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Drivers are touched by the Walter Reed Military Medical Center servicemen and women
BETHESDA, Md. – The festivities were set for NASCAR’s Tribute to the Warriors at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Thursday.
Tables with blue tablecloths and white napkins were impeccably set for 300 guests. American Idol star Pia Toscano, flanked by two huge screens, had completed her warm-up and mike check and emcee, NASCAR pit reporter Jamie Little, had run through her script including the introduction of NASCAR President Mike Helton.
But Staff Sergeant Liam Dwyer, 32, a U.S. Marine from Southbury, Conn., wasn’t sticking around. Fresh from his rehab work in the Military Advanced Training Center rehab room, Dwyer and his driving buddy, Bob Pielli Jr., were headed south to Virginia International Raceway to put his vintage 1962 Sprite through its paces.
Pretty incredible, considering Dwyer races cars despite the loss of his left leg above the knee and severe nerve and skeletal damage to his right leg and both arms, the result of stepping on an IED in Afghanistan.
"Bob came down from Connecticut. We’ve got the car loaded up and we’re headed out to VIR in about 45 minutes," Dwyer said. "I’m a driver and these guys are drivers – and being able to exchange driving stories with them is something special. We’ve run some of the same tracks. Other people don’t quite get the ‘it’ factor like drivers do."
"Inspirational," said Kurt Busch, who exchanged phone numbers with Dwyer, who aspires to drive professionally in the GRAND-AM Rolex and American Le Mans Series. "We think we have it tough some days with sessions, maybe the heat during summer runs. For (Dwyer), he’s going against those obstacles of not having all his limbs or muscles toned and driving with a big smile on his face."
"That’s incredible," said Brian Vickers, who spent considerable time with Dwyer. "He’s definitely the most passionate driver/fan I’ve ever met at an event like this."
Although Dwyer’s story as a race driver was unique, his injuries were not atypical of those observed by the NASCAR visitors to Walter Reed.
Team owner Roger Penske was among those also making the trip to Walter Reed.
"I’m thrilled to be able to wrap my arms around these young men and women who really give their lives and much of their bodies for the safety of our country," Penske said. "One young man I talked to, who lost a leg, said he’s going back (into the service). Mentally, these kids are tough. That’s what makes our country so great."
The mental part side is the toughest part of the challenge says Stephanie Morris, 24-year-old Private First Class from Toledo, Ohio, recovering from a fractured femur and broken foot suffered when two mortars exploded at a bus stop in Afghanistan.
"Sometimes it can get a bit depressing, so when someone like these drivers come by to take your mind off it, it really uplifts you," said Morris, after chatting with Justin Allgaier and Nelson Piquet Jr. "It helps, hearing people tell me to keep up the good work – you’re making progress.
"There are days that get me down because I can’t get up and walk and do the things I used to do, like go to the gym two times a day. There are days I question ‘why.’ But it could have been a lot worse. We had four KIA (killed in action) that day, so I thank God that I’m even here."
Stories like that send chills up the spine of longtime owner Richard Childress.
"These men and women have sacrificed so much in their lives, for us, this is the least we can do. We’re supposed to be here to make them feel better, but I’ve never left here without feeling better inside than they do."
Liam Dwyer was leaving Thursday with a pretty special feeling.
"I had the challenge in my mind that I wanted to race again and show other people that regardless of your limitations, you can still do what you want to," Dwyer said. "The generosity of the NASCAR community to come in … These guys wanted come in to speak to the patients. We appreciate that."
Other NASCAR celebrities making the visit to Walter Reed on Thursday included drivers Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, Kyle Larson, Alex Bowman, Austin Dillon, Brian Scott, Sam Hornish Jr. and Miss Sprint Cup Kim Coon and Miss Sprint Cup Brooke Werner.
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A look back into Dover’s 10 wildest moments in track history
Forget the big statue of a monster that stands behind Dover International Speedway — the real beast is inside, in the form of a mile-long concrete oval that can be as punishing as any track on the NASCAR circuit.
Yes, they call it the "Monster Mile" for a good reason, one that will have the drivers in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup on high alert as the series again visits the Delaware capital this weekend. Dover is physical, Dover is unforgiving, Dover can take one car and toss it into the air or chew up a dozen of them at a time. The combination of high speeds, narrow straightaways, dizzying banking and a "self-cleaning" effect that sends everything to the bottom can result in absolute mayhem, as seen so many times since the facility first opened in 1969.
