Each week, The Athletic asks the same 12 questions to a different race car driver. For the 13th straight season, this year’s 12 Questions interview series concludes with “The Money Lap” co-host Landon Cassill. This interview has been condensed and edited, but the full version is available on the 12 Questions podcast.
1. What is currently the No. 1 thing on your bucket list?
To own a NASCAR team. I would like to be a team owner in a series that’s fun, and it doesn’t necessarily have to be my core business. Maybe it’s somewhat of a hobby where I have a really good way to subsidize it, because I don’t think a motorsports team is really ever going to be a super profitable business. Some huge things would have to change (for that).
2. How much media coverage of NASCAR do you consume?
Quite a bit, but mostly through Twitter during the week and then the races on the weekends and just my regular communication with my relationships in the industry. I also like to follow a lot of the up-and-coming journalists who cover the Xfinity Series. Because from being a competitor in that series, I know how hard they work to build those relationships. … When you have guys like Dustin Albino (from Jayski) reporting on things, I genuinely believe what they’re writing.
3. What is the best way to measure success in racing?
Longevity. Not to just make it a pat on the back, but when I look at my racing career, I didn’t win, (I have) no championships. But those amount of starts (552 between Cup and Xfinity) and the ability to make a living for that long is really a sign I have it.
There’s a lot of other drivers out there who you could look at and say their longevity in the sport is a sign they’re survivors, that they know how the sport works. They know how the business works. They know how to navigate and manage relationships in this business, keep themselves relevant. And that goes beyond just drivers; you could say the same about crew chiefs and other personnel in the sport.
4. What is an opinion you have about NASCAR you don’t think is shared by the fans?
I don’t know where the majority is on the charter stuff and the antitrust lawsuit 23XI (Racing) and (Front Row Motorsports) are going through with NASCAR here, but I think the majority of public opinion is maybe on the side of the teams. And I don’t know if NASCAR, as an organization, is in the wrong entirely.
I don’t think they’re running a monopoly. Teams have the ability to choose to race in NASCAR. They have the ability to choose to race elsewhere. They have the ability to choose to race in the Cup Series and Xfinity Series. They have the ability to choose to spend beyond what the prize money and TV money allows them to race.
The reason it costs $20 million to run a competitive Cup Series team is it’s an arms race. It’s self-inflicted by the teams. The teams and the manufacturers could stop that tomorrow if they chose to. And that’s probably an unpopular opinion.
To go faster, you have to spend more money. And when that’s unchecked and there’s nobody stopping you, that’s going to keep happening. If NASCAR just gave the teams $20 million to race, I think they would spend $25 (million) and then they would spend $30 (million) and then they would spend $40 (million). And then 10 years from now, we would be having the same conversation for the next renewal; we would be talking about how they don’t get enough money to race and NASCAR needs to give them $40 million to race.
5. What is the biggest thing fans don’t realize about the job of a race car driver?
It is very, very hard to grasp how intricate every little decision is behind the wheel of a car, and how fragile every little decision is. Take the Homestead race and you take a look at the decisions that were made literally in a matter of 40 seconds between Ryan Blaney, Denny Hamlin and Tyler Reddick.
From TV and a helicopter view of the cars, you don’t see the minutiae of decisions made by Ryan Blaney that cost him that win, and you don’t see the minutiae of decisions made on Tyler Reddick’s part that put him in a position to make the pass on the outside. These are steering wheel angles by quarters of an inch and choosing to position his car inches and feet in different areas of the track that make a huge difference. It is such a detail-oriented sport, and it is very hard to grasp how detail-oriented it truly is for a driver.
6. and 7. This has been the part of the 12 Questions where I’ve had two wild-card questions this year: One about a current topic and one about something more random. But I’m going to combine them for this interview, because we need a State of Landon’s career. Last year when we spoke for the 12 Questions, you were still living in North Carolina; you’ve since moved your family to your home state of Iowa. You said at the time: “I do want to race again. By no means am I done.” You said your ideal schedule would be to “run 10 to 15 really high-quality races” that you have a shot at winning, but you need a sponsor. Yet it’s approaching nearly two years since we’ve seen you behind the wheel. So what is your vision for when you’ll get back behind the wheel? Do you still want to race?
Racing is my first love, but I don’t know if I’ll ever race full-time again. I probably won’t. My days of racing full-time are probably behind me. I haven’t ever announced a sort of retirement and I’m not really seeking that type of announcement. I’ve always looked at racing as something I’d never need to retire from, because it is a skill and a career that has a ton of longevity in it.
