Jeff Gluck

USA TODAY Sports

Our series of NASCAR driver interviews continues this week with Landon Cassill, who drives full-time in both Sprint Cup (for Hillman Racing) and the Nationwide Series (where he is 12th in the points standings for JD Motorsports).

Q: When you're on a long green-flag run and not racing around anyone, what do you think about?



A: A lot of times, it depends on how your day is going. If you're having a really good day, you're just in the zone. If your car is struggling, you have to try and get yourself in the zone. I don't get too distracted though.

I've seen this interview where some drivers say they sing to themselves and stuff like that, but I think that's really dumb. I think if you're singing to yourself in the car while you're racing, you're not getting the most out of your car.

Q: Fans sometimes come up to you and want to discuss a moment or race from your career. Which one comes up the most?

A: I've had a lot of great accomplishments recently that fans bring up. Like, "I was there when you led laps at Daytona (in July)." Just a few weeks ago, we finished fourth at Talladega. I've had fans tweet at me and tell me they were there or they were listening on the radio. So it's hard to say one particular moment.

I've had a lot of great shining moments in my career, but I haven't won a race yet. So a lot of moments fans share with me are the ones where the true, dedicated fans really knew what it took for us to get a top-15 or a lead-lap finish.

Q: If someone paid you $5 million to design a new racetrack and gave you an unlimited budget, what kind of track would you build?

A: So $5 million is the going rate?

I was just trying to hire a high-dollar expert.

So that's what it's worth?

Well, I could give you $10 million if you want. There's unlimited imaginary money.

I'll take the $10 million. We had to negotiate the deal first. (Laughs)

I would build a 1-mile to a 1.25-mile track, something along the lines of a Gateway or a Darlington. A lot of people like short tracks – and I love short tracks and think we should race on more of them – but there are already a lot of great short tracks in this country. And if those tracks could seat 80,000 and we could race there, you'd see some pretty darn good racing with Cup cars there.

And we have plenty of intermediate tracks. But one thing there aren't a lot of are 1-to-1.25-mile tracks which have a lot of speed but also close racing. I'd like to see a place like that. I think the Milwaukee Mile is one of the greatest racetracks there is, for example.

Q: If you had a day off to do anything in the world you wanted — but you were not allowed to race — what would you do?

A: I would shut my phone off and spend time with my wife (Kaitlan). I have a hard time shutting off. I don't have set hours with my job, and I put pressure on myself to work seven days a week. If I have a sponsor calling me at 9 p.m. to talk about something, or calling me on a Sunday off or an evening off, I have a hard time shutting off. I'm working on just turning my phone off and spending more time with my wife.

Q: You get to have a lot of cool experiences away from racing through your job as a NASCAR driver. What's one that sticks out?

A: Going to the Goodwood Festival of Speed in England in 2009. I got to hang out with Sir Jackie Stewart and Dan Gurney and these legend race car drivers. The drummer from Pink Floyd, Nick Mason. I just met some amazing people, and it was a great memory.

The reason it was so special was I was there with Hendrick Motorsports, driving Jeff Gordon's old race car, so I was one of the token Americans in the group. Mike Skinner and (late NASCAR executive) Jim Hunter were there, too, but that was it. So I got to go to all the intimate dinners, and I sat next to Dan Gurney at dinner and listened to him tell old stories about driving. Sir Jackie Stewart sat two seats to my left.

I was so in over my head, it was unbelievable. I was not worthy of the opportunity. I drove Jeff Gordon's car up the course and did a kick-ass burnout and was awarded Driver of the Event, which was really cool. The burnout I did is on YouTube – I held the steering wheel out the window and stuff. That was just a really cool event.

Sounds like an amazing experience.

Yeah, it was. And just being a race car driver, you can get introduced to people you might not normally get the chance to meet.

I swim in downtown Charlotte three or four times a week, and I've gotten introduced to the SwimMac Team Elite and their coach, Dave Marsh. He's one of the top coaches in the world. There I am, swimming in a lane next to Ryan Lochte and Tyler Clary – these Olympic gold medalist swimmers, you know? If I wasn't a race car driver, I probably wouldn't have gotten introduced to them.

