1. Why did you choose to do PR work instead of racing a car? Well, really PR work chose me.  I never got into driving because I couldn’t afford it.  Plus I was not the mechanical guy in the family.  By the time I was old enough to race it was more expensive than just gutting an old car and running it all stock.  That’s more how it was when Jeremy started. At some point back when Jeremy first stepped into asphalt racing, I was chosen to be the “PR guy”.  It was one of those half joke/half serious things that stuck.  But I had been doing my own website for quite a while that had a newsletter with it.  So I had already gained experience on how to build a website and write articles on a regular basis.  By no means am I a skilled writer, but it gave me just enough experience to get the job done. 2. What is your favorite track to go to on an USAR race weekend? Without a doubt it is Indianapolis Raceway Park.  There is as much history there as at the speedway. When I was growing up my parents went to the Indy 500, so the speedway was a big deal to our family (or at least it was to me).  We went to the first few Brickyard 400 races there with them, we have gone numerous times to the Indy 500 Pole Day and I went to the Indy 500 one year.  It’s just an awesome place.  So for me personally that transfers over to IRP as well.  I want to see or be part of anything Indy, whether it is the big track or the small one.

3. Are you a fan of the Green, White, Checkered Rule USAR uses?

Yes I am.  I like the rule and I think it is smart for the series to use it.  I grew up at the local dirt tracks where you finish races under the green.  I was a big fan of ASA growing up (I didn’t know about USAR then) and felt that finishing under green set that series apart from others.  It’s one important piece of the puzzle that keeps fans coming back.

4. Is doing PR for Jeremy your only job or do you have another job out of racing?

I have other jobs with the race team and on my own.  We are just a family based effort with Jeremy, myself and our father doing most of the work.  So, even though I’m not very mechanical, I help with as much as I can at the shop.  On race weekends I collect data, take care of the tires and figure fuel mileage.  During the race I generally make the call when we pit.  During pit stops I run the jack and usually fuel the car as well.  Usually we don’t have quite enough crew guys, so we will do one stop for tires and one stop for fuel.  On paper they call me the crew chief. Really Jeremy makes all the calls about the car.  I take the responsibility of going to the crew chief meeting, watching over the crew to help keep everyone on track with their duties and handle any television interviews during the race.

All of us have jobs and do racing outside of that.  My “real job” is as an accountant at Thaddeus Computing, Inc. in Fairfield, IA.  We publish Smartphone & Pocket PC magazine.  We also buy, sell, fix and upgrade handheld computers.  I work in that department as well.  (We are a small company, so everyone has multiple jobs.)

http://www.thaddeus.com

5. If you could do one thing in life, what would it be?

I guess I’ll keep this selfish and on the subject of racing!  It would be a toss up between two things.  First, I would want to be a part of Jeremy winning a Hooters Pro Cup race and having that get him moved on to bigger and better things.  But for something I would do myself, it would probably be run the jack on a NASCAR team of any of the three major series.

6. What is the most challenging aspect of your job?

From the PR side it is trying to keep the website articles interesting.  During the season, it is hard to do our race weekend recap articles and keep them fresh.  I try to keep from getting into the slump of having seemingly the same article over and over again.

From the team side, it would be getting together enough people for each race weekend.  We tend to struggle with that, especially because of our travel time.  Being in Iowa, it’s hard to get people to travel to places like Virginia because of cost and time off work.

7. Do you see yourself moving to another team, maybe in Nextel Cup in the future?

I can’t say that I do.  Most likely my part in racing will move on with Jeremy.  As I said before, it would be great to be a pit crew member for a team in NASCAR.  However, I have never had the mechanical skills to really look at being employed by a team.  It would have to be a weekend warrior type job where I just came in for the races.  I have never felt that many teams are looking for that.

8. What are your hobbies in your spare time?

Maybe I have too much spare time because there are a few things I do.  First would be that I try to be involved with my local church.  We have a Bible Study every Wednesday night at my home.  I am into exercising as well.  It started out with interest in bodybuilding which was the start of my first website. http://www.massivemuscle.net  But I’m not getting younger, so now I try to exercise for the health.  Finally I have gained a love of motorcycles in the past couple years so I like riding in the summers when I can.  Usually it’s just a commute to work, but it’s still fun.

9. What do you feel is the best tool you use or plan to use to represent your driver when they are at the race track?  Do you use a different method for the fans and the media, combine the two?  What do you do to make sure your driver is the most talked about at the track?

Honestly, once we get to the track I cannot be much of a PR person.  With such few crew members, we are all kept too busy during the day.  Jeremy does a really good job of taking over for himself there.  The best time for PR is during the driver autograph session.  He does a great job with the fans and especially the kids.  If you watch, you will notice that the “unheard of” Jeremy Miller has as many people at his car as the more popular drivers/teams.  The main thing I focus on is if I get to do a TV interview during the race.  I try to take that opportunity to thank sponsors.  More importantly I try to point out what he is able to do on such a small budget in the hopes that someone out there will take notice.

10.  What advice would you give someone trying to get into racing as a driver or maybe as a PR person?

I would have to stick with the idea of starting out in go karts to become a driver.  That is the advice I see out there from other drivers.  It’s cheaper and people can get started at a younger age

If you were looking to take on the PR role with a team, I would advise you work only for someone you really believe in.  It’s pretty simple for me because I do this for my own brother.  You will notice a lot of family involvement like this in racing.  It’s somewhat of a sales position.  You have to be behind the person 100% so that you can write truthful and exciting articles about the person/team. 

Another thing that really helped me is that I have always been a racing fan in general.  I have noticed that many people involved in racing pay attention to just their own series and maybe NASCAR.  I grew up watching local dirt tracks, NASCAR, IRL, Champ Cars, sprint cars, Formula 1, motorcycles and other forms of racing.  As a fan, I feel I know what USAR fans want to see and read. I believe this helps me get information and stories out there that are interesting to the fans.

People can see when you really believe in what you are saying and doing. So you want to be completely committed to your driver, team and sport so that you can help the most in your position.