Scott Speed Breaks Down What Sets NASCAR Drivers Apart From F1 Stars with Dale Earnhardt Jr.

The NASCAR vs Formula 1 debate refuses to go away, running lap after lap with no checkered flag in sight, especially considering F1’s rapid growth in the U.S. over the last few years. Regardless, stock racing holds its ground in the country. The question, then, is not which series draws more eyes, but what sets them apart when the visor drops.

There are basic differences, of course, in that F1 is an open-wheel racing series, like IndyCar. Only, it’s global, and arguably the richest. NASCAR is more regional but the combination of drama, strategy, and chaos that extends both on and off the track, keeps the crowd on its heels.

Scott Speed, a former F1 driver, took a crack at this comparison during a conversation with Dale Earnhardt Jr., a NASCAR Hall of Famer, on The Dale Jr. Download.

Speed, who drove for Toro Rosso in F1 (now Visa CashApp RB), shared his personal experience about the difference between the two sports, saying,  “If you think of what makes someone successful in F1, you got to be fast. You got to qualify good. There’s some racing going on, but really it’s about going fast.”

“NASCAR is about racing. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen like, she’s like Austin Hill, for example, win with like a fifth place car. There’s so much racecraft that happens in NASCAR that I never learned or didn’t understand,” the 43-year-old added.

That gap hit him the moment he made the switch. “It was Days of Thunder. I could get in there. I could go really fast. And then you put 40 guys out there, and I was like, well, these guys are – I’m getting shuffled back here. Like one restart, lose a couple. Another restart, lose a couple more. Like what’s going on here? And I just didn’t – I didn’t understand what was going on.”

For Speed, the lesson came the hard way. At Darlington, when his team owner asked if he wanted to watch a run before getting in the car, Speed waved it off, thinking he could jump in and take off. A few laps later, the track had the last word. “I think after like three laps, like P1 on the board, and then I fenced it in four, and then I had to fix the car,” he said.

Speed admitted he could read a tire, but in NASCAR, that only gets a driver so far. The rest comes down to racecraft, and that is a different game altogether.