Introducing Myself Q&A
Good Saturday morning my fellow humans.
A Substack post by Elizabeth Blackstock this week caught my eye:
Now, it’s not that relevant to me. Ultimately, I failed in motorsport writing. It’s what I went to college for, I never made a living doing it. I was able to go and cover some races, get some work experience for peanuts and had success as a weekly column writer. But this project and this blog is essentially the latest stop in me coming to terms with that dream of mine ending.
Yes, I know. Fun fun fun. I’m the life of the party.
Anyway, Blackstock put out a few questions that aspiring or new motorsport journalists should try and answer for themselves. Reading them over, I wish I had been given this years ago to think on. 2018 me would not be able to answer these questions.
2025 me can try, however. Because as I was reading the questions, I thought hey, they seem like a good way to introduce somebody. Hell, they seem like a good way for me to introduce myself to you. So here you go:
Why do you like racing?
It’s always there, there’s always something going on. There’s always something to watch, something to read, something to Google.
I have lived in Maryland all of my life, so I haven’t lived near too many racetracks. So going to one has always been at least a couple hours drive.
But when you go there, and you’ve spent that long car ride thinking about it. And you get to the actual facility, and that rush of seeing the track itself for the first time while crossing the bridge or when the wall opens to cross over or popping out of the grandstands.
That rush is just absolutely exhilarating. It’s a rush I still feel, albeit to a smaller level, when I see race cars circling around on the pace or formation lap on TV. Anything can happen, nobody knows for sure what will.
And of course, just the idea of a driver leading a team, getting them to produce equipment that they have to manage in a race, in a season, in a career, and having that satisfaction of performance? That sounds insanely satisfying, and it is to watch a team build itself up from underdog to champion.
When you first got into racing, what appealed to you?
A big part of it for me was this idea that everybody, all the athletes and teams are together in this one spot. And every event was contained. That was all I needed for me when I was a kid.
When I was a teenager, I started really getting into it because of the lower field. Landon Cassill caught my eye in 2010 when, as a rookie, he started to get those Finch cars into the field every week on time. Then I saw him go to BK Racing and run well there before what happened there, uh, happened.
Then I saw him help build up that Circle Sport/Hillman team up and be a stabilizing force there. I was concerned with who was leading points, of course, but I was also concerned if Joe Nemechek was in the show and if he was parking that week, or if Cassill could get that No. 40 Chevy into the top 30.
It’s just really cool that within one race, you had multiple races to follow at the same time.
What appeals to you now?
It’s about the same thing, except it’s more F1 focused than with NASCAR.
Modern F1 in some ways is more like old school NASCAR than modern NASCAR is. F1 is all about tire management, a lost art in NASCAR. F1 has ten teams independently developing their cars, as NASCAR teams buy most of their components from Wal-Mart. F1 has always emphasized those mid and lower field battles. NASCAR never really did as much, but it’s at an all time low with spec cars and the current point system.
What's your favorite discipline? Your favorite team? Who's your favorite driver? What livery do you like best?
I try and I think I am pretty objective in my reporting. It’s a rule when I’m live-posting races that the only two biases I can show is toward racing (like if there are too many safety cars or wishing the rain could go away) or if a driver has a terrible wreck and wishing them well.
Removing the objectivity, I like the vast majority of drivers and hope they do well. But I do have a soft spot for the smaller teams, especially the teams with long histories. Specifically thinking of Williams and the Wood Brothers. And I know that neither are exactly the same as they used to be, with the Williams family no longer involved with the team and the No. 21 effectively being the fourth Penske car. But it’s still just cool to see them perform well and get good results.
As far as paint schemes or liveries go, I enjoy bright but pleasing colors. We’re not watching the opera, we’re watching fast cars. They should be loud and proud. The No. 24 Dupont/Axalta cars are usually very good regardless of the era. I don’t care for the sponsor, but I do like how the current Sauber looks. It’s super distinct and easy to pick out.
Outside of motorsport, what do you care about?
Baseball, I love football too but Orioles baseball has my heart. I don’t watch many baseball games besides the Orioles on TV, but I do try and make it out to a game or two a year whether it’s the O’s, Nationals or my local teams.
History is another big one for me. My minor in college was in history, and while I am most passionate about motorsport history, my focus of studies in college was on American history.
For the record, my favorite Founding Father will always be Benjamin Franklin. The father of the post office, the fire department, the library. Had an epiphany on black people that made him about 200 years ahead of the standards back then. The big thing a lot of kids know about him is that he is on the $100 and was never president, but to truly understand America, studying Franklin and his life is an absolute must. He was the first American in many aspects.
What do you know more about than anyone else?
I like to think I know my history, especially when it comes to NASCAR history. But there’s always going to be somebody who can come along and know more than me.
If someone asked you to write a 500-word feature, right now, with no prep, what could you write about?
