Q:
Marcos, do you think you will benefit from the road races on the schedule given your V8 Supercar background?
MA:
I came over to the US to run the ovals. That’s what excites me and that’s what I like talking about. We’ll be set-up for the road course races, we know we are going to go OK and it will be a nice surprise for the team when we do run a road course. But that’s not my focus. I’m here to run the ovals. If running road courses was what I wanted to do I probably wouldn’t be over here in NASCAR. It’s really not the point of this deal. The Busch Series has a lot of big ovals and the team has trust in me that I can do the job on those tracks.
Q:
The Busch Series is a bigger commitment, with an extra ten races on the schedule compared to the Truck Series. How do you handle that commitment?
MA:
I’m already doing that. I’ve actually gone out and bought a motorcoach and other things, so we are a lot more organised now than we were at the start of the year. You have got to be organised. You fly out on a Wednesday night or a Thursday morning and spend three or four days at a race track, come back and have Monday off and start all over again on Tuesday. It’s probably easier to do that than to race where I used to in V8 Supercar, where it is a little bit spasmodic with only 13 or 14 races for the year. You gear up for a weekend and then all of a sudden you have got to wait a couple of weeks before you gear up again. I think the challenge of racing every week and getting yourself geared up for it is part of the attraction to be honest and it’s something I’m really looking forward to. I don’t see it as daunting, I’m just anxious for it to get started.
Q:
You were restricted with your testing in the Trucks. Is this going to open up a bit more in Busch?
MA:
There is still a fairly strict set of testing restrictions and they don’t allow you to test at any of the circuits that you race at. There are really only a couple of race tracks over a mile that the Busch Series don’t actually race at, so it’s really restricted. That’s one of the really big factors for people like me doing what I am trying to do and coming through. You are really spending all your time during the week getting ready for the races and the track time is pretty similar to what I had in V8 Supercars. The experience of the Trucks is a really valuable tool to have in your back pocket and it’s been a great learning experience for me. I’ve still got a few races to go and I want to try and win one if I can, but really it’s just about getting those miles because I know for me and the team, when we start revisiting some of these tracks, I’m going to be ready from the first lap of practice and that is so important.
Q:
Given that you have gone so well on the longer tracks this year are you setting your sights higher in Busch next year than in Truck given there are more of the larger tracks in Busch?
MA:
If you’re a Busch Series regular and you don’t run Nextel Cup, running in Busch is a huge opportunity because you have so many Cup drivers coming into the category from week to week on top of their other program. On race results, compared to what I have done this year, perhaps not. I want to be more consistent and run competitively more often. It has taken me some time to get comfortable in the races, maybe after the first 30-40 laps is when I can start to move forward in the pack and that’s what I want to eradicate for next year. I want to get rid of those rookie problems. I want to be a more complete package, move forward from week-to-week and be more consistent than what I have been.
Q:
How much influence will you have on the team next year and how much will you just be a driver?
MA:
The role of a driver here is different to what it is over in Australia. I hope that over the next six months I can roll out some of my experiences of the past and that’s one of the good things here in NASCAR. With me and the team this year it’s all been about learning and I haven’t had much of a say about what is said and done. You’ve got to tread very carefully over here and the team I’m with has been in NASCAR for decades, so I’m not going to go up to them in the first five minutes and tell them how it’s done. It’s a fine line between trying to learn and what I believe I can bring to the table over here and going too far and making them mad. So we’ll pick it up but we’ll be very careful and do that over time with that sort of stuff. I think the team is looking for that to be honest, going to a driver to get the whole team to step up and take it to the next level. Whether we are ready for that is a big question. It may take me a little more time to learn race tracks and get experience.
Q:
Are there any restrictions on you next year? Do you have to do certain things in the Busch Series?
