Jeff Gluck

USA TODAY Sports

Our series of NASCAR driver interviews continues this week with Ryan Newman, who is currently eighth in the Sprint Cup Series standings in his first year with Richard Childress Racing.

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

A: More often than not, it's what you have to do to move your line around, communication with the spotter on who is running where and where the fast cars are.

But there are times when you have to refocus a little bit. Every once in awhile, you'll start daydreaming or singing a song. (Grins)

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

A: The Daytona 500 victory (in 2008). I've had a lot of people say, "I was there that day" or "That's the last race I've been to and you won it, so you're going to win this week" — which more often than not doesn't correlate, but it's cool they sense a connection from their last emotional race and tie me into it.

Maybe you need to find out who made that comment right before you won the Brickyard 400 last year.

Well, I actually had a lady (at Kentucky) who came up to me and said, "My daughter picked you to win and she's picked the winner 13 times this year."

I told her, "What makes you think you're right today?" She said, "Because my daughter has been right 13 times and I think you're going to win."

Well, I finished third and she came up to me after the race and said, "I guess you were right." I said, "Well, it wasn't that I was right, I just couldn't let you guarantee I was going to win." (Laughs)

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: It'd be real easy, because it would probably be dirt. It would probably be a half-mile dirt track with progressive banking.

Where would you put it?

I don't know that it'd matter. I think everybody would come to see it. (Laughs) Look at Eldora — does it matter?

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: That's a tough one. I think it would be cool if you could go back in time and meet certain people at certain times: George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Jesus Christ, whoever. It'd be cool to be able to go back and disregard what the books say and get to see for yourself what really happened.

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: Well, there was really nothing special to me about the White House. (Chuckles) I think one of the things that was special — and all of us take it for granted even if we say we don't — is getting to go visit the troops at Walter Reed (National Military Medical Center) and places like that and getting to say thanks.

We're there because of who we are, but I think more people can do that and not necessarily be who we are. You don't have to be somebody's hero to go there and give thanks. My point is I probably wouldn't do it if I wasn't in the position I am, but that makes me realize even moreso that I should do it even though I am who I am.

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: A little bit of everything. Having kids changes that a little bit, because you shouldn't take it out on your kids. And you shouldn't take it out on your wife. I guess in the end, it's all about having that constructive mindset of getting it off your chest but doing it in the right way.

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

A: I've always said Jimmie Johnson is really a stand up guy. He's obviously a winner, but you're not reading about him in the papers (doing something bad) — aside from maybe a golf cart incident once in awhile. He seems to be a good family guy, not swearing and cussing all the time on the radio like some other drivers. We all have our moments, but I think he's a really stand up guy.

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: It all depends where we're at. We might talk about a dirt track race we watched the night before or the last experience at that track, but nothing that really stands out.

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

A: I still like to watch American Pickers and American Restoration.

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

A: I went and saw one in the theater about a month ago, but I can't remember what it is. Anyway, I've watched Frozen quite a bit lately with the kids.

Do you know all the songs?

Oh yeah. That's a perfect example of your first question; I'll catch myself singing a Frozen song in the middle of a green-flag run. That's bad!

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 guess it would be a combination of "Be humble with everything you do," "Don't ever take anything for granted" and "Be thankful for everything that's been given to you." Not to say I haven't done that, but I think it's one of the ultimate life lessons.

Q: I've been asking each person to give me a question for the next interview. Last week was Brian Vickers, and he wanted to know what you thought of Brad Keselowski's recent comment about there being a shortage of good American engineers.

A: I think with respect to that, it sounded like he was venting about something internally within his company and it really has nothing to do with him speaking for the whole garage. That was what I got from that.

Q: And do you have a question for the next person? It's Rusty Wallace.

A: (Newman smiles and indicates he doesn't have a question)

Follow Gluck on Twitter @jeff_gluck