As NASCAR's director of communications for competition, Kerry Tharp often is the go-to guy for the media when it comes to announcing penalties for teams or individuals.

But that is only part of his job. He spoke recently with NASCAR.COM about his wide-varying role and a number of other topics, including his passion for the University of South Carolina -- where he worked for two decades before coming to NASCAR in 2005.

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I just was blown away by the experience of being at a NASCAR event, and the professionalism that I saw across the board from the garage to the media center to all the people that I came across. I really came away very impressed with the passion and enthusiasm they all had for the sport.

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-- KERRY THARP

Question: Could you talk a little about your background?

Tharp: I've been fortunate to be involved in sports in some form or fashion all my adult life. I worked in collegiate athletics for about 26 years. I worked in the sports publicity field, starting out at my alma mater, Western Kentucky University, and then in graduate school at the University of Tennessee, and then for four years at Oklahoma and 20 years at South Carolina. I've now been at NASCAR for going on five years.

Q: How did it come about that you made the switch to NASCAR?

Tharp: An opportunity arose where a former college mate of mine was working in NASCAR. A couple doors got opened -- and I went down and visited a lot of folks from NASCAR at the Daytona 500 in 2005. I just was blown away by the experience of being at a NASCAR event, and the professionalism that I saw across the board from the garage to the media center to all the people that I came across. I really came away very impressed with the passion and enthusiasm they all had for the sport. I just thought this would be a great opportunity for me to continue my career in sports, yet have a different challenge in front of me.

I was a relative novice when it came to knowledge of motorsports. But the people in this sport have been so welcoming, and I've tried to be a sponge for the last five years, learning what I could, really, from everybody I've come in contact with.

Q: What exactly is your role, from a race weekend to when you're not at the track and working out of the NASCAR Research and Development Center (in Concord, N.C.)?

Tharp: I'm the director of communications for competition. I'm charged to be responsible for day-to-day management of public relations in regard to competition. I work very, very closely with all of our people at the R&D Center, including vice president of competition Robin Pemberton, all our series directors, engineers, safety people. So during the week, I'm very involved and engaged in that type of public-relations activity.

On race weekends, I kind of just get set up and do the best that I can to help manage NASCAR's PR efforts at whatever track we might be at -- working with the race tracks in advance, working with the driver and team PR reps in advance, and just trying to put together a good organizational plan that hopefully provides services to the media and to the competitors from a PR standpoint.

Q: Could you explain why you're so excited about the return of the Truck Series to Darlington Raceway in Darlington, S.C., this weekend?

Tharp: We have some history there, racing in the Truck Series. We raced there from 2001 through 2004 for a total of four races. Certainly Darlington as a race track has a great tradition and a great history, and is one of the special venues in our sport.

Unfortunately, despite being in the state as long as I was, I never could get over there for a race (prior to being employed by NASCAR). It seemed like whenever they had a spring race, I was involved in spring football practice; and then the date that they would have in the fall, which used to be on Labor Day weekend, was the day after a football game -- and a Sunday is a very, very busy day for a sports information director, coming off a Saturday football game and you have only four or five days to get ready for another game. So unfortunately, I couldn't get there in person. But I did know the importance and the significance of it, and the passion that the people in the state had for NASCAR racing in general and Darlington in particular.

I think one of the interesting storylines about this race coming up is that there are only a handful of Camping World Truck Series drivers who have ever even raced there. ... So it's going to be a brand-new venue for the vast majority of the drivers -- and everyone knows how challenging that track can be for drivers who have been there many, many times. You can just ask our Sprint Cup drivers how difficult it is. So I think it's going to be a challenge and really provide some exciting racing.

Q: As a former Sports Information Director at South Carolina, what was your reaction to the Gamecocks recently winning the national championship in baseball?

Tharp: I've always told people I've been blessed and fortunate to be at a number of really cool sporting events -- and the three years in a row (2002-04) that we did go out to the College World Series when I was at the University of South Carolina ranks very high on my list of memories. It's just a terrific sporting event. College baseball is, I think, a very underrated sport. It's a great spectator sport -- and what they've done in Omaha, [Neb.], they've just done a terrific job to make it home for them.

For South Carolina to come through the tournament and win it like they did this year, I was just ecstatic. I actually was at home, watching the final game. We had been with some friends in Charlotte earlier, watching the two [tournament] wins against Clemson. I debated if we should go back and watch it at the place we were before -- because I did not want to cause any kind of bad luck or anything. But I was very happy for [Coach] Ray Tanner, who is a real dear friend of mine and a class act.

Q: What about the football team? This is the sixth season for Steve Spurrier and you were there when they brought him in, right?

Tharp: Yes. They brought him in in November of '04 and his first season was '05.

Q: What was that like?

Tharp: Exciting. Lou Holtz obviously had been our coach prior to that, so we went from Lou Holtz to Steve Spurrier -- two Hall of Famers, two coaches who had won national championships [previously] in college football.

I think Coach Spurrier has done a very good job. It's hard to be a consistent winner in the [Southeastern Conference]. I think the recruiting has been very good, and I think if you take a look at the landscape of the league this year and particularly in the Eastern Division, where South Carolina is, I think there is a good opportunity to make some headway this year.

Q: If the colorful Coach Spurrier were in NASCAR as a driver or owner or whatever, who would he be?

Tharp: Who would he be? That's a good question. I think he would be great in NASCAR, but I don't think I can label him.