These are short but sweet questions
Q: Lets say president of NASCAR was an elected position voted on by the drivers and you decided to run. What would one of your campaign promises be?
A: This could be a sticky one in how you answer it. But Id like to think most all of us would agree more short tracks and more road courses on the schedule would be fun. I think the fans would like to see that and I think they'd like going back to some of the venues weve been at previously like North Wilkesboro or Rockingham.
When we run Charlotte, we run here three times a year. Yeah, youre going to get people from those other areas to come watch this race, but I think if you ran at each trackonce, youd probably get more people to go therethan you would getting everyone to come to the same track over and over.
Q: At the start of this year, exactly 2,900 drivers had ever raced in the Sprint Cup Series. Where do you rank among those 2,900?
A: Id say probably somewhere around 17th or 18th. I feel pretty comfortable with that. There are a lot of guys who have had a great history over the years and would deservingly be higher on the list than me.
Q: What do you think your reputation is and is that reputation accurate?
A: I think my reputation is pretty fair among the drivers. The drivers know what they get when they see me or talk to me if they get the chance to talk to me, because some of them I just dont talk to because I dont like them, so they should know. Yeah, we all have to be at the same place every weekend, but there are certainly guys out there who Im not friends with and who Id probably never be friends with. So I think drivers know where they stand with me.
As far as fan perception, its probably worse than it should be. I think its getting better, but I think I still get perceived based on the things I did earlier in my career. I still hear from people today who say, Man, I cantstandthat guy. Ever since 2008 Im like, Thats a long time ago!Move on. (Smiles)
Q: If you could do any race over again, which race would you choose?
A: Theres probably a ton of them, but one that sticks out in my mind is this years Daytona 500. (The Joe Gibbs Racing-affiliated cars)were all told to stay in line as a team and as an organization with Toyotas to get to the finish like that. There was never really a discussion of all five of us running in a line and when we could pull out and make our moves at the end, so I really didnt know.
I kind of just stuck to the plan and figured it was (teammate Matt) Kenseths day and we were going to ride it out, you know? And Denny (Hamlin) jumped out of line first and then had a big push from behind, and I had an opportunity there and thought about it twice -- and the third time was too late.
Q: Lets say president of NASCAR was an elected position voted on by the drivers and you decided to run. What would one of your campaign promises be?
A: This could be a sticky one in how you answer it. But Id like to think most all of us would agree more short tracks and more road courses on the schedule would be fun. I think the fans would like to see that and I think they'd like going back to some of the venues weve been at previously like North Wilkesboro or Rockingham.
When we run Charlotte, we run here three times a year. Yeah, youre going to get people from those other areas to come watch this race, but I think if you ran at each trackonce, youd probably get more people to go therethan you would getting everyone to come to the same track over and over.
Q: If you could do any race over again, which race would you choose?
A: Theres probably a ton of them, but one that sticks out in my mind is this years Daytona 500. (The Joe Gibbs Racing-affiliated cars)were all told to stay in line as a team and as an organization with Toyotas to get to the finish like that. There was never really a discussion of all five of us running in a line and when we could pull out and make our moves at the end, so I really didnt know.
I kind of just stuck to the plan and figured it was (teammate Matt) Kenseths day and we were going to ride it out, you know? And Denny (Hamlin) jumped out of line first and then had a big push from behind, and I had an opportunity there and thought about it twice -- and the third time was too late.
So youre like, Thanks a lot, guys?
Well, I followed along with the rules. But I guess rules are made to be broken.
These are my picks from the interview with Jeff Gluck, USA TODAY Sports
updated by @johnny-mallonee: 12/05/16 04:04:08PM
