The Reincarnation of Scott Speed

Scott Speed has a pure racing soul. He must have, because his career has survived one short, sharp, sudden death and been reborn thousands of miles away. He's hit the restart button on his metaphysical PlayStation, but this time he's booted up NASCAR 2008 instead of F1 2007.

The product of energy-drinks-giant Red Bull's multi-million-dollar quest to find an American F1 star, he walked away just over a year ago, 28 races into his grand prix career, after an infamous bust-up with his team manager.

Such was his bond with Red Bull boss Dietrich Mateschitz, however, that this wasn't the end of the story; it was merely the beginning of a new chapter in stock-car racing.

Despite the fact that he was born in California, Speed felt like an alien in the garage at first, having been brought up on Formula Renault, F3, and GP2 rather than ARCA, Craftsman Trucks, and the Nationwide Series. But, after a toe-in-the-water exercise at the end of last year, the 25-year-old is currently leading the points in the fourth-division ARCA series and already has a Craftsman Truck win under his belt.

"I've got a ton to learn in this sport, and it was very cool to come along and not know anything about it," he says. "We decided to start at the bottom and learn the fundamentals in ARCA [with Eddie Sharp Racing], and then to do some Track races with Morgan Dollar and then Bill Davis Racing.

"My approach has been, 'The guy ahead of me is better than I am at this, so I'm going to look at what he's doing and learn.' And I never had that attitude before when I was going to F1. After what I've accomplished in F1, I have a lot less ego now. I don't care if people think I'm good or not. That mentality is what is making this whole experience so enjoyable.

"I'm learning as I'm racing. Everything is improving so quickly with my results; it's exciting for me. Will I ever be as good as Kyle Busch? Probably not - that guy's pretty fucking amazing! But I'm okay with that. I just want to see how far I can go."

Scott Speed (#21) in the ARCA race at Talladega in 2007 © LAT

Speed's exit from Toro Rosso meant he went from a grand prix grid at the Nurburgring to running three-wide at Talladega less than three months later. How did he get his head around that?

"My first thought was, 'Man, this sucks!' It's really shitty; there's no hospitality for a start. In the meantime, though, I got to like it a lot more, because I've realised that it's my roots. I like the soap opera of the NASCAR garage, and I think that's because America is a very social country. Europeans are more intelligent but less socially equipped.

"I'm not so interested to do motor racing as a job any more," he says. "It would be relatively easy for me to go somewhere like the DTM and be competitive. It's road racing and it wouldn't take long to figure it out, and kids like Jamie Green are from a very similar background to me. I know I could do that, and at one point it was a serious option - the only other one I was actively considering. Honestly, I didn't want to stay in F1 either. I wanted another goal in my life. And NASCAR was something completely different."

He's quickly got his head around that culture shock of switching between the disciplines, and is enjoying the new challenge of working in a technical world that's a million miles away from the intricacy of F1.

"It's totally different because it's not a progressive environment," he says. "In F1, things are always changing and adapting. In NASCAR, you run the same main components forever, and it's just all about the racing. The car still plays a major part, but at most tracks there's only two corners, and for the most part it's not complicated. It's very heavy; you don't pull the g-force so it's relatively easy to get the car on the limit.

"But how your car is set up, and what decisions you make to change it during the race, separate the guys who are winning from those who aren't. In F1, you can predict what's going to happen pretty easily after qualifying, but you can't do that here. The strategy with the yellow flags is much more of a guessing game. There's no computer, sometimes there's not even a notebook - you react to your feelings. That is cool."

Speed admits he owes everything to Red Bull, whose faith in him is undimmed despite that acrimonious split from its second F1 team last year. "Red Bull are why I'm in motor racing," he says. "They have given me everything I've ever had in racing. I have a relationship that will last for as long as they want.

"If [Rick] Hendrick called me and offered $20 million to drive his Sprint Cup car, I'd say, 'Thank you very much, I don't need it.' Money ain't going to make me happy, running at the front of the Cup isn't going to make me happy. It's all about the challenge.

"If I did want to get out of my contract to drive for Hendrick, I know I could call Didi [Mateschitz] and he'd say, 'No problem.' And he knows the same about me; if he was ever not happy with what I was doing, and didn't want to work with me any more, we'd end it. Just like what happened in F1. We blew up so bad there, I said, 'We've got to stop this because it's just not helping anyone.'"

Scott Speed spins out of his final Grand Prix at the Nurburgring © LAT

Ah, F1. It's time to grasp the nettle and broach the subject of that infamous split following a garage altercation with team manager Franz Tost. Despite what was said at the time, it's not Tost who Speed blames for the episode spiralling out of control.

"At the time, the whole problem blew up with Franz because he was being an idiot. But Franz is a very emotional person. Looking back at how it happened, I never really had a problem with Franz; it was Gerhard [Berger, team co-owner] who put a lot of pressure on Franz about us. Myself and Tonio [Liuzzi, his teammate at Toro Rosso] had good careers up until F1.

"Then we got into a situation that was bad; we were in a struggling team. It just didn't work out. But I'm very happy with how I performed and I made some very good relations there. I know I could have stayed in F1, maybe as a race driver and certainly as a test driver with Red Bull, but having done it... it wasn't my style.

"Gerhard started making it very difficult for Tonio and me. He wanted changes and had his own agenda in place. Franz is a really hard worker, but even though it went so bad with him, I don't hold it against him at all."

There is more than one Scott Speed in this interview. One is the enthusiastic, can-barely-sit-still-on-his-seat Scott, when he talks about NASCAR and his future. The second is when you ask him a question about Formula One, when he tenses up but is still remarkably forthcoming and open. Then there's a third, philosophical Scott.

"Motor racing is pretty simple," he preaches. "You have to be in the right place at the right time to graduate. There's plenty of talented kids, who are very capable, who never get the chance like I did. If you're not in the right situation or have the right amount of money... that's the worst thing about this sport.

"Compare it to football [and, yes, he means the round-ball game], the best football players in the world get to play in the World Cup. Period. And none of those kids who didn't get there didn't get the opportunity because they didn't have the right shoes, know what I mean? It's 99 per cent about the athlete. In F1, that means almost nothing."

He adds that his new stock-car career is a much better fit for him, and that he's all the happier for it: "NASCAR is how I've lived my whole life. It's honest and not pretentious. It's a small world, and I'd say there's a degree of ignorance in it. As a sport, it's not

as mature as Formula One, and I think there's a lot of room for improvement in some areas. Everything in F1 is maxed out, and that's what's cool about it and will always separate it from everything else in motorsports for me. But it's not racing anymore. F3, GP2 - you're racing hard. Formula One - you race the first few laps, then it's all strategy. That's not as exciting as what I'm doing now.

Scott Speed in a Bill Davis Toyota in the Craftsman Truck race in Michigan © LAT

"In NASCAR, you're racing hard with someone almost every single lap. You can run in the top five, have an incident and spin out to the back of the field. But if your car is good, and you're any good, you can then come back to the front. There's a lot more emotion in the races, and it's more exciting."

Speed has already started a Cup testing programme with Red Bull Racing and, although graduating to the top division is his ultimate aim, it isn't the be-all and end-all for him.

"When I came back to America I had 190 contacts in my phone," he says. "Now, a year later, I've got over 400. It's like coming home. I've never felt better in motor racing than I do right now."

It's as if he's been born again.