© (2003-5) Dwight Drum

Web work by Gary Larsen

Zoomster.com brings you words from NASCAR drivers, crew chiefs and owners via all means of access, in person, on the Internet and by phone. This section focuses on NASCAR NEXTEL teleconference moments with many favorite crew chiefs.

Debbie Speicher, Interviewer

When not working Debbie likes to manicure her home garden and decorate her house and deck, but here on Zoomster she just grooms our Zoomster questions for top-notch drivers, crew chiefs and owners.

Other Interviewers:

Gary Larsen, Webmaster

Sometimes this busy tech-guy breaks away from his keyboard and gets on the phone.

Dwight Drum, Editor

The question-maker and interviewer too.

Roush Racing

I watched you go back to your hauler from the garage to get a gold Sharpie so you could autograph a black replica souvenir car for a fan. I thought that was a nice gesture. How much do the fans influence your day-to-day efforts?

“They definitely influence the way our sponsor looks at our racing program, whether it's from the souvenir standpoint or whether it's from the product standpoint. Fans are great everywhere we go, and some of them are definitely in tune with the Sharpies. They have all their colors, they have the silver, the gold, big ones, the little fine-points, you name it. Fans definitely create the reasoning for sponsorship in NASCAR. “

“If there's anything I can do to help them out, and when they have access to the garage, that's definitely the place to make an impact on them.”

Zoomster questions from Debbie Speicher:

“I really feel like it takes every person on the team believing in each other, nobody is pointing fingers and everybody is doing their part of the job the best they can and believing in each other. We’ve been running poorly of late but right now the guys still believe in each other. We just had our weekly meeting and we reviewed what we did and where we’re going and we just need to keep sticking together. I think that’s the biggest thing. A team that can overcome the troubles and hard times and not start pointing fingers at each other and just keep believing in each other. We all got to this point in Cup racing, whether it’s changing tires or driving cars or crew chiefing by having success. We all feel like we’ve earned our way here, and we just need to stick together. Nobody ever said it’s easy, but everybody needs to keep working together.”

“A lot really, especially when we’re running bad. That’s one thing I can do to keep the team headed in the right direction. Just spending time with the guys, going out to eat dinner, hanging out at the shop, just anything I can do. Race weekend I’m in the trailer, not in the motorhome. Just anything I can do to show them I’m behind them and they’re behind me. We’re all going in the same direction, and we’ve all got the same goals. We just keep plugging along.”

Dwight asked Travis Kvapil:

“I guess from the first time I tested the Cup car and raced it, I guess from the first handful of times I drove one, I was pretty surprised how comfortable I felt in the car. I thought the transition from the truck series to the Cup car, I didn’t know what to expect. I was surprised I felt as comfortable as I did, and they drove very similar. There are differences in the aerodynamics and horsepower, but I thought the similarities were pretty close. That was one thing that kinda surprised me, how much they drove the same. I thought that was pretty neat. “

“The struggles, just longer races. You’re not riding around for one lap out there. You’re driving the heck out of that thing and constantly trying to help the crew chief make decisions. The mental part of it, staying focused for 500 miles, staying in tune with your race car and trying to constantly make adjustments. The truck series races are much shorter and you only get one or two pit stops to work on it whereas in the Cup level you could pit 10 or 12 times during a race. That’s just a lot different. It’s a little bit difficult to get used to.