Q&A: Menzer

What is your favorite word?
• Friend

What is your least favorite word?
• I can't print it. It's too offensive.

What turns you on?
• Hey, this is getting kind of personal, isn't it?

What turns you off?
• People on cell phones at the gym -- while they're working out!

What sound do you love?
• The roar of a race car -- or better yet, 43 of them coming around the first turn.

What sound do you hate?
• Bad rap music played too loud from the car in front of you at a stoplight.

What profession other than yours would you like to attempt?
• Drummer in a Southern rock band (of course, first I would have to learn how to play the drums!)

What profession would you not like to participate in?
• Cleaning sewers or picking up road kill for the county sounds pretty unappealing.

What was the first car you owned?
• A 1968 Buick LeSabre convertible that slept 10 and got about six miles to a gallon.

Which city is your favorite on the circuit?
• Charlotte, because I get to sleep in my own bed.

Most memorable race you've attended?
• The 2000 spring race at Bristol, when I was writing The Wildest Ride. Rusty Wallace, who hadn't won in a while, captured his 50th career victory.

Most enduring memory of your career?
• Interviewing the contradictory, arrogant and often obnoxious but absolutely fascinating Pete Rose, then a player-manager and not yet a convicted criminal and outcast, in his office at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati as Rose chased Ty Cobb's all-time Major League Baseball hits record. ... I wonder if he had something on the game that day?