So be warned, Chase drivers — few tracks in the playoff are as capable of taking as big a bite out of a competitor’s championship aspirations. No question the nickname fits, as evidenced in the 10 most monstrous moments in the history of the Monster Mile.
10. Into the wall, fall 1993
"It’s a place where you never have a soft hit," Jeff Burton once said of Dover, and that was evident when Mark Martin blew a right-front tire there in 1993. It’s the huge, multi-car accidents that garner much of the attention, but even single-car crashes can be bone-jarring — as Martin experienced when his No. 6 car went straight into the wall in the days before the SAFER barrier, flattening the right-front corner and causing a fire to erupt from a broken fuel line. With no brakes, Martin had to wait for the car to roll to a stop, and dark smoke was billowing from the vehicle by the time he climbed out. "Got a little warm, but it’s OK," he told Glenn Jarrett of TNN. The same couldn’t be said of his car.
9. Newman vs. Gilliland, spring 2013
In a drama that would eventually become overshadowed by the jump-the-restart controversy that denied Jimmie Johnson a chance to win the race, Ryan Newman and David Gilliland ended up in a pile of crumpled race cars at the bottom of the track. Newman used his front bumper to send a series of not-so-subtle messages to Gilliland that he wanted to get around, and the last one was emphatic enough to wreck both vehicles. An angry Gilliland scrambled out and leaned into the window of the No. 39 car, and Newman tried to explain himself using a series of hand gestures. The two agreed to disagree, to say the least.
8. Trouble on the backstretch Part 1, spring 2008
If there’s going to be trouble at Dover, it’s usually found exiting Turn 2. The cars storm out of that corner at a very high rate of speed, and often don’t have enough time to react to something gone awry in front of them. Because of the track’s banking, accidents usually slide down to the bottom, which is what everyone expected in June of 2008 when Elliott Sadler got into Gilliland. Except this time the mess stayed high, and drivers one after another — Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin, Scott Riggs, and others — plowed into it, creating a bottleneck that ultimately claimed 11 cars.
7. Trouble on the backstretch Part 2, spring 2012
Dover’s sunken trench of a backstretch was turned into a salvage yard again four years later, when Stewart got into Landon Cassill, Regan Smith got into Stewart, all three cars went sideways, and all heck broke loose behind them. In the rush to get slowed down behind the primary accident, Michael McDowell was turned, and suddenly two smaller crashes merged into one very large one. The result was a 12-car melee just nine laps into the race that required a red flag period of nearly 20 minutes to clean up.
6. Stewart vs. Busch, spring 2007
Sometimes events don’t have to be spectacular to have a lasting impact. That was certainly the case at Dover in 2007, when Tony Stewart spun Kurt Busch in a rain-delayed Monday race, and the then-Penske driver responded by pulling right up alongside Stewart on pit road to voice his displeasure. NASCAR wasn’t happy with how close Busch’s car came to Stewart’s jack man, and responded with a penalty that included a 100-point deduction. Busch later apologized, but only after Stewart called him one of the sport’s "bad apples." Oh yeah, and beginning next season, they’re teammates.
5. Last man standing, fall 1993
Martin’s fiery crash was only one snapshot from a calamitous race at Dover two decades ago, which exemplified just how unforgiving the track can be. Sixteen cautions stretched the event to nearly five hours, and left 18 cars with some kind of damage. Over 20 percent of the race was run under caution, dropping average speed to a languid 100 mph. No one was spared — when Hut Stricklin struggled to get up to speed on a restart, a number of contenders including Dale Earnhardt, Jeff Gordon, and Ricky Rudd were knocked out. "I still think the pace car has a good shot at it," Mike Joy deadpanned on the television broadcast. Rusty Wallace edged it out for the win.
4. Spencer vs. Dallenbach, fall 1996
Is this Dover, or Bristol? It certainly seemed like the latter after a yet another big crash in 1996, this one that bathed the fronstretch in smoke. Wally Dallenbach pinched Jimmy Spencer up into the wall, both cars rolled down to the apron, and then the action really began. "He’s got problems with Wally," TV announcer Eli Gold said as Spencer jumped from his vehicle and ran over to the No. 15 car, where he began reaching through the window net at Dallenbach. It took a few NASCAR officials (including current Nationwide Series director Wayne Auton) to pull Spencer away, though the two kept jawing at one another a while longer.
