drive than a Formula 1 car and why he’s homesick for Austria, the 25-year-old discloses in an interview.

Congratulations on your victory in Kansas. How important was this win for your self-confidence?

It definitely felt great to come across the finish line first! That was my first win in racing since 2004 – other than that I can only say I’ve won a golf match here and there! But for me, my race results don’t dictate my self-confidence, or how I feel about myself as a racer. If I do everything right during a race, make smart decisions, communicate effectively with my crew, and learn a lot while I’m on track – those are the things that build my confidence in the race car. I don’t let where I finish in a race determine how I feel about myself.

For an unversed spectator a stock car race finish seems a little chaotic and as if the winners happen to be ‘at the right time at the right place.’ What tactics are actually behind a victory in a stock car?

There are a lot of different things involved with winning a stock car race. First, you have to have a really good race car. Setups on these cars are critical. You can have a great car for the first half of the race, then track conditions change, or a pit stop goes wrong, or someone hits you on the track – and before you know it, you can have a car so bad you can barely hang onto it. There are 40-odd cars on track trying to win that race too, so you have focus on the things you can control. Our job as a team is to setup a really good race car and have a smart race.

You also compete regularly and successfully (two top 10 placings in three races) in the Craftsman Truck Series. What’s the difference between a stock car and a pickup truck?

The NASCAR Trucks have a bit more downforce than the stock car, but for me both the truck and the stock car are pretty similar. I do feel like I learn a bit more when I’m racing the truck though. The drivers in the Truck Series are tough racers and the level of competition is so high, so you really have to be on top of your game. I learn a lot when I’m racing in the Truck Series by just sitting back and watching how the veterans pass, how they race, and what they do to gain positions on the track. There’s a good mix of veterans and novice stock car drivers like myself in that series, so it’s a great learning ground for me. Comparing the car and trucks though, they’re both about 3,000 pounds and I have to turn left in them!

What has changed in your life in the last nine months, apart from now having a roof over your workplace?

A lot has changed for me in the past nine months. It’s actually been an easy transition from Europe back to America for me. I have a lot of friends and family already here in America, and I’ve also met a lot of great new people in just the short time I’ve been back. It’s been a cool homecoming, but there are still some things I miss about living in Europe. I definitely miss Austria – the culture, the people, Fuschl, just lots of things. I love Austria and I’d love to live there again some day.

What’s the relationship between the ARCA RE/MAX Series and the Sprint Cup? How much different are the cars from one another? How closely is the field positioned? What European racing series would you compare it with?

The ARCA Series races the cars that the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series raced last year. We basically race the Cup Series hand-me-downs. The Cup Series switched to a different car this year, though, so they’re not using the same body style car as we are. As far as competition goes in ARCA versus Cup, the Cup Series is the highest stock car series there is in America. The guys racing that series are the best of the best. ARCA is a series that has a lot of young racers that are hoping to eventually make it to the Cup series. It’s a training ground to move up into the Truck Series, the Nationwide Series, and eventually Cup. As far as what European racing series you can compare it to, I don’t really think there’s a direct comparison.

AJ Allmendinger said in an interview that changing from open wheelers is much more difficult than one can imagine. How was it for you? What, in detail, are the difficulties? Have you already been able to successfully and fully adapt to the new change?

The biggest difficulty for me has been running around the outside of someone on the track, and actually being faster! It’s almost impossible for me at the moment to get into my head how to race competitors on the outside. That’s been the hardest thing to adapt to. There are other things too like the cars obviously feel very different. It’s almost easier to drive a stock car because the cars are so much heavier, so they react a lot slower. There’s also no data acquisition on a stock car like there is in an F1 car, so the decision-making process of how to make your car better comes mostly from the driver, not a group of engineers like in F1.

How do you now see your Formula 1 career – viewed with a little distance?

I’m very happy with how my F1 career turned out. I think that Tonio and I did a really good job with what we had. I think my peers in F1 respect me as a racing driver, and that’s important to me.

What are your goals in sport for 2008? What are your further career plans?

It’s hard to pinpoint exact goals right now because I’m learning and improving at such a rapid pace. We’re constantly setting new goals, achieving them, and moving on to the next one. We started with running a full ARCA season, added truck races, and hope to win races in both series. We’re going to keep elevating the learning curve as much as I can handle.