If you talk to most athletes, the place you're most comfortable is your playing field. I'm not so comfortable at a podium or talking about events.
In some ways, that's the story of my season - when I wasn't making big mistakes, I was winning races and being on the podium. And when I made mistakes I was still fourth or fifth, just off the podium.
I take his talent and his passion with me - to the stage of the Opry, to the podium at the CMA Awards, to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, into my own living room. I am the realization of my grandfather's dream. I am a player.
I never think about records. I focus on my race and try to get onto the podium consistently. It's hard enough to do that.
Just because someone says something, whether it's at the podium during the briefing or the president tweets, I can't always assume that's factual. That's insane. We have to be very quick on our toes in fact checking.
I had a lot of time to think, and that is not good for your mind. And when it actually happened, it was not so much a celebration but the relief. It was an exorcism anxiety. After each race there is a procedure in which you get taken off to the podium and the TV interviews.
I covered the White House during the Bush years when Ari Fleischer, Scott McClellan and Dana Perino were at the podium. We thought those were, at times, crazy press briefings, asking questions about major events like the Iraq War and the leaking of Valerie Plame's name and the outing of her as a CIA operative.
A lot of people think that public speaking means that you are standing at a podium giving a speech, but public speaking comes in lots of different formats.
2014 is a year I'll remember for a long time - it was definitely a breakthrough in my mind as well. Standing on the top step of the podium a few times was icing on the cake.
We give the podium to a lot of people who shouldn't have the podium. The message that's delivered the loudest and in the most entertaining way is the one that we're going to put on because that's what we want. We want ratings more than we want to deliver information. That's just where the culture's gotten.
