Does NASCAR Feel the Need for Speed?

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - Maybe the question isn't whether Scott Speed is ready for NASCAR, but if NASCAR is ready for Scott Speed.

The 26-year-old Californian has a personality as high octane as the Red Bull energy drink that sponsors his No. 82 Toyota Camry in the Sprint Cup Series, and sponsored the open-wheel driver competition that landed him a Formula One job in the 2006-07 seasons.

Speed carries himself with the unmistakable swagger that comes from being supremely confident and massively talented.

He's young, hip and happy-go-lucky -- his favorite adjective, "sweet.''

Speed is easy to spot in a NASCAR lineup, thanks to a preference for flat-billed caps, big white sunglasses, a scruffy beard, edgy music and trendy clothes. He paints his toenails, dyes his hair and once wore a Mohawk. "I'll probably go back to that, I dug that,'' he said this week.

Twice he's been asked to change a t-shirt he's worn around the garage -- the message deemed inappropriate by NASCAR officials.

It's safe to say Speed stands out in the conformist, button-down, politically-correct world that NASCAR has become. He's more like his original NASCAR heroes Ernie Irvan and Dale Earnhardt than the guys he'll be racing tonight in the season-opening Budweiser Shootout exhibition race, and again in next week's Daytona 500.

"It's a much different culture to be in the NASCAR Cup garage than in the Formula One paddock,'' Speed said smiling.

And yet he couldn't be happier to be here.

He said his days on the world stage have prepared him for the hype that surrounds him in this high-profile transition from Formula One to NASCAR -- from wine-and-cheese in Monte Carlo to Busch Light and boiled peanuts in Talladega.

Truthfully, Speed, who drove for a development team, never stood a chance in Formula One. Here he does. And it's exactly that challenge that appeals to him.

He won his first stock car race in the ARCA Series, in only his fourth start and then answered it a month later with a win in the highly-competitive NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series in only his sixth start there.

"It'd be easy for me to go into open-wheel cars in America or anywhere else in the world and do well,'' Speed said. "But to come to this, where I really have no experience and I'm not very good at it honestly ... and to try to keep improving myself and be the level of where I can compete in the Cup Series -- that whole journey and learning process has been a really, really cool part of my life.''



It's the kind of candor and honesty you'd expect. But his tell-it-like-it-is manner and over-the-top demeanor have also contributed to the assumptions that Speed is cocky and reckless -- a rap he'll calmly explain away.

Like this: He was leading the ARCA Series championship when, in the last race, the championship runner-up intentionally wrecked him. The incident cost Speed the title. After his car was patched-up he returned to the race and promptly took the other guy out, handing the championship to Justin Allgaier, who entered the race ranked third.

"That was a no-brainer,'' Speed said. "No one in their right mind would not do something about it. Then he smirked and invoked a favorite "Days of Thunder" reference, "It was very Cole Trickle-ish.''

It's not something Speed is inclined to repeat Saturday night in his Daytona Cup debut -- a 75-lap shootout among 28 cars. By virtue of a blind draw, Speed is starting on the outside of the second row -- just in front of two-time Cup champ Tony Stewart, two rows ahead of Dale Earnhardt Jr. and well in front of other NASCAR stars like Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon. Before the accident in practice, Speed's Toyota was among the fastest 10 cars.

"What's going to give me all the respect is what I do on the track,'' Speed said. "I'm not being an idiot out there racing people. I'm being smart about where I want to challenge and when I want to race.''

Yet Speed won't be backing down from anyone.

"If you're going to be a pushover, then that's not going to work either,'' he said.

"I think I've been humble since I made it to Formula One, honestly. Formula One is one of those things where it is the top of motorsports and when you make it there, what is someone going to say, 'You're not a good driver?' Please,'' Speed said.

"At that point you stop trying to prove that you can drive race cars and you just have fun and are thankful for what you have.''

Sweet.