Honestly, after Daytona last weekend, I could probably write a thousand words on just the complex relationship fans have with that style of racing. To me it’s an extreme on what is normally a stereotype with American race fans: do you watch because of the crashes? Because that’s about all that style of racing is good for on the practical scale of things.
What motorsport topics are ignored? And why do you think that is?
If you’ve followed my personal account on Bluesky, you know that I think there is a distinct lack of driver critique in the upper echelons of racing reporting. Especially when you compare it to just about any sport, where athletes are crucified if they miss a shot or trip going up field.
I think a big part of why this happens is because, ultimately, racing is a tighter knit group then anything else. If you’re on the F1 beat, you’re traveling across the world and making at least 20 stops around it with the same merry group of folk. Same thing with NASCAR and the 40 week death march that is their schedule.
You can write up how this guy sucks and made a bad move. But you’re going to have to deal with him and his team (and their PR more importantly) every week, every where.
I also think there is a bit of a life-and-death aspect to it. Unlike every other game, racing has a non-insignificant chance of claiming the life of a competitor in active competition. Do you really want the clips of you dunking on the guy to be out there if it happened to them?
What big questions do you have about motorsport? I don't care if you think you're an expert; there's something you don't know.
I am absolutely awful when it comes to the technical aspects of racing. Bozi Tatarevic is outstanding in being able to analyze and explain the nuts and bolts of how these cars get around these racetracks. I just know car goes vroom, tires wear out.
If I were to specify one question, I’d love to know why more motorsports by this point don’t have some kind of battery operated low-power mode so that the cars can be quiet under full course caution. It doesn’t seem like that crazy of a concept to me, but I’m also sure there’s a good reason why.
What elements of motorsport fascinate you the most?
History and business. My favorite NASCAR race every year is the Southern 500, not just because of the great racing but because it has such a long history. Not always sparkling history (Wendell Scott being banned from the race the first five years of his Cup career), but there’s still plenty of peaks to acknowledge along with the bad stuff to keep in mind.
It still amazes me that you have these big modern day stock cars on a track clearly designed to go around 130 mph comfortably on, and they’re going 180 an inch off the wall.
And the business end of it is, how do these deals come together? How did Arby’s make a connection with Rick Ware? Was it their lower ad rates? Their crossover with the NHRA team? What kind of return is the partnership going to get out of it down the line? It’s just interesting to see here.
What specific examples of motorsport journalism have stuck with you? Why did they stick with you?
Some of Jeff Gluck’s work in the build-up to the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix just talking to random people around the town was great, because it gave a different opinion than just the standard “Aw shucks, ain’t racin’ great?” that we see oh so much.
In the same vein, I remember enjoying one of Blackstock’s own pieces at Jalopnik interviewing the Miami Garden residents. I think it’s an important point regardless of where or what it is you’re watching that just because you disagree with people on the streets, you have to remember that they are people too. We should listen to those opinions more, instead of handwaving them away.
What journalists do you admire? And why?
I’m going to disregard the fact that the few times I have met all three of these guys in the MC, all three were nothing but super nice, along with a few others. Dustin Long, Davey Segal, Dustin Albino among them. Not Michael Massie though, that guy is an asshole (See you when SRX comes back, Mike).
Gluck is really good at background writing. Setting the stage. He’s really good at taking you to these places but he doesn’t bog things down with how many words he uses. It doesn’t feel like you’re being buried in the writer’s words with him like those pieces sometimes do.
The great thing about Bob Pockrass is that he’s just on 100% all the time. He’s the first guy in the MC every morning and the last to leave. When Bob (I can’t stick to last name on second reference with Bob, I’m sorry) was laid off at ESPN, I remember Gluck mentioning that back in the NASCAR Scene days, Bob would spend his off day every week at the public library going through arrest records. Trying to find any sort of lead. I don’t think there’s anybody between the NASCAR and IndyCar media crops with more respect than Bob has, and it’s well earned.
Matt Weaver is a guy I have a lot of respect for. He’s a great writer, but more importantly I think he’s done great things covering the grassroots of oval racing. I know he’s sacrificed a lot to do what he does there and that rationally it would make sense to skip out on all of that to focus just on NASCAR, but he still does it anyway. The boom in attention on series such as CARS Tour came about mainly because of Flo, but Weaver has played a big part in that growth as well.
Why should people read what you have to say?
Shit, this might be the one thing I can’t answer.
In all seriousness, I like to think I can take people on a journey in my writing. My Aryton Senna retrospective last year is a good example of this. You wouldn’t know it from this piece because of how long it is due to the format, but I also try and delibrately keep things to a thousand words for opinions.
There’s no single topic where people want to keep reading somebody going on and on about it. It’s the same thing with a radio segment or a TV segment, let’s be mindful of attention spans when writing.
(Also, that way even if it’s bad, at least people are done reading it after a few minutes anyway)