Jason Leffler drives the red/black #38 Toyota for Braun Racing in NASCAR’s Nationwide Series, but he was born and bred here in Long Beach. Leffler was honored Wednesday night at Smooth’s Bar & Grille for his career achievements in all forms of racing, and his helmet and racing suit will be hung on the walls alongside other local racing greats (including driving legend and Leffler’s mentor, Parnelli Jones – see below!).
Leffler took some time out to sit down with me and discuss Saturday’s race in Fontana, growing up a racing fan in Long Beach and the city’s best streets for driving.
Click the “PLAY” button below to listen – though you may want to read along as the audio is scratchy due to a packed house at Smooth’s. Enjoy!
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lbpost.com: Thanks for joining us here at lbpost.com, I am Ryan ZumMallen joined by Jason Leffler of Great Clips Racing, how you doing man?
Jason Leffler: Doing great, thanks.
LBP: Now you’re a Long Beach native, how’s it feel to be back?
JL: Aww it feels great, it always feels great to come back to Southern California and especially to come down to Long Beach. My brother still lives in Long Beach so my nieces and nephews are here with he and his wife. I try to stay true to my So-Cal roots, so it’s fun to come home.
LBP: Now I know you’ve been a frequenter of this place, we’re at Smooth’s downtown on Pine and they’ll be honoring Jason tonight. What’re they gonna be doing for you tonight?
JL: I think what they’re gonna do is unveil, I have a racing suit and a racing helmet that I used last year and they want to hang it up and display it so we’re down here just kind of celebrating that, which is really cool that the guys here at Smooth’s want to do that.
LBP: Now I was talking to Stacey, your personal relations manager, and she said there was a little mix-up with the suit. What happened?
JL: Yeah, we were just last minute getting it here and I didn’t think it was going to be here but we’ve got a pretty cool helmet on display and your typical NASCAR driving suit with the sponsors all over it. So it’ll be pretty cool to know that I have some memorabilia hanging up here in downtown Long Beach.
LBP: What we should do is – like they have the Champ Car hanging from the ceiling – we should get one of your cars in here.
JL: Yeah, haha, I don’t know if the ceiling is strong enough to hang a stock car in here, they’re pretty heavy. But yeah that would be pretty cool to have a car hanging upside down in here for sure.
LBP: So what’s it like – there are a ton of racing fans in Long Beach but it’s not necessarily a hotbed for producing drivers – what’s it like growing up here and letting that love grow into something that you do?
JL: Yeah, you know its strange, my dad was a big race fan and we used to go to Ascot Park every Saturday in Gardena. And I think that closed in 1990, it had – probably a lot of people don’t know, especially the younger generation – they had one of the best dirt tracks in the country right in Gardena so I’d go there and I just got hooked as a kid. I loved auto racing, I watched it on TV and went to the sprint cars every Saturday. My dad started racing quarter-midgets out and about in the Valley and it just kind of progressed from there. I got hooked up with the right people, won the right races at the right time and now I’m able to make a living out of it.
LBP: You mentioned Ascot, do you have to go far to hone your talent if you’re growing up here?
JL: Yeah you do, especially now-a-days, but you know I never actually raced there, but that’s where I got bit by the racing bug. You’ve got Irwindale Speedway, you’ve got Perris Speedway – which is a dirt track – so there’s a few venues around here but I got most of my notoriety in Indianapolis. My dad owned my cars up until I was about 18, then went to Indianapolis and raced for other people professionally. I raced on ESPN and ESPN2, so I had to move away from my Southern California roots into the Midwest to get noticed.
LBP: What are some of the best driving streets in Long Beach, because there aren’t many! I’ve been trying to find one…
JL: Yeah, haha, there aren’t many without a lot of traffic, I mean the one that comes to mind…
LBP: Or potholes!
JL: Yeah exactly! Well, potholes can be fun when you’re bouncing around through them but I guess you have to talk about Shoreline Drive, because it’s a famous street there in the Long Beach Grand Prix. A lot of history there, you know.
Southern California is such a big racing… it is but it isn’t. It’s such a big hot-rod area, you know, it’s where a lot of the racing back in the early days developed.
LBP: You mentioned the Grand Prix, did you always go to it as a kid?
JL: I went to it now and again but really didn’t go as much s you’d think. The older I got, I liked going to it because you get to see some racing and it’s quite the happening deal. It’s a great party and great racing – just a great atmosphere. I wasn’t a huge attendee but I enjoyed it. Seeing the Indy cars run around the street was pretty cool.
LBP: Did you get to see any cool races, or do any fond memories pop out?
JL: You know I just think it was cool to have the great drivers come to Long Beach and I think to see the race progress… I mean today it’s one of the most prestigious races in the United States. To think it’s held in the town of Long Beach, my hometown, is pretty cool.
