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NASCAR Sprint-Cup Series
SPEED: A Do-Over
It’s very hard to go from being one of the best at something to finding yourself trying not to look like an idiot every weekend...
Scott Speed  | http://www.scottspeed.com  |  Posted March 10, 2010   Charlotte, NC
Scott Speed is in his second full season as the driver of the No. 82 Red Bull Toyota in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. (Photo: Red Bull Racing)
Ever wish someone hadn’t seen you do something?

I had that experience several times last season with my wife but my regret involved my adjustment to stock cars after making the switch from Formula One and open-wheel racing. Let’s just say it was a disappointing and frustrating 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season for me and the No. 82 Red Bull Racing team.

It’s very hard to go from being one of the best in the world at something to switching gears entirely just to find yourself trying to not look like an idiot every weekend. That’s a really hard pill to swallow. There were a number of occasions I told Amanda, “I wish you’d met me when I was really good at something.” I can’t count how many times I said that last year.

But this season is totally different so far and is a “do over” of sorts for our team. We’ve built on the momentum we ended last season on and have learned from our past mistakes. Hell, we’re tied with Jeff Gordon for 11th in points! Who would have thought that after scraping and clawing to get inside the top 35 in 2009, we’d be sitting in Chase contention with solid finishes in 2010?

That’s freaking awesome and simply unbelievable to me. To be dog fighting up there, able to make really aggressive moves and move through the field was huge for us. Knowing how much I still have yet to learn, I’m really optimistic for the future. The momentum got cranked up for our team at the conclusion of last year and it just keeps rolling. On our team, success breeds more hard work from every single guy and I see us all pushing harder now because we’re finally seeing results.

It’s not that we weren’t giving it 100-percent last year. Our struggles stemmed more from the fact that I needed time to adjust to these Cup cars. I basically started my racing career from scratch when I came to NASCAR. There was nothing I could take from F1 and open wheel and apply to NASCAR. I essentially had to start over and forget everything I did over there. Once I accepted that, things started to look up for us.

We made so much progress at the end of 2009 that if we hadn’t suffered such bad luck, the results would have looked a little different. But so far this year, we’ve missed all the crashes and stayed out of trouble. I dodged an accident at Atlanta by a couple of inches whereas last year I would have been right in the middle of the pileup.

With the first off-weekend of the year upon us, we’re heading right into the middle of something else. A group of us is driving down to Gainesville, Fla., to watch the NHRA guys in action. We’ll be hanging out with one of my neighbors, the guy who built my house, as well as Matt Crafton and his girlfriend. Believe it or not, I’ll be spending my off weekend at the race track and no one would ever have predicted that one. Let’s just chalk it up to the “honey do list.” But I’ll probably enjoy the hell out of it.

Scott Speed is in his second full season as the driver of the No. 82 Red Bull Toyota in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. True to his flamboyant personality, Speed made a splash on the NASCAR scene in 2008 when he won a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race in only his sixth start. He followed that up with one pole position, four top-five and nine top-10 finishes in only 16 starts that season. Prior to his foray into NASCAR, Speed began his relationship with Red Bull in 2002 after winning the Red Bull American Driver Search and scored four victories in the 2008 ARCA Re/Max Series. Before his stock car days, the Californian competed in Formula One for two seasons and was the first American to compete in the series since Michael Andretti in 1993. For more information on Speed, please visit www.scottspeed.com or www.redbullracingusa.com. To follow him or Red Bull Racing on Twitter, please visit @scottspeed or @redbullnascar.

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Scott Speed

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