Q&A: David Stremme (cont'd)

Q: Where do you think your best chance to win this year probably would be?

Stremme: The best chance to win? I would probably say an intermediate track. I think you just got to get yourself in position each week. You never know, it might be this weekend. But it's something where our intermediate program has been pretty strong. We just need a little luck on our side.

You know, every week there's probably 20 to 25 guys who could win a race. I know on TV it don't look like that. I know at Texas we were running fifth coming in for the last pit stop. We do one adjustment, air pressure, went from fifth to 10th. It's just really close and tight. But that's what makes it fun.

I can't really pinpoint what race I would, you know, be able to say I'm going to win.

Q: We hear all the time the competition keeps getting tougher and tougher. Can you even compare this season to last season? Is it that much more tough this season compared to last season?

Stremme: I mean, I definitely think it is tougher this year. I mean, the stats that NASCAR send out speak for themselves. You look at how many cars are finishing on the lead lap. It's something where it's getting tougher each year. That's what makes it the top sport. That's what makes it fun to go out and try to achieve a win and get the best finish you can that day.

Q: Could you talk about what it takes to get here, what it takes to stay here at this level?

Stremme: You just got to work hard. I never went to prom. I didn't do none of that. I was racing the whole time. I think that's stuff you just got to give over a hundred percent each day to try to get to this level. Then there's people that won't ever make it to here.

One of the things I try to do, you know, again, I'm very thankful for getting to go out and compete and put on a show for fans. But, you know, I have my own team to where it kind of reminds me of how hard I've worked to get here. I spent the weekend off with my late model team with one of our development drivers, Bryan Clausen. It was cool. I go over there, mess around with stuff. I've got guys that have helped me throughout my career working for me on that team. It's just something where, you know, you got to kind of keep in perspective because each week's a grind here. Last weekend was my only weekend off since March, and it was tough. But you get in the swing of things, you just keep digging the whole time.

Q: Is your energy level as high at the beginning of the season as opposed to like right now, going into the Chase?

Stremme: Well, for me going into Indianapolis, I'm pretty pumped because, again, it's close to home. I'm so looking forward to going there. Especially having a week off, you think about it even more.

But, I mean, earlier in the year, each week, we had a pretty good car. The thing is, that's where your team comes into play. You got to rely on your team. Everybody relies on each other to keep everybody pumped up and going because it is a long season.

But going to the Chase, our odds of making the Chase are very slim -- like very, very slim. We just look at what do we have to do to get better.

Q: You think of the Indianapolis 500 when you think of Indiana. What was the determining factor for you to follow the stock-car trail rather than the IndyCar trail?

Stremme: That's a pretty popular question all the time from people asking me why didn't I go open-wheel racing. Sprint car and everything is big throughout Indiana. Growing up in the northern part of the state, stock cars were always pretty big. Probably one thing is I always seen a lot of wrecks in open-wheel racing. They were pretty bad. I was like, I don't really find much interest in that.

The stock car, NASCAR, just how the competition, you have 43 cars out there rubbing and grinding on each other, yet still competing and going on.

Obviously Indianapolis, the 500, is a very historical race. I think anybody would love to compete in it. As far as the NASCAR side, I can race 36 times a year compared to the open-wheel side.

Q: The fact that Indianapolis added a stock-car race 14 years ago, do you think that may have turned some of the open-wheel guys toward stock-car racing?

Stremme: I think it did a little bit. I remember actually what I was doing that whole weekend when NASCAR came to the Brickyard. I was following it. I was running around home local racing. As a matter of fact, I won that weekend which I thought was really cool.

I was always like, 'Man, I'd love to go down there and race at Indianapolis.'

But, I don't know, I would hope to think maybe it's taken some of them guys to the NASCAR level. I think talking with my teammate Juan Montoya, he was a big open-wheel guy, won there at Indianapolis. I think just the NASCAR side of things, you can race a lot more. We can do it 36 times a year. I think that's what makes it fun.