1on1: Drew Carey

Drew Carey doesn't have his bonus room painted red and black with Carl Edwards' No. 99 plastered all over it. He doesn't have a NASCAR sticker on his car and doesn't have a Jimmie Johnson T-shirt. No tattoos, either. Wait.

"I've got Kyle Busch tattooed on my lower back," Carey said. "When I wear my thong, you can see Kyle Busch right there. Sorry, I didn't mean to disturb everybody."

Carey, host of the television game show The Price is Right, admits he's probably not in the minority on that one.

But he did give a big yell and shout-out to other fans barbecuing at Auto Club Speedway on Sunday, where he was grand marshal for the Pepsi 500. Grand marshal what does it mean?

Carey got a police escort into the speedway, went directly to the track's Presidential Suite with The Price is Right models, had a garage tour, gave the command and then watched the first quarter of the race from Edwards' pit box. Not a bad gig, celebrity or not.

"So what's it like? It's the coolest thing in the world. It's great," Carey said. "If I was just being here, buying a ticket, I would say, 'Oh it's OK, it's a good race.' But when you're a celebrity and the grand marshal and they give you the VIP treatment -- I wish this was a prize they could give away to the average person, or somebody could win this so they could get a police escort in, get to sit in the pit, get to hang out in the Presidential Suite with all The Price is Right models.

"I think it's a letdown to the fans if you have an opportunity like this and you go, 'Well, you know, whatever.' That's not my attitude. I think this is the coolest thing in the world. When you get to do something like this, you're obligated to be over the moon about it like I am right now or you shouldn't be doing it. If somebody offers me to do something, and I say, 'well I guess so, I can promote my show,' don't do it. Stuff like this is the greatest. Honestly, I'll remember this kind of thing the rest of my life. Absolutely."

A police escort into a NASCAR track the coolest thing in the world? This coming from a guy who hosts the most popular game show on TV. He's also the guy whose comic show Whose Line is it Anyway? became America's successful spinoff of the British improv. And he's the guy whose self-titled The Drew Carey Show propelled him to stardom. Carey's giddiness before the start of Sunday's race confirmed his enjoyment.

On the way to the racetrack, as he passed cars in his police escort, he hung his head out the window and gave fans a big NASCAR-like yell. The responses were mixed: some were shocked it was Carey, others yelled back. "We were bummed out we didn't have a sunroof," he said. "I would have taken my shirt off and just waved it around."

Q: Tell me about The Price is Right.

Carey: It's a game show where you get prizes -- cars and coo-coo clocks, trips to places.

Carey's career

Yr.	Title	Role
'93	Coneheads	Taxi passenger
'94	The Good Life	Drew Clark
'95-'04	The Drew Carey Show	Drew Carey
'98-'06	Whose Line is it Anyway?	Host
'00	Geppetto	Geppetto
'05	Robots	Crank
'07-'08	Power of 10	Host
'07-	The Price is Right	Host

Q: Really? What a concept.

Carey: Yeah, it's pretty fun.

Q: How challenging is it compared to the other shows you've done?

Carey: It's not. It's really fun. I had to learn the games. You have somebody over who's never played Risk, so you're like, 'All right, you roll two dice, I roll one. If you attack, this is what you do. You have your armies. You try to take a continent.' So it's like you're having to explain these rules of a game to everybody all the time.

You're hosting a party anyway. When I'm getting dressed and my makeup on, I can hear people doing the wave. And there's nobody asking them to do the wave, nobody starts it. It's all the fans who come in and do it on their own. They're dancing and doing the YMCA. That's without a warm-up guy. They've been in line since two or three in the morning. The DJ puts on some music, same music every time, and the whole place is so full of joy and happiness and positive feelings. I used to go to a Pentecostal church when I was in junior high and it's like that. Everybody's clapping and really getting into the singing and up on their feet. It's really powerful. It's such a great atmosphere.

Q: What do you do on Tuesdays?

Carey: I watch you on NASCAR.COM.

Q: Where is your favorite vacation spot?

Carey: Vegas or my own house. Honestly, sometimes if I'm just all by myself at my house, I can just be around my dogs and enjoy my backyard, it's great. I have three dogs. I have a Labrador Retriever, a German Shepherd mix and a Rottweiler. So if I can just hang out and just chill, that's my favorite thing to do, especially if I have no responsibility. That's a vacation. I'm one of the few people who enjoy plane rides. If I go from here to New York, that's five and a half hours nobody can touch me, nobody can call me, nobody can ask me anything, I don't have to make a decision, I can eat, I can relax. It's great.

Q: What time do you wake up?

Carey: On a work day, I get up about 9, 9:30. I have to be at work around noon. It's a rough day for me. Some of my friends hate me because of that. You have to do what? Yeah. You don't wake up until when? Yeah. You don't have to be at work until 1? Yeah. You make how much? Yeah.

Q: How much was your first paycheck?

Carey: McDonald's. I got like $1.20 an hour -- whatever the minimum wage was then. I think it was like $1.20, $1.30 an hour. Making shakes.

Q: Tell me a joke.

Carey: A clean one or a dirty one?

Q: Either.

Carey: Alright. Um. OK, there's a -- I can't tell a dirty joke. I'm trying to think of a clean one now I can tell. It was a dirty joke. That's all we've been doing, me and my friends on the way over here, just telling dirty jokes.

Here's one you can tell your kids. A snail gets mugged by two turtles. He calls the police. The police show up and ask what happened. Snail says, 'I don't know, it all happened so fast.'