Despite blue toes, Speed finding foothold in NASCAR (cont'd)

"Honestly, I really think it comes down to I have nothing to prove," he said. "I've done what I set out since I was a kid to do. I've raced in Formula One. I've achieved one of the biggest goals of my life. This for me is a huge goal. It's a personal goal. It's something I challenge myself and have the ability to do. But if things go wrong or I don't make it successfully here, it's not going to kill me, you know? I won't be devastated. I'm giving it an honest effort and an honest shot, and I have amazing backing from Red Bull. Everybody making decisions on what I've done since I've come over from Europe, racing in ARCA, racing the truck, every decision we've made has been very calculated and it's been right. For me, it's just an amazing opportunity."

His biggest challenge thus far in NASCAR is relaying what the truck needs to Wolcott and the crew, something he believes he's improving on every week. Frye can see it. "When you sit there and talk to him, he's as good as they get. He's a smart kid," the GM said. "He really understands racing and he wants to learn more. He wants to be good at it. He has all the qualities you look for in a driver. The painted toenails, that's a whole another thing. That's his choice. I wouldn't do it, but if he's happy, that's fine."

“

I think everyone really hypes up the difficulty of our job, to be honest. At the end of the day, there's two corners. The car moves slow. It literally takes me an average of 10 laps to figure out a track. It's not that hard.

”

SCOTT SPEED

Yes, those painted toenails certainly stand out in a Truck Series that's traditionally been a tough circuit populated by even tougher men. Ron Hornaday, the truck series' three-time champion, won't be painting his toenails any color anytime soon. But Speed's choice of polish doesn't affect his opinion. "He is a winner on the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series," Hornaday said, "so he's going to fit in really well."

Another three-time truck champ, Jack Sprague, agreed. "He obviously can drive a racecar," Sprague said. "There's not a question in my mind, blue toenails or not."

Even Sprint Cup points leader Kyle Busch took notice. "That was pretty cool," he said of Speed's first victory. Of course, that was until he learned that the ex-F1 driver intimated that NASCAR isn't as difficult as it seems.

"I think everyone really hypes up the difficulty of our job, to be honest," Speed said. "At the end of the day, there's two corners. The car moves slow. It literally takes me an average of 10 laps to figure out a track. It's not that hard. The hard part of this sport is learning what the car wants and how to give it. You're not going to go around that track fast unless your car is set up right. The best guys are the guys who know what their car wants in the race, who have the experience to know what the car should feel like in practice and for the race. Honestly, it's really not that difficult to drive around any of these places so far."

To that, Busch -- who'll be able to make such comparisons himself after he takes a spin in a Toyota F1 car in Japan toward the end of the year -- could only shake his head and smile.

"He's got a rude awakening when he gets going a little bit further," he said. "Just because he won in his [sixth] start doesn't mean that it comes all that often. People around the sport go years without winning. Sometimes they go 50, 80, however many races between wins. It's a hard sport. He's probably pretty gratified that he won, and yet he probably doesn't know when his next one is going to come. We'll see. It's not as easy as it looks here, that's for sure. You've got 43 of the best competitors in the whole world racing together, and it's obviously hard for a lot of them to make two corners and figure out two different corners in a racetrack. But hopefully I can have some fun and see a little of what he experienced over there."

Speed seems to realize the difficulty level will increase as he progresses. Wait until you get in one of those new Sprint Cup cars, somebody told him. "Yeah, you know it," he said. "Those look a little bit more difficult."

And when exactly will that be? Right now, Frye said, there's no timeline. But there's a distinct possibility that Speed take his first twirl in a Sprint Cup car before the current season is complete.

"At the end of the year when you've got extra inventory, who knows," Frye said. "We're capable of it. We have a test team. But the main thing right now is to make sure our two Cup cars are getting better, and they are. Toward the end of the year, if we had the opportunity to do that, we'd think about it."

Not that Speed is in any hurry. He seems perfectly content doing what he's doing now -- tossing off one-liners, occasionally wearing giant-sized sunglasses, whipping all comers in Guitar Hero and contending for race wins without anyone looking over his shoulder.

"What I am most happy about over here is, I have stability in my life," he said. "When I was over in Europe racing Formula One from year to year, I did not know what was going to happen in my life. I did not have a steady paycheck coming in. It was like, all right, today I'm a Formula One driver, but I can tell you that doesn't pay very well. There was no stability. Right now, I have stability. I know that for the next few years, I will be doing this, and it's not going to go away. I have the full support of Red Bull, and I can relax. I can finally sort of relax. I know I'm going to be OK for the rest of my life."