Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
DAVID_DONOHUE - When you're crashed out of a race
and in no mood to be interviewed, but
there's a pit reporter in your face
with a microphone, how do you handle it?
DAVID_HOBBS - You know, if the *** hits the fan in a
huge way and it bounces off the wall and
staggers back to the pits all limping, and
there's a microphone stuck in your mouth:
"What happened out there?" I mean, your first
initial remark is going to be, "Why don't you...
stick your microphone somewhere else!"
"It refrains from me not beating *** of you right now
because you're asking stupid questions, but
since I'm on probation I suppose that's improper
to say as well. If you could talk about
racing things we could talk about racing things, Bob."
BRIAN_TILL - Words out of your mouth are kind of like
a bullet coming out of a gun. You can't put it back so
even in the times of disappointment
or anger, you've got to think before
you speak, and if you don't know for sure
what happened on the race track, let's say
in an incident,
make sure you say, you know, in my mind I saw
it this way but I really want to look at
the tape and make sure, but right now,
obviously, I'm upset. Be careful about
pointing blame because I can guarantee you what's
going to happen, the guys in the television truck
are going to have multiple views of the
incident and they're going to show the picture
while you're telling your story.
The picture and your words had better match.
The adrenaline is really flowing, your heart rate's up
around max all the time, and to suddenly
cut it off, have a crash and then
expect to behave
as if absolutely nothing had happened
I think is a bit tough.
LEIGH_DIFFEY - It's OK to show your emotion because
after all, you're human and things happen in motor racing.
One of the best examples that
I can think of involves a countryman
of mine, Marcos Ambrose, in the
Nationwide race at Montreal a few years
ago when he was wrecked by Robby Gordon.
Now naturally you would expect anyone to
come out and throw things, kick things,
perhaps swear and cuss on camera -- which of
course we don't encourage you to do -- and yet
Marcos smiled and he said, "That's racing.
I promised myself I'd never get
angry so long as I was in NASCAR and any day
in NASCAR would be a good day." He smiled and
that, handling himself with that much class
and dignity, carried him so much further.
BOB_VARSHA - Kyle Petty once gave me the best advice
that I've ever heard for a young driver
and he said he got it from his dad, whom
he calls "King."
He said, look, your day may be over and
you may be pissed off at somebody or at
yourself or at luck or
whatever it might be and you may not
feel like communicating with anybody
but there's a whole room full of people
back here in the media center whose job it
is to talk about you, and you can
still get your sponsors out there and
you can still get your publicity simply
by dealing with them. Your day is
over but their day is just beginning and
you can ingratiate yourself and get a
whole lot more publicity if you're helpful with those people.
CALVIN_FISH - I think the key is when you're on my
side of the fence in terms of grabbing
that great interview, you want to be in
on the action as soon as you can, so if
someone's had a problem out on the racetrack,
they've got run into, they've just
crashed the race car, you want that
emotion, so that's a very important part
for the TV people to try and grasp and
send that message back to the people
sitting at home on their sofa watching the show.
If you get a silly question
then you have to become the teacher.
You have to start your sentence and your response
in a manner like, well,
what you have to understand about
driving the race car is....
And if you can help a journalist in that
way, if you can make them sound more
knowledgeable... I mean, they're
human beings, they have egos too
and they're going to appreciate that and they're
going to wanto to say nice things about you.
Some of us have been around the racetrack for years.
Others are brand-new, because
let's say there's a new racing venue
in a city or you go to a street
race that hasn't had a race before,
or there's a new reporter on the beat
who's going to come and cover this big event,
they know nothing about it and they may ask you a question
that to you is plain as day. How silly could it be?
Why can't you understand that?
But you've got to understand from their
point of view, that they may not know
the nuances of the sport.
Take your time, explain to them what goes on.
There's never a stupid question to a
reporter. Make sure you answer it with respect.
Tell them the whole story. You're trying to sell not only you
but the sport you love.
Sunglasses or no sunglasses?
No sunglasses.
You know, it's....
I know you may be getting a nickel or a dime
to wear the sunglasses but the eyes are
the window to the soul. That's what we want.
We want to see you responding to the question
in television.
It should be mandatory
for drivers to take off the shades for interviews.
The people want to see their faces.
I think the drivers hide behind the shades... The hat,
well OK, you're going to get
some advertising out of the hat
and they want to advertise their sunglasses but really
I think the damage they do far outweighs the
good they do by wearing their bespoke shades.
It's great that you may have a sponsor that provides eyewear or sunglasses...
Put them up on your head. But when I come and do
an interview with you, I want to see your eyes, and
so do the public.
CHRIS_NEVILLE - People want to see your eyes.
They want to see the passion in your eyes.
They want to see when you're mad, they want to see
when you're sad and they definitely
want to see what your eyes look like
when you're happy because you won.
SAFEisFAST.com
CHIP_GANASSI - To finish first you must first finish.
The only way do that is to drive safely.
It's obvious we tell the guys to go fast but
I mean, first and foremost they have to be safe.