I can remember early in my 20s saying I didn’t want to be racing full-time in Cup beyond age 40, and I’ve said it several times since then. Things could have changed that if by age 35 I was with a championship Cup team and on a trajectory to chase Jimmie Johnson down for seven or eight championships. But I’ve always wanted to be done racing full-time before 40 so I could venture into other things.
My dad and I have always talked about doing business together and expanding our family business (Cassill Motors), which is where my focus has been. Maybe my business ventures with my dad have some growth potential to get me back into racing one way or another; maybe there’s some arrangements there that can allow us to go racing part-time and complement everything else in my life. But I don’t know if pursuing a full-time ride is one of my priorities.
Ultimately, yes, I do want to be behind the wheel of a car and and I should probably make it happen soon, because those opportunities are still there. I still talk to teams in the Xfinity Series who have said, “Hey, if you want to drive this weekend, we need a driver.” … A team called me the week of the Bristol race and was like, “How soon could you take a drug test and get a license?” And it was tempting, but I need to wrap my head around it and make a more intentional decision to do it.
8. I’ve been asking drivers “What do you like about the place you grew up?” You’re back living in your hometown of Cedar Rapids now, so what do you like about it?
Just the realest of people. The people in the Midwest are pretty darn authentic. There are great people everywhere, but there’s something about the people here in the Midwest and in Iowa that obviously I grew up around that I have a special appreciation for.
9. What personality trait are you the most proud of?
My intensity and focus. That comes with a little bit of a catch, because it has to be something I am interested in. But one thing that has gotten me through life is I was so obsessed and focused on being a NASCAR driver that it happened. There’s a lot of things that made it happen that weren’t all me, but I also wasn’t going to not let it happen.
That’s part of what gets me excited and motivated for the second half of my life. I want to be obsessed and motivated to do something new. In this world of the internet, you can learn anything and you can do anything; it’s just a matter of where you spend your time.
“Racing is my first love, but I don’t know if I’ll ever race full-time again,” Landon Cassill says. “I probably won’t.” (Jonathan Bachman / Getty Images)
10. Which driver would you least like to be stuck with on an elevator?
Probably Chase Elliott. I don’t know if our conversation would go very far. (Laughs.) But I’ve had good conversations with Chase. I’ve had good times with Chase. If knew I was stuck on an elevator with him for four hours and we had to just make it happen, we could find something to connect on and have an interesting conversation. But that one would be a challenge. Sorry, Chase.
11. What is a run-in you’ve had with a driver that TV or the media missed?
Me and Trevor Bayne got into it in 2017. I don’t know if that was on TV. I flipped him the bird and then he punted me out of the way, and then I hit him after the race.
Where was this?
New Hampshire. I wouldn’t say I’m super proud of anything that happened there. I flipped him the bird, which is like a non-violent offense. It is a message, like, “Hey man, here’s the bird.” Nothing needs to come of that. And then you wrecked me. You ruined my day.
That made me really mad, so I hit him after the race — which was stupid, because back then we ran really soft bumper structures to get everything to flex, so when I hit him after the race, it just destroyed the front end of my car. So my team wasn’t happy about that, and I was ashamed of myself. It was frustrating all around, and I don’t think that was a drama that got caught. We didn’t talk for a while over that.
12. Each week I ask a driver to give me a question for the next interview. The last one was Rajah Caruth. His question for you is: When you get older, how does getting married and having children affect your competitiveness on the racetrack, whether that’s risk-taking or blocking, etc.? And how much does that change your preparation off of the track? Because you already have a lot of obligations and then you’re adding a family on top of that.
I truly don’t think it affects the decision-making and the risk-taking. I don’t believe it actually affects your in-game decision-making. But what it does affect is your time, your availability, and that is the challenge for someone who is married with kids — to maintain that level of elite professionalism. That goes the same for any business, not even just athletes.
That doesn’t mean nobody should have families. I have a pretty big family of kids and I love it, but as you grow older and you add to your responsibilities, you have to button yourself up when it comes to your organization. For the (22)-year-olds like Rajah, he might as well start doing it now.
Before I had kids, I was spending my downtime playing video games. I worked out and trained and was ready for racing, but I took my downtime and played video games. When I got married and had a family, I just replaced that with adult responsibilities. I still spent the same amount of time training and preparing for the race — if not more, because it became even more important. But it’s just more of a time commitment and that’s part of growing up.
The next 12 Questions interview will be in February. Would you like to think of a question then?
Let’s take some responses from your readers and see what they think I should ask, and let’s use that to come up with a question.
GO DEEPER
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(Top photo of Landon Cassill at an October 2022 Xfinity Series race: Jared C. Tilton / Getty Images)
