Jeff Gluck

USA TODAY Sports

Our series of NASCAR driver interviews continues this week with Brian Scott, who is currently fourth in the Nationwide Series standings for Richard Childress Racing. This season, Scott has already achieved career-highs in top-fives, top-10s and pole positions.

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

A: Sometimes I fantasize about the end of the race, and whether we're going to be in position to win and who I might race and whether I'm going to wreck them. (Laughs)

If we're on a long green-flag run and I'm in the top three, I always imagine it and say, "OK, how am I going to win this race? Is it going to be a green-flag pit stop where I get the lead or is it going to come down to restarts?"

I always imagine what I'm going to do on restarts, whether I'm going to pinch them (down) if I'm on the outside, or use 'em up if I'm on the inside. Then I think about what my victory celebration is going to be. (Laughs)

And if I'm not running good, I'm thinking about vehicle dynamics and what we need to do to help the problems that I'm facing.

Q: Fans often come up to you and want to discuss a moment or race from your career to show they've been fans for a long time. Which one comes up the most?

A: See, fans who have been with me a really long time, they don't have to bring up a moment, because I know all my fans. (Laughs) I didn't start with a large fan base, so I pretty much know them all by name. I know everybody who has been with me for awhile, so they don't have to prove it.

I know if someone comes up and is telling a lie like, "Man, I've been a fan for so long," then I'm like, "You weren't a fan — I know all three of them." (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: What's the point of the $5 million salary in there?

I was trying to say this imaginary track-building company has a boatload of money they're throwing at you as a high-dollar expert.

What was Clint Bowyer's answer? He said he'd build a dirt track and then pocket all the money. (Laughs) So what series is this for?

This is your field of dreams. It can be for any series.

I'm torn between whether to do a dirt track or an asphalt track. I guess I'd do a 1-mile track like Dover, but it's asphalt, not concrete. My goal would be to get a shorter track that races like a Chicago or a California. I feel like Chicago and California have a lot of grooves and you can race well when you're around each other, but they're so big that you get strung out.

So it'd have multiple seams, multiple grooves, progressive banking — but in a 1-mile configuration. I'd want to the tires to fall off. I wouldn't want it to just have grip like Kansas. I'd want it to have some character, some tire wear, some handling issues.

It'd have more of a short-track mentality where you don't have the speeds as high. You could actually bump, but you'd get the good racing a bigger track would provide where you have multiple grooves. It'd be trying to find the combination of that, because we don't have a lot of that.

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 go to Monaco.

What would you do there?

Well, if the F1 race was there, I'd watch that. If not, I'd just explore the city. I'm fascinated by that place. I've spent some time on the Amalfi Coast in Italy, down on the Mediterranean — that was seven or eight years back — and I loved it. I love history, I love kind of the old country feel, you know? Cobblestone streets and things of that nature.

Monaco is just a place that really fascinates me. Every time I watch the F1 race there, I'm just like, "Man, that'd just be a really neat place to go."

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: It's when we visit children's hospitals. I've done it quite a few times, but it always leaves a lasting impression. Back when I was with Braun Racing, I had a car with Levine Children's Hospital (Charlotte) on it, I've been to the Nationwide Children's Hospital (in Columbus), I've been to the Childress (Institute for Pediatric Trauma). I've seen and dealt with a lot of kids who have a lot of issues, and that's always the most humbling and I think coolest part of my job.

It's being able to spend time with kids who, not because they've done anything wrong, have had to deal with really harsh things in life. And I'm always amazed at how well kids handle things. They can handle disease and life better than adults do, I think. Those visits have been really rewarding.

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'm an internal person, and it would probably be a lot better if I would vent and talk. My wife (Whitney) tries to get me to vent and talk about it, but it's just not natural for me. I keep it in and then it works against me because I get kind of snappy since I'm in a bad mood and I'm trying to process everything myself.

She'll ask me something totally harmless — like we're not immediately decisive on where we want to go to dinner — and I'm wound so tight because I'm trying to deal with it all that I snap at her. That's one thing I'm trying to work on — getting better at venting more productively.

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

A: Jimmie Johnson. I mean, I admire the guy. He's got the most on his plate, he's had a ton of success and has maintained his success, and yet he wakes up at 6 a.m. every morning and goes on a run and comes back and cooks his girls breakfast. You know, that's someone who understands what's important in life. It doesn't seem like he gets wrapped up with the fame and all the things that comes with the job and he puts a lot of emphasis on family.

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: Are you talking about the Motorhome 500? (Laughs) I really love history and I really love hearing the stories of Tim Richmond and Dale Earnhardt and Neil Bonnett, the Allisons — the guys back in the day and how they went about racing and the things they did outside of racing.

There's an aura about it, like when you have some of the good ol' boys who are still in the sport, and they tell you these stories about how they used to roll into the track with two hours of sleep. It's always neat, and I'd say I listen the most to those type of stories.

NASCAR has always been about its roots and remembering where you come from, but a lot has changed. The sport is not nearly the same now as what it was back in the days when it was really coming on the scene after the Cale Yarborough and Bobby Allison fight. The whole thing has really changed with the spotlight. We don't carry cigarette lighters in the car anymore and you just don't have the off-track antics those guys used to be able to get away with.

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

A: I've got a 4-year-old and I've got a baby on the way; I haven't had a ton of time to watch TV. I like watching Tosh.0; his new season just started. I like Modern Family. I've got a cousin who lives in L.A. and writes for a couple TV shows, including Scandal. So I try to watch that because I think it's cool he's a writer for it. I like American Ninja Warrior and Wipeout, too.

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

A: Oh, this is embarrassing. My wife wanted to watch a movie the other night and our satellite went out because it was raining. So we went through the DVDs we have, and a lot of them are movies she's either seen or isn't interested in. I saw a yellow DVD that stuck out, and it was Little Miss Sunshine and I thought she would enjoy it. So we watched Little Miss Sunshine.

That's not embarrassing — that's a good movie.

It is a good movie. She fell asleep halfway through it and I watched the whole thing. She always falls asleep during movies. I stayed up late to finish it. (Laughs)

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 would tell myself in an indirect, roundabout way to choose my friends wisely and not get caught up in the going-out-and-partying phase as much as I did from when I was 18 to 22 (Scott is 26 now). I felt like I put more importance on going out and having fun than I did on trying to develop myself and what I was doing in racing.

Q: I've been asking each person to give me a question for the next interview. Last week was Darrell Wallace Jr., and he wanted to know: "Janie and Jack or Gymboree for the kids?"

A: Neither. Old Navy and Baby Gap.

Q: And do you have a question for the next interview? It's with Richard Petty.

A: My question would be how he's doing and adjusting since the passing of his wife? There was a lot of initial attention, but now he's gotten to a rhythm of life and things are different. I'd just like to make sure he's doing good.

Follow Gluck on Twitter @jeff_gluck