"I hate to lose."

In the second part of our interview, AJ Allmendinger explains the allure of NASCAR, talks about his team-mate Brian Vickers and F1 driver Scott Speed, and reveals why he is a risky addition to Team Red Bull.

What kind of attitude towards life is prevalent behind the scenes of NASCAR? What do you find particularly alluring and fascinating about it?

The women. No, seriously I think the coolest thing about NASCAR is the competition level. In any series in the world, the best drivers are the top five drivers on the grid, and then there’s a big fall-off. Not in Cup. One weekend the guy in the front can look like the hero and dominate for the win, and the next weekend he’s running in the back of the pack and can’t figure out why he’s in everyone’s way. To me, that’s an amazing challenge – to be on your game for 36 weekends. As a driver, you always want a challenge and that’s why I came to NASCAR.

Your team-mate at Team Red Bull is Brian Vickers. How do you rate him?

He’s way overrated! No, I really think Brian is a great driver. He was the youngest Busch Series champion, which is a great accomplishment, but it also shows how tough the Nextel Cup series is, because it took Brian three years to get his first win. It’s not easy. It’s been great getting to know him both on and off the race track, even though he’s probably going to get me in trouble off the track!

Why do you think Team Red Bull picked you to race alongside Brian?

I don’t know why they picked me. It was a huge risk taking me on since I only have an open-wheel background, but everyone on this team has a lot of determination. I know it’s not going to be easy. I know I’m going to make a lot of mistakes. I’ve shown I have the speed it takes to be here, and if I’m going to make mistakes, I’m going to make them going fast! Seriously, I think they see my determination to win. I want to win. I’m only in this to win and I hate to lose. I’m probably driven more by the passion not to lose than actually going out there and winning.

Which NASCAR driver would you take as your role model? For what reasons?

That’s a tough question. It’s not so much that there’s one guy that I look at and say, “I want to be like that guy.” Something I’ve always tried to do is to take a little bit of what makes every great driver fast. You try to learn something from everyone to make yourself a complete driver, instead of trying to be like just one person. I do admire guys like Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon who are just blistering fast. They can get in any car – a Cup car, Sprint car or F1 car – and just drive the wheels off it.

Have you already had a chance to meet the Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Toro Rosso guys? Do you follow Formula 1?

Actually, I grew up racing against Scott Speed. He was my biggest karting rival. We grew up being constantly pitted against each other as “the next American superstar”. We never hid the fact that we wanted to beat each other on the race track. It wasn’t like, “Oh if I don’t win, I want you to win,” it was like, “If I crash, I want you to crash harder!” I’ve also met David Coulthard and Tonio Liuzzi at the Autosport Awards. I do follow Formula 1, I actually follow all different kinds of racing, and I’m as much of a fan of Formula 1 as I am a driver.