3. Sideways and stacked up, spring 1995
This one went wrong in a hurry, leading to one of the biggest crashes ever seen at Dover — or anywhere, for that matter. John Andretti started fourth, and was challenging Sterling Marlin for the lead at the end of the opening lap when his car suddenly broke loose off Turn 4. He spun around into Ricky Craven, who spun around into Joe Nemechek, and then there was smoke and wrecked cars everywhere as one vehicle piled into another. Eighteen cars were involved, many of them collecting in a mass at the pit wall, and Andretti was carried off with a cut ankle. "This looked like one of those Talladega crashes," Joy said on TV. But an even bigger one was yet to come.
2. The Little Big One, spring 2004
The leader restarting in the middle of the pack, cars going three-wide, that nefarious backstretch again — everything that could go wrong did, and the result was a pileup to rival anything on a restrictor-place track. Michael Waltrip barely nipped Dave Blaney as cars ran three abreast through the corner, but it was enough to send Blaney spinning up into the wall. He ricocheted down, and Jimmie Johnson had nowhere to go but into him. Johnson slammed into Blaney, Greg Biffle slammed into Johnson, and Ward Burton slammed into Biffle in what quickly became a chain-reaction accident on an epic scale. Vehicles went everywhere, like ants scurrying on an overturned hill. "Half the field, it looks like," TV analyst Larry McReynolds said. Close — it was 19 cars knocked out in a single blow.
1. Logano takes a tumble, spring 2009
And yet, the single most monstrous moment in Dover history wasn’t a huge pileup, but a hold-your-breath incident focused on a single car. A little bump from Stewart sent then-rookie Joey Logano up the banking in Turn 3, and physics did the rest. Going high to try and avoid the crash, Reed Sorenson hit Logano. Then Robby Gordon slammed into Sorenson, and the force was enough to send Logano’s vehicle tumbling down the 24-degree banking. The orange No. 20 rolled eight times, shredding pieces along the way, teetering on the driver’s side before landing on all four wheels with a thud.
"Oh my gosh. I’m OK," Logano told his relieved crew over the radio. The car was a complete loss, its front and back ends ripped to pieces, its hood and roof dented from a nearly three-story drop. But the driver walked away to robust cheers from the crowd, and would be back to battle the Monster Mile another day.
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Nationwide title contender opens up on uncertainty, career goals
Talent, focus and adaptability have served Sam Hornish Jr. well during a racing career that includes three IndyCar titles, the 2006 Indianapolis 500 trophy and now the championship lead in the NASCAR Nationwide Series.
But it may be perseverance that Hornish needs most right now as he hopes to turn a potential championship season into the right opportunity in 2014.
In a wide-ranging and introspective interview with NASCAR.com this week, Hornish spoke of his persistence and will to overcome the latest obstacles in a hard-earned, hard-fought NASCAR tenure that is on the verge of paying dividends.
Hornish holds a 15-point edge in the Nationwide Series standings over Austin Dillon entering Saturday’s 5-Hour Energy 200 at Dover International Raceway. But even with the impressive title run — 21 top-10s in the No. 12 Alliance Truck Parts Ford — with only six races remaining in the 2013 season Hornish does not know where he will be racing in 2014 or for whom.
Although he said he’d prefer to stay with his longtime team, Penske Racing, many believe the team is planning to field the No. 12 car in 2014 for last week’s race winner and team development driver, 19-year old Ryan Blaney.
Hornish is rumored to be atop the list of candidates for some potential, if sparing, Sprint Cup Series rides and Penske President Tim Cindric has even publicly offered to help Hornish toward a Cup ride elsewhere if need be. But Hornish said he’d prefer to do another full season of Nationwide racing — specifically, competitive Nationwide racing.
"Roger (Penske) told me if they find the funding to do the things we want to do, I’m the guy," Hornish said. "It’s not that I’m not doing the things I’m supposed to do.
"We’ll see how everything plays out over next couple months. If they don’t find the funding necessary it’s not really through a fault of my own. It’s not that the sponsors on our car want to go somewhere else. It’s just economics."
Instead of the uncertainty distracting Hornish from the title run, he says it’s more motivation. It certainly may be the difference-maker in his immediate future.
"First and foremost is making sure we’re doing the best of our ability to win the championship and taking care of it on my end," Hornish said.
