Mad Max Poised for NASCAR

From SPEEDtv.com
Written by: Tom Jensen
Date: 01/29/2009 - 04:06 PM

Max Papis isn’t going to let a little thing like a global economic meltdown interfere with establishing himself as a NASCAR Sprint Cup driver.

Papis, known to his peers simply as “Mad Max,” will run a half-time Sprint Cup schedule in 2009, piloting a Geico-sponsored Germain Racing Toyota for 18 Cup races. He is also slated to enter six NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races.

The 39-year-old Como, Italy, comes with a rich racing resume that includes stints in Formula 1, CART, the IRL, IMSA and the American Le Mans Series. In 2009, he might be facing his toughest challenge given the prevailing conditions in the world economy. But Papis remains steadfastly optimistic about the coming season, despite a full winter’s worth of doom-and-gloom headlines.

“My feeling on all of this negativity is actually the opposite in a way,” said Papis, one of the most engaging personalities in racing. “Everyone needs dreams. When I was a kid I needed a dream. I wanted to dream. I wanted to go to the race track and see my heroes.”

And Papis thinks American race fans likely feel the same way. “At the end of the day, of course the economical situation is super tough, but people still want to dream,” he said. You want to go to the race track and enjoy yourself.”

Besides, he said, the situation in the United States is still far better than much of the rest of the world. “I think the real big problems are not here,” Papis said flatly. “If you look at Africa or if you look at how many millions of people die of cancer every day. Those are big problems. Those are things that we need to focus on.”

And so Papis hopes his continued racing career will provide fans with a welcome diversion. “I feel giving the dream to people like me and my teammates to go out there and try to achieve our goals in life, I think it’s huge,” he said. “I think together with me, I would like have everyone else going to the race track and dreaming with me about maybe having one day the chance to do what I’m doing.”

Even more, Papis said, the current economic climate will weed out the real racers from the wanna-bes. “In the end, things come and go, but I think all the situations in motor racing — and maybe some people might not like to hear this — but it is sort of purifying the sport,” he said.  “Whoever is going to stay are the people that love the sport because they are going to have to take pay cuts and work harder.  I’m ready to do whatever it takes to establish myself in NASCAR.  I think you’re going to see who has been satisfied, who already made his career is going to have reason to look at other stuff.  And who wants to prove a point is going to be here and is going to work his tail off to show that they belong in motor racing.”