Jeff Gluck

USA TODAY Sports

Our series of NASCAR driver interviews continues this week with Darrell Wallace Jr., 20, a Joe Gibbs Racing development driver who is currently fourth in the Camping World Truck Series for Kyle Busch Motorsports.

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

A: I start thinking about really everything. My girlfriend (Shelby Willis) was at Michigan and she was on the pit box, so I was wondering what she was doing. You start thinking about winning already – I find myself doing that a lot, then I yell at myself to stop doing that and not jinx anything. Then I end up jinxing it and running out of fuel.

So you're like, "Geez, I hope my girlfriend is enjoying the race right now?"

Yeah. (Laughs) Or I wonder if she's paying attention to the race or is on her phone.

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: I'd say the biggest one would be Eldora (his Mudsummer Classic win in July). I just had three or four (people say that) walking through the garage the other day. I get Martinsville a lot (his first career Truck win, in October 2013). That's cool, too.

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: That's a tough one. I'd say probably a short track with one corner high-banked – like Daytona high-banked – and the other corner flat like Martinsville.

Wow, that's crazy.

Yeah. I know! I don't know how you'd set (the car) up. (Laughs)

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: Go skydiving.

Are you allowed to do that in your contract?

No, that's why I can't do it. (Laughs)

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: I'd say going to the BET Awards. I went twice now – earlier this year with my girlfriend and in 2010 with Revolution Racing when we shot that reality show Changing Lanes on BET. So I had a connection there and got to meet a lot of cool people.

Now that I'm getting more well-known, I guess, and working with Kevin Liles – he manages my side up in New York and (is the former president of) Def Jam -- I got to go to the Trey Songs concert and do a lot of things outside the BET Awards, so that was nice.

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: It's usually the girlfriend who is the first one I text. She calms me down for sure. I've learned to talk about it that day or that moment and then just be done with it. We don't really like to reflect back on the negative.

Q: If you have kids someday and they're running around the garage, what driver aside from yourself would you point to as a good role model for them?

A: Right now, if I look in the Cup Series, definitely Jimmie Johnson. I put out a tweet awhile ago where I said I wanted to have the success of Jimmie, the attitude of Brad (Keselowski) and the fan base of (Dale Earnhardt) Jr. So if you become like that, you're good.

It just comes down to doing the right things. For me, it's always been to be on your toes about everything no matter what you do – my mom and dad always stressed that to me.

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: There was one race in the (Charlotte Motor Speedway) Summer Shootout – this was three years ago –- where it was myself, Gray Gaulding, Tyler Green and another kid.

I started second or third, and Gray got by me and started pulling away. I was riding in fourth and the leaders were checked out by themselves. About halfway through the race – well, it was only a 20-lap race and I'm making it sound like it was 100 – I started running Gray back down. Then I noticed we were both running the leaders back down, so I was like, "Nah, I'm not going to pass him. I'll just sit here and ride and we'll both catch them."

So we caught them on the last lap and Gray made a three-wide move, but the leader came down in front of Gray. And I'm back there like, "Well, I'm just going to move all of you guys." So I use the bumper and push all three of them out of the way and go on and end up winning the race by a fender because Gray got the momentum back on the top.

That was probably the most exciting one of the Summer Shootout career I had.

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

A: I don't really watch much TV. I'm usually into movies. But when the girlfriend is in town, it's Botched or Real Housewives – Atlanta, Orange County, New Jersey. I get stuck in all that stuff, but I get pretty hooked on some of them. Botched is pretty funny. You get to see what kind of surgeries they need to have. It's pretty interesting.

Never heard of it, but it sounds gross.

This one lady went to Mexico to plastic surgery and they didn't give her any anesthesia. They put an ice cube on her stomach to numb her. It was pretty nasty. Some of it is just like lip injections or boob jobs gone wrong.

I enjoy watching those reality shows. I'm not saying she forces me. Sometimes I'm like, "I can't believe they act like this," but I know from doing the reality show on BET in 2010, it's ruined my reality show watching. I know 90% of that is all staged. Some of the conversations, I'm like, "The producers told them to talk about that."

So sometimes they'd just tell you what to do?

Yeah. Or like they'll have you walk in the room and say, "Hey everybody!" (Laughs) No one does that. It's all staged.

One time, I remember we all walked out and they were like, "No, no, no. We need you to open the door, walk out on your left foot and come out." It's silly stuff, but it was all in good fun.

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

A: The last movie I saw was 42. It was on one day and I caught the tail end of it, and I was like, "This is pretty good." I was sitting there after it went off, and then it comes on again. So I'm like, "Well, I'm going to watch it up to the point where I started it." And I ended up watching the entire thing again.

It was really cool. Just to see what he (baseball player Jackie Robinson) came through and how he broke through the sport, I related in some areas for me – but I definitely didn't have it as rough as he did. To see how he handled all the negatives kind of put chills on your back, but it was a really good movie.

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: Trying to find money to keep moving (up the ladder) is horrible. We were fortunate enough to have our own business to keep us moving up through the ranks – go-karts, Bandoleros, Legend cars, Late Models. That's where we stalled out, but luckily we caught a break with Joe Gibbs Racing and the diversity program.

But talking about future plans, it always gets to where it's like, "I don't know. We're still trying to work on that." Whereas before, it was like, "Yeah, we're going to a Legend car next year." It just takes a little more time, a little more patience.

Q: I've been asking each person to give me a question for the next interview. Last week was Casey Mears, and he wanted to know: At this point in your career, what does the dream opportunity look like to you?

A: I've always wanted to take the right step at the right time, so I'd say a full-time Nationwide ride for next year, for sure. It's just finding that sponsor to get us out there, to be able to say, "Go."

But I can tell you I'm not ready for Cup yet.

Q: And do you have a question for the next person?

A: (Wallace said he'd prefer to wait and see who the interview is with)

Follow Gluck on Twitter @jeff_gluck