"In my opinion, if you’re looking for a job, at least you’re leading the championship, so that’s the upside to the whole story. The toughest part about it for me is not the act of going through all this, but of answering questions. I don’t know any more than you guys (in the media) know."
If push comes to shove, Hornish said he’d rather be in the right situation part-time, than the wrong situation full-time.
"Not that I want to sit out any part of a season, but 2011 was a good year for me because of all the things I did away from the track and also I learned a lot I was able to put to good use these last two years," Hornish said.
"I don’t want to do it again and if things don’t work out the way I want them to, I’m not going to give up. But I also don’t want to put myself in a bad situation so I’m more than willing to maybe have to watch more racing than I’d like to in order to give myself the right opportunities.
"Last year I wasn’t where I wanted to be at the beginning then I got to run a half-year in the Cup car [Penske’s No. 22.]
"I just have to be smart about it because the goal for me isn’t just to be around, but to have something I can be competitive in."
Hornish chuckles, anticipating the next question he so often gets. No, he still has no desire to return to the IndyCar Series he dominated in a six-year run between 2001-2007, when he collected 19 wins and 46 podiums in 108 starts.
Penske Racing recently announced it had hired another former open-wheel NASCAR convert, Juan Pablo Montoya, to its IndyCar program in 2014, something that Hornish insists wasn’t too surprising.
"A lot of people are like, ‘just come back to IndyCars’ but it’s not on my agenda," Hornish said. "Roger has given me that option before to go back but he knows my stance on it. It doesn’t help my end goal to go back. I did this because I want to be successful running stock cars.
"He knew what my answer was going to be therefore he didn’t ask the question. In the past, when we’ve talked about it, he hasn’t gotten the interest for me."
And so the perseverance, drive and focus that helped the former go-kart champ from small-town Defiance, Ohio get his first big break in professional racing is being summoned again.
It hasn’t been an easy road in stock cars for Hornish, who left numerous IndyCar Victory Lanes only to struggle at the Sprint Cup level before turning experience into results in the Nationwide Series the past two years.
It’s all taught Hornish to be philosophical and remain positive even as he acknowledges circumstances haven’t afforded him the chance to cherish this championship run as he might have imagined.
"But this is life and when things were going very good for me on the IndyCar side, I wanted to challenge myself again," Hornish said. "It seems like every time I overcome an obstacle over here, I’m faced with another challenge.
"That being said, this continues to live up to what I wanted it to be. Is it the exact way I wanted it to play out? No. But there’s a plan in store, whether it’s how things are supposed to be or continuing to mold me into the person I’m supposed to be.
"I’m not going to be Sam Hornish Jr., the race car driver for the rest of my life. I do believe a lot of the trials I’ve had have made me into a more well-rounded person and makes me appreciate my family all the more.
"As opposed to a couple years ago, even though I’m not able to enjoy this as I wished I could, I know in my heart I can do it if given the right opportunities, where I don’t know if I had that confidence two years ago.
And he added, "I have so many things to be positive about. I am a man of faith and think maybe there’s a reason why this particular thing didn’t work out or maybe it’s part of the test. You can ask for anything you want to, it doesn’t mean you’re going to get it.
"But I’ve been doing this too long to give up.
"There’s a lot of good things happening and we’ve still got a great opportunity, who knows, maybe the money will come around to stay at Penske, maybe it won’t. I’ve got so many things to be thankful for and that includes the people at Alliance Truck Parts, to give me the opportunity to believe in something and bring it into fruition and compete for a championship."
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Back-to-back runner-up finishes have Busch second in points
MORE: Full coverage of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup
CONCORD, N.C. — Kyle Busch was geared up for battle.
Outfitted in goggles and a mask, wearing a baseball cap turned backward and clutching a pink and green weapon, he took shots on a practice range that went plink-plink-pink against a makeshift target. Sufficiently prepared, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series star took to a course of barrels and old school buses and prepared to hunt down one of his biggest adversaries.
The media.
"Paintball is the safest way to do it," Busch said with a smile.
It was all in good fun — kind of — as part of an event promoting next month’s NASCAR weekend at Charlotte Motor Speedway. But by now Busch should be used to people taking shots of the metaphorical variety at him, whether it’s the media for the occasional no-comment after a tough outing on the track, or fans who see all that talent and still no premier-series championship to show for it. Forget a title — Busch still has yet to win a race in a Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup in which he’s participated, and has only a single playoff race victory to his name, that at Phoenix in his rookie season of 2005.
