Catchfence

Scott Speed

Does it bother you that teams are jockeying for guaranteed starting positions by trading points?

“I don’t remember who said it — but I think (Michael) Waltrip said it on his Twitter — ‘It is what America was made from, buying and selling and wheeling and dealing.’ The fact that we’re not in it isn’t as good as if we were in it. But, then again, that’s the deck we were given. I mean, if we would have done a better job during the year and we were in the top-35, it wouldn’t have been a problem. That’s the way things turn out. We’re not and we’ll have to focus and do what we can for the first five races to make sure we are in there.”

Is the Red Bull team good enough to be a championship-contender?

“We’ll find out once we start running. I’d like to say that we are still improving. I guess if we keep getting better and better, it should be possible theoretically. But, I think it’s one of those things where maybe a couple of those things were we think we got better on, we are really worse. Especially, for the start of the year — we really don’t know where we stand. As well as the whole spoiler thing is going to come out. Maybe we’re one of the teams that figures that out right away — I mean that’s going to be a huge part of this season and who is going to make it in the Chase or not.”

What advice would you have for Danica Patrick in her first ARCA race?

“I don’t know. I think — have fun. My first ARCA race at Talladega is still one of the ones I remember the most for how crazy it was. You need to wear a helmet if you watch it from the stands. That’s not an original quote. I’ve got to say that I think I got that one from Tom Busch, Kyle Busch’s dad. So, I got to give credit where it is due.”

What makes the ARCA races so crazy?

“Less experienced drivers. You can’t say anything bad about it. It is what it is. You have to have a series at one point that is like that. That’s just how it is — it’s part of the stepping ladder. I’m not going to say they do a bad job running it. But, it is what it is. It’s a little bit crazy at times. Especially, for someone like Danica (Patrick) or myself, who has a lot of racing experience and comes in there and are running with a bunch of people who don’t (have experience). But, it’s entertaining.”

How do you feel about Michael Schumacher’s Formula 1 comeback?

“It’s awesome. I can’t believe that he’s coming to do it because he left on top. He’s the man of all men. I guess it’s kind of a win-win for him because if he does win again, then there’s no question whatsoever — ever. If he doesn’t necessarily do well, you still got the excuse that I’m 41 years old and I haven’t been doing it for three years. It’s a win-win for him. It’s going to be great for the sport.”

Could you imagine making a comeback after taking several years off from a sport?

“I don’t think you do it to be on top. I think you do it because it’s something you love. It’s like Brett Favre, you have something in your blood and you want to keep doing it. You always have that drive to do it. I think, maybe you get burned out with it a little bit because our racing schedule is tough. You do this year after year — you do all these races — you kind of get burned out from it. I think after a couple of years break, you find that love for it you once had — find the spirit to keep pushing and the drive for it and you do it again.”

Was last season overwhelming for you with all the races?

“No. I love the racing schedule. I love being able to get out every weekend. I’m having a lot of fun doing it — the racing. It’s like if you have a good race you’re ready to get back out there and keep it going. If you have a bad race — in the next weekend you can completely turn the whole thing around. So, you can forget it easily. I love the fact we race so much.”

Did Jimmie Johnson talk to you about moving to the South?

“Being a California and moving out here (N.C.), Jimmie (Johnson) had some great insight of what it’s like doing that. I’ve got a little bit of extra European culture in my mix before I moved back to the East Coast. It’s funny between the two of us to compare how we’ve grown up. We’re both from California.”

How tough was last season?

“Year one was hard. There were a lot of ups and downs. We learned a lot, but I think as well we had a lot of bad luck our way. There’s no question. That’s not made up. We really had a lot of things that could have gone either way — that went to the bad way. I think we ended with a lot of momentum and we ended a lot more competitive to where we could run and we could compare a lot more things to Brian (Vickers). That’s going to help us a lot this year.”

How confident are you heading into this year?

“Most racing drivers are confident. I’ve certainly been a confident racing driver my whole life. For me, when you race since you were 10-years-old, you sort of figure out how to get the whole mental aspect down. If you don’t, you don’t make it this far. All those things — the confidence, the preparation, the mental focus and all that — that takes care of itself.”

What one thing would you like to accomplish this year?

“We just want to be able to run well more consistently. We had a lot of places last year were we ran well and then the next weekend we thought we’d run really well again and we struggled. So, if we can do that this year I think that will be a big success.”

- Toyota Motorsports, Press Release