The Best Of Times ... My best memory of being a car owner-because it was totally noncontroversial, and it appeared to be a sign of the team, driver, and crew chief coming together-was the '98 victory at Pocono. I was wrong to anticipate that was the beginning of something wonderful, because we totally fell off the map after that.
The best I have felt about the team is this year, because of what happened earlier at Talladega (the team was caught using an illegal fuel additive, although neither Kranefuss nor Mayfield were aware of it). The reaction from inside the sport has almost caused us to feel like it's us against the rest of the world. The team has never been stronger, been more behind what we are doing, and certainly behind Jeremy. He has assumed the leadership role. As far as the team is concerned, this is the best time.
But personally, my best time was the first win at Pocono.
The Corporate ShuffleIf Ford would have been smart, they could have gotten me to pay them to be able to do what I did for more than 25 years. I loved it that much; it's a great life. I never wanted to do anything else, and I still don't. I still love racing. I think for the longest time I was able to combine or get the best out of the corporate attitude, which was clearly not entirely focused toward racing. I had to accept the fact that as far as racing was concerned, you were always at the bottom of any agenda. We had very good years and had great people to work with both internally and externally. It was a wonderful time.
A Matter Of FocusYou're a lot more focused here (as a Winston Cup team owner rather than Ford's head of global racing operations) because this is only one thing you do. You have only one team to be concerned with. When I was at Ford and went to a Cup race, a bunch of our teams ran. At the end of the day, you didn't care who was winning or doing the best-as long as he drove a Ford.
Here, obviously, you don't really care about anything else but your own team. You don't care whether the guy who finished second or fourth or fifth is driving a Ford, a Chevy, a Pontiac, or whatever. You are a lot more focused and a lot more involved in the technical aspects of it as well as the business end, because it is your own money-your own people. The people, definitely, are the most challenging aspect right now for a number of reasons. The sport is booming, and work ethic, morale, loyalty, and those kinds of things are pretty much going out the window, just like it did when other forms of racing came into money.
You see the same thing here now. People change jobs if they are not happy, sometimes in the middle of the season. When I started in the '50s, you wouldn't touch a mechanic or fabricator who switched teams in the middle of the season with a 10-foot pole. Now, if he's a good one, you just might go after him.
The Greatest Driver He's Ever SeenAyrton Senna. Aside from being an enormous talent, it was his ability to focus, whether it was just one lap of qualifying or the race. Senna was the most amazing driver I've ever come across. At the peak of his years, he wasn't the most easy person to get along with, but in terms of producing as a racer, there was nobody better in my opinion.
Competition In Winston CupAnybody who thinks that NASCAR is different with respect to the level of competition compared to other sports is definitely mistaken. It is a little more disguised in the Southern way that people say, "You're my friend, and I love you." But at the end of the day, it's just as competitive. The guy here, head and shoulders above everybody else, is Dale Earnhardt. He got everything together, and he did it in his own way. Anybody can win a race or one championship-but to win seven like he did and be back in the hunt again at age 49 is very, very impressive.
On Jeremy Mayfield-How Far Can He Go?All the way, based on the changes he has made with respect to his personality. Jeremy always had a great amount of talent, but he did not enjoy controversy and certainly didn't assert himself as well as he should have two or three years ago. He has an unbelievable knack in the car and what he feels.
Since about a year and a half ago, he has taken the lead with the team. Anything we are doing now, directionally, comes from Jeremy. We are supported by an excellent group of engineers and mechanics, and we are capable at least now to repeat the performance of certain cars. For instance, we built a new car for the second Pocono race. We didn't take the one we won with a few weeks before that, and the new car was as good as or better than the one we had won with.
Jeremy has become the leader of the team. He demands, he puts his foot down, and he's not afraid to speak his mind. I've been telling him since day one, "You will never be able to get to the top if you aren't willing to step on people's toes." It is very much against his nature, but he's learned. Without Jeremy, this team wouldn't be anywhere. He's the man. Right now, I don't see anyone out there driving as well as Jeremy, with respect to being aggressive when he has to-being protective, being mature, and making the right calls. It's fun right now.