So yes, the Las Vegas native is plenty accustomed to people leveling a finger or an accusation at him and firing away. In truth, though, Busch’s relationship with the media has come a long way, and post-race storm-offs are now relatively rare. And as for breaking through in the Chase — well, he’s working on it, as evidenced by back-to-back runner-up finishes at Chicagoland and New Hampshire in the opening two events of this playoff, which have him 14 points behind leader and Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Matt Kenseth.
Kenseth just happens to be the only guy who’s beaten him the last two weeks.
"I was mad after both races," Busch said. "I was mad after Chicago because I felt like I lost that one. But in reviewing the tape, there was nothing I could have done differently to win that one. It all came down to circumstances as to why we didn’t win Chicago. And Loudon, the only reason I was mad was, we finished second two straight weeks to the same guy, whether it’s Matt Kenseth my teammate, or whether it’s Jimmie Johnson, or whether it’s another Chase competitor. If it wasn’t a Chase competitor, I think it would have been fine. … But it was actually a better day than it could have been, and we didn’t lose as much ground as we would or should have."
The fact that Busch hasn’t won a Chase race when he has qualified for the 10-race playoff is mystifying. This is a driver who has qualified for the postseason six times, who has won 28 times at NASCAR’s top level, who has tallied 12 of those victories on tracks that are or have been part of the Chase. And yet, his postseasons have become better remembered for mechanical breakdowns and crashes that have prevented him from finishing higher than fifth.
Now, despite the frustration of coming close but still not winning in the first two weeks, Busch is off to his best Chase start ever. Coming up Sunday is Dover International Speedway, where he’s won twice and finished fourth in June.
Dale Jarrett believes the groundwork for this surge was laid a year ago, when Busch missed out on the final playoff spot to Jeff Gordon by three points at Richmond in the final regular-season event.
"As painful as it was for them last year to miss out on the Chase … I really believe it made them a better race team, and Kyle a better driver," said Jarrett, the 1999 NASCAR champion and 2014 Hall of Fame inductee, and now an analyst for ESPN. "Not in the sense of talent-wise, but in his mind and in his head. And that’s as important a lot of times as the physical abilities you have, that he’s ready to win this championship."
Busch is playing it week by week. "There’s still too much racing to go, and anything can happen," he said. He recalled 2010, when he stood third after the first two races, then suffered a crash at Kansas and engine failure at Fontana, and wound up eighth. He said he’s not even looking at the point standings, where he, Kenseth and Johnson have already shown signs of separating themselves from the rest of the playoff field.
"Definitely not that far down the road yet," he said. "I’m not going to be worried about points until the checkered flag flies at Homestead. I haven’t even looked at it. I know what it is because people tell me what it is … but I’d just much rather not know, and go on to the next race, and compete and try to beat the guys you have to beat."
And yet, history indicates that to do that, a driver has to win. Tony Stewart in 2005 remains the only Chase champion who went winless over the 10-race playoff, even though he still managed to lead the standings for nine weeks. Every other titlist has won at least one race, although in fairness it was four runner-up finishes in the 2006 Chase that powered a huge Johnson comeback and netted the driver the first of his five consecutive championships.
Even so, wins can loom large in the Chase, as they did for Stewart in 2011 when his five victories proved the difference in a tiebreaker with Carl Edwards. But as much as Busch would like to shake off his eight-year playoff victory drought, he’s not willing to do it at the expense of a much larger goal.
"To me, I feel like if I could finish second every single Chase race, then I could probably win the championship in doing that," he said. "Now, whether that’s realistic or not — so far, it might be. I finished second both times. So I would take winning a championship over winning a Chase race any day of the week, no doubt about it. So I’m not too worried about that yet. But obviously, it is pivotal to win races, because if you do tie coming down into Homestead, it does go to most wins. And Kenseth now has that. Maybe I’m just tallying up my second-place finishes so when I win my seven I’ll beat him on seconds. That’s it."
And with that, he strapped on his paintball mask and goggles and began to dispatch one set of detractors. Behind the steering wheel, he might just do the same to another over the final eight weeks of the season. In both instances, it all comes down to Kyle Busch taking his best shot.
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Popular actor a long-time NASCAR fan
Actor Kal Penn starred in a title role in the "Harold and Kumar" movie series, is a former co-star on the hugely popular television show "House" and a host on The Discovery Channel’s show "The Big Brain Theory."
