SCR: How much do you know about this sport's history? Do youknow, for example, who Fireball Roberts was?
TRUEX: Yeah, I know most of the names, but I don't know as muchthat far back, no. The eighties. I know a lot about racing back in theeighties and stuff. That was some cool racing back then and I'm sureit's still like that.
SCR: You mentioned your hobbies already. But are there any otherhobbies you have away from the track. I know you said you like to huntand fish.
TRUEX: Yeah, well, and racing on the computer. I think I alreadytold you about that. I like to race R/C cars. I like to go snowboarding,which I haven't got to do since last winter, but I like to do that.That's about it, really, just hang out and have fun. Do the normalstuff. Go out with your buddies every once in a while and cut loose andstay up all night. Just the normal stuff, really. Nothing too out of theordinary.
SCR: Play any high school sports?
SCR: Too focused on racing?
TRUEX: Yeah. I played sports growing up but never in high school.I gave them all up before then.
SCR: What has been the biggest surprise to you this season, yourfirst full season in Busch?
TRUEX: The biggest surprise? Really it hasn't been surprising, Idon't think. I don't know, I guess I prepared myself last year by racinga little bit here and there with these guys to see what was going on.Probably the biggest surprise was the first time I walked into DEI andgot lost for about the first two weeks when I went in the shop. That wasprobably the biggest surprise.
SCR: But you've found your way around by now, I'm sure.
TRUEX: Well, there are still people I don't even know in there.It's like, 'Wow, who is this guy? I've never seen him before.' And he'sworked there three times as long as I have. Still trying to get aroundand meet everybody.
SCR: How close do you live to DEI?
TRUEX: I live about 15 minutes away.
SCR: Do you go by there often?
TRUEX: Yeah, every day I don't have anything to do, I go thereand hang out most of the day.
SCR: How do you like the area around [Mooresville, NorthCarolina], compared to the Northeast?
TRUEX: It's kind of like home. I've made a lot of new friends,thanks to Josh [Snider, PR representative for the team] here and Juniorand hanging out with them, living right by them and stuff. Know a lot ofnew friends and a lot of good people around there. It's kind of likehome. Not quite as much to do, it seems like it at times, but I kind oflike that.
SCR: What's been the toughest thing to deal with this year?
TRUEX: The toughest thing to deal with is probably traveling allthe time and never being home. You race on Saturday but you really go tothe race track on Wednesday. So you don't have much time at home duringthe week. Then you have appearances and sponsor commitments andautograph sessions and things like that that take up even more of thattime. I guess it's kind of good because it gets your mind off worryingabout what's going on and all. But I stay real busy.
SCR: Been back to Toms River lately?
TRUEX: That's just where I was born. I actually lived inManahawkin, which is about 20 minutes from there. Yeah, I actually wentback there two weeks ago, on our off-weekend, whenever that was, whenthe Cup cars ran Martinsville.