On Choosing NASCAR One of the reasons I went into NASCAR was, when I talked to companies early on about CART or NASCAR, 90 percent were only interested in NASCAR. Then Carl Haas (an early partner) called one day and said, "Hey, Kmart has an interest in Winston Cup. You know the people down there." So I rounded up a few people and put a team together.
It started out all right with John Andretti, but it didn't work out, so we made changes. It takes a long time here, because you have to have the whole team on the same page. If you don't, it doesn't really matter. Budgets clearly play a role here, too. You have to have a great budget, and I think there are 15 teams that are well-funded. Each and every one of them can win races, and the reason they don't is because the team isn't behind the driver. That is more important here than anywhere else.
NASCAR vs. Formula 1Formula 1 is a high-tech style of racing that I feel is artificially blown up in regard to its financial requirements. It makes a bunch of people rich, and it certainly doesn't do an awful lot with respect to the competitiveness of the races. But it has made a lot of people a lot of money, it is very well-managed because there's one man in charge, and it has a huge worldwide following.
In our case, in Winston Cup, the show comes first. That's probably one of the reasons NASCAR has been so successful. A lot of people feel this is an attractive, family-type sport. It's competitive, and the drivers are accessible. The openness, as far as utilizing and taking advantage of marketing or sales opportunities provided by NASCAR, is a lot different than For-mula 1. You cannot enter into the garage area at a Formula 1 race-no matter who you are. It's a totally different philosophy.
NASCAR makes it easy for people to become involved. In Formula 1, Bernie Ecclestone's (head of the Formula 1 organization) philosophy is, "Anything that is difficult to get a hold of, people will lust after more." I remember Bernie telling me 10 years ago he had been approached by a German travel agency to buy five plastic cards that would allow them to go into the garage area on one of those hospitality deals. They were offering $5 million a year. He turned it down-not because it wasn't enough money, but because he wanted to make a point. Bill France's philosophy is, "I'd rather have 10 wrong people in the garage than send one home who should be there." I think Winston Cup's success shows his thinking wasn't off the mark.
Michael KranefussMichael Kranefuss has been involved in motorsports, in one form or another, since the late '50s. He's seen the world, directed an automotive conglomerate's motorsports programs, and won a NASCAR Winston Cup race as a car owner.
The 59-year-old German moved to the United States in 1980 and was named director of Special Vehicle Operations (SVO) for Ford Motor Company when the division was formed the following year. Kranefuss was the head of SVO, which became known as Ford's racing division, until he left the company in 1993.
When Kranefuss was hired at Ford, the Blue Oval's North American motorsports involvement consisted of a single car in a road-racing series. During his 13 years there, Kranefuss built the motorsports division into the envy of the Big Three.
When he retired, Ford was the only automaker in the world to be involved in all four of the world's major racing series: Formula 1, CART, NASCAR Winston Cup, and World Rally. By the time he retired, that involvement had produced nearly 90 major championships, including 21 in road racing alone. Bill Elliott's '88 NASCAR Winston Cup title was the company's first in some time, and Alan Kulwicki followed that with the '92 title. Roush Racing began its domination of the GTO and Trans-Am titles in road racing, and the Ford Cosworth was the engine of choice for a while in CART.
Upon his retirement from Ford, Kranefuss and his wife Immy moved to Mooresville, North Carolina, to pursue his lifelong dream of becoming a car owner. The man who now supported a small army of race teams wanted to downsize and concentrate on just one. He and CART car owner Carl Haas formed what is now Penske Kranefuss Motorsports, with John Andretti as the driver. Since then, Knanefuss has hired Jeremy Mayfield as the team's driver, and together they have won three NASCAR Winston Cup events since 1998.