Do you get self-conscious about your form when you swim next to Ryan Lochte or Tyler Clary?

I know I don't have the right form. (Laughs) The cool thing about swimming next to those guys at the pool is you can go to a basketball game and watch the best in the world and be 20 feet from them. You can watch Tiger Woods hit a golf ball at an event and if you're lucky, play with one of those guys.

But the SwimMAC Elite team works out at the Mecklenburg Aquatic Center on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 8 a.m. And if you want to swim next to them, they reserve three lanes and you can swim in the fourth lane next to them. And you will get your feelings hurt. (Laughs) They are the best in the world. Ryan Lochte you don't have to explain. Tyler Clary won the gold medal in the backstroke. Cullen (Jones) is a gold medalist. It's the best swimmers in the world right there.

I'm actually a pretty good swimmer, but I'm not even in their league. It's pretty cool to see someone who is the best in the world in what they do.

Q: When you go home after a bad day at the track, do you vent to someone about it or just keep it to yourself?

A: I vent to my wife a little bit. It's easier for me to vent to her now that she knows more about racing. I'm usually pretty good at putting things behind me though.

Q: If you could point to another driver as a good example for your daughter in the garage, who would it be?

A: Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson. Those are my two favorite drivers in the garage. I think they have a perfect balance of celebrity and private life, and I think they do a good job of showing personality and not being under a shell but still having some privacy in their personal life.

There's some people where (opening their lives to the public) is just what they want. For me, that's not what I want. I like to have some balance. I'll open up my personal life and my interests to people who are real, genuine fans. But I don't want to just spray it, you know?

Q: When you stand around with other drivers and tell old racing stories, what's one of your favorites to tell either about something that happened to yourself or someone else?

A: I feel like I'm trying to create my stories right now. I've been doing this for a long time, but I don't know if I have any stories that are worthy to tell yet. I like to sit down and listen to stories from guys who have been around awhile.

Q: What's a TV show you're really into right now?

A: My wife and I get into TV shows. We're really into Scandal right now and How to Get Away With Murder, which plays right after Scandal on Thursday nights. When House of Cards and Game of Thrones come back on, we'll get back into those.

But we're definitely open to new shows, so please tweet at me and give me some good suggestions. We need some new TV shows, but we seem to gravitate toward those political corruption type shows.

Q: What's the last movie you saw – either at home or in the theater -- and was it any good?

A: We live a mile away from a theater in Charlotte that plays independent movies, so we just go to the theater and just pick one and watch it. Some of them are really good.

The one we watched recently was Boyhood. It's amazing. The movie was filmed over 12 years, and they started filming the main character as a boy and they film the whole thing over 12 years, so the movie followed the actual progression of his whole maturity – and all the other characters, too.

Another good movie we watched awhile back was About Time. I caught the end of it again this week on HBO.

Q: If you could give a piece of advice to your younger self — something you know now that you didn't know then — what would it be?

A: I think I'd tell myself, "You think you're being humble. You think you have humility. Just crank that up four or five notches." Because right when you think you're being humble enough, you should turn that up a little more.

Because of the ups and downs in NASCAR?

It doesn't have anything to do with racing. Just life in general. You can never be humble enough.

Q: I've been asking each person to give me a question for the next interview. Last week was Ryan Blaney, and he wanted to know why you cut across four lanes of traffic while leading at Talladega and almost made him wreck.

A: (Grins) I'll have to go back and watch the tape.

He said you came from the top and cut down all the way to the bottom, and –

I knew exactly where he was at. I couldn't tell him why. That's my secret. Did we wreck? I don't remember wrecking. (Grins)

Q: And do you have a question for the next interview? This is the last 12 Questions of 2014, so it'll be for the first interview of next year.

A: Since this will be next year, ask them: With no testing this offseason, did you feel like the offseason was longer or shorter? Did you have more or less free time?

Follow Gluck on Twitter @jeff_gluck