This fall television season, he joins the cast of "We Are Men," which premieres Sept. 30 on CBS.
And beyond his acting profession, Penn held a position in President Obama’s White House Office of Public Engagement.
But ask the 36-year-old New Jersey native where he prefers to spend any valuable down time and he’ll tell you: A NASCAR race.
After attending several NASCAR races closer to his Los Angeles home the past few seasons, Penn showed up at the Sept. 7 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series regular-season finale at Richmond, excited to see his first night race.
In between touring the garage, visiting drivers and guest tweeting for NASCAR’s official Twitter account (@NASCAR), he sat down with NASCAR.com to talk about his fondness for the sport.
What are your initial impressions of the Richmond race being the last event to set the Chase field?
This is my first East Coast race, first night race. The tracks I’ve been to before have been Fontana and Phoenix so it’s awesome to actually get to come here. I’m from New Jersey, so anything East Coast, I’m biased.
But the vibe is totally different too from the West Coast races, which have been a lot of fun. Maybe it’s because … so much will be determined tonight. But it’s a whole lot less laid back, maybe because of the stakes, but it’s super interesting. This is not the race you grab one beer during the green flag and sit down 10 minutes later. This is the race you need to be in your seat ready to go.
How did NASCAR end up on your radar?
NASCAR, I got into about three years ago. I love engineering, I love the team sport aspect of NASCAR. Obviously, the drivers and the drivers’ personalities play into the teams, but the whole interaction of the teams, the engineering, the physics, both in real time as these men and women are racing but in the weeks in between; the analysis of data that goes into how the drivers will be briefed.
It’s just all so cool. The soap opera of any sport is super interesting and particularly in NASCAR. But it’s all the other stuff that goes into it.
You got to know Joey Logano and Carl Edwards, how did you meet them?
I’m a Joey Logano fan, yeah. That came about because at one of the first races I went to, a friend hooked us up with hot passes, which was incredible since I have that dorky side of me that wanted to learn about the engineering.
So we were walking around different garages and I had been getting to know some of the drivers just from reading NASCAR.com and we were going from one to another. I was just watching Logano’s guys work on his car and he was in the back then he came out to say, ‘Hi’’ We struck up a conversation.
Carl Edwards has been awesome. I met him during our first race and we worked together on a TV show I did for the Discovery Channel, "The Big Brain Theory." He was a guest judge and it was a competition show for engineering.
He was awesome and the contestants all loved him because he came in and could talk your ear off about the engineering side. It was cool.
What was the NASCAR hook for you?
When I’m not at races and watching from home, I have so much respect for the fact these drivers are literally on pit road getting into their cars with cameras in their faces, photo opps … they’ve got to do this as they are getting in the car. I can barely concentrate when I’m by myself in my apartment preparing for an acting role and I don’t have to drive almost 200 mph and worry about a whole lot of other things.
To me, that’s soap opera right there. What do you have to do to mentally prepare for that, what goes through your mind, how do you just shake it off and focus.
And once you’re out there, you’ve got a beef with someone and they try to wreck you then they pretend they didn’t try and it was just, ‘sorry, I didn’t see you there.’
You’ve worked in Hollywood, then in Washington D.C. and now you’re at a NASCAR race. Which was the most interesting transition?
The NASCAR component is awesome, it’s a sport and it’s fun. It’s funny the transition from LA to DC was not all that awkward I think because there were a lot of people — and this goes whether you’re talking about an Obama administration or a Bush administration — there’s so many people in Washington that everybody doesn’t like, such as the politicians. But there’s also all the people that work on their staffs, who have taken leaves of absence from being a doctor or a teacher, or nurse or businessperson and serve a year or four years and I had the chance to be around those people so it wasn’t all that different. I just left the performing arts industry. It was less of a weird transition than I thought.
What do your friends in Hollywood think of your devotion to NASCAR?
When I’m in LA, I try to get as many people into NASCAR as possible, so I’ll have people over to my apartment to watch a random race. Let’s just grill, have a couple beverages and watch the race and I will explain it to you. I’ve converted people.
I’m on a new show called "We Are Men" and the cast had our media day yesterday in LA. As I was leaving, I told them, "I’m going to the Richmond NASCAR race and I expect us all to go to a race together at Fontana, Vegas or Phoenix … and you’re going to want to go to the Sonoma one for wine. We need to go a traditional race first."
I’m hoping to get them maybe to Phoenix later this year.
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