LBP: You started out in midget racing and you’ve moved onto NASCAR now. Everyone knows that NASCAR stock cars are much faster and much more powerful, but it’s on a much bigger track, so which is the bigger rush? Because with midgets you’re sideways half of the time anyway.
JL: That’s a good question and we get asked that question a lot. You know, midgets are tiny cars, hence the name midget racing, with a lot of horsepower for their size. You’re sideways on dirt most of the time so that can be a lot of fun. They do wheelies and are just kind of outta control so I’d have to go with the midgets. But stock car racing is a lot of fun, it’s a challenge. The best racers in the country race in NASCAR, you know, the cream rises to the top so its very competitive. You’ve got to be on your game week in and week out. It’s hard to pick one or the other but the pure driving it takes to drive a little midget is a lot of fun.
LBP: And you had great success doing that, I read you were the first driver in 37 years to win three straight titles…
JL: Yeah, three straight national championships, which is cool. Midget racing is also cool because you don’t have radios and you don’t have any contact with your crew, so it’s just you and your machine. You’re just out there racing. Obviously in NASCAR, there’s so much strategy involved, the races are so long and you’ve got pit stops and everything. It’s just totally different.
LBP: How’d you get to be involved with Great Clips?
JL: I just got hooked up with Braun Racing and we were lucky enough to have Great Clips come on as a sponsor and obviously it’s really cool for us as a race team to have a nationally recognized company like Great Clips. They’re a big supporter of us and we wouldn’t have a whole lot of success without them. It’s a good partnership.
LBP: You also set a little bit of history as being the first person to bring a Toyota to victory. What was that like?
JL: That was really cool, man. I know there’s a lot of Toyota employees out here in Southern California and they’ve got a big presence here so it was cool to be able to win the first race for them in the Busch Series and the Nationwide series. For our little team at Braun Racing, we’re compared to some of the big names like Hendrick and Joe Gibbs – we’re a pretty small organization so to be able to bring them their first win was pretty cool.
LBP: A lot of people were skeptical as to whether Toyota would be able to compete with the Fords and the Chevys. Were you one of those guys in the beginning?
JL: No, because of their commitment. I’d seen it in IndyCar racing, and their commitment to winning is second to none. They provide us with all the tools we need to win, and more. They’re just a great partner for us. They’re in it for one reason and that’s to win races. The company is doing so well, they make such a great product so the finances are there for the race team. It’s great to be associated with them.
LBP: Are you a big open-wheel fan? Do you watch a lot of Indy and Champ?
JL: Oh yeah.
LBP: What do you think of the merger? It hasn’t been officially announced yet…
JL: I know it’s not official but I think it’s great, it’s nothing but positive. There’s gonna be people that are gonna come out on the short end of the stick but in the long run it’s what needed to happen. Its just about ten years too late but you know, better late than never.
LBP: Yeah man, let’s show a little love to the open-wheel racing.
JL: Yeah, I mean it’s obviously great for the Long Beach Grand Prix because you’re gonna have the best of the best, where in the last few years you’ve had some great drivers but the whole field hasn’t been there. So the city of Long Beach has gotta be pretty excited about that.
LBP: Talk about Fontana a little bit – what’s it like racing there compared to other places?
JL: Fontana’s a good track, it’s big and wide and there’s usually two or three groups of racing. It’s just so hot out there and the track is real sensitive to weather. When it’s hot it gets real slick and you don’t have a lot of grip, and our race starts kind of at dusk, so you have to start in the daylight and end at night. So you’ve really got to keep up with your racecar and make changes under each pit stop and get it handling the way you want. If you get behind, then at the end of the race your car wont be handling very well. We race about 120 laps, it’s 300 miles. So it’s a long race but it’s obviously fun to come to Southern California.
LBP: The California Speedway can be kind of a boring track for NASCAR just because its so big and wide, everyone’s spread out. Do you get that feeling?
JL: No, not driving. The track really doesn’t have a lot of grip, so inside the car you’re always working really hard, you’re always sliding and counter-steering and trying to find a different line to hook up. But yeah, since it’s wide there’s not a lot of accidents so it doesn’t lead to a lot of cautions. Therefore the race gets pretty strung out.
LBP: When you do get to come back, where are the first places you head?
JL: I actually spend a lot of time in Redondo, in the South Bay area. But you know what’s funny, just places to eat, I hit all the places that I can’t get in North Carolina like the local hamburger stands like Steve’s Burgers, here in Long Beach places like Paul’s or Volcano Burger. Of course In-N-Out. Southern California is a great atmosphere, the weather’s great, but maybe the best thing about it is the food. After traveling around the country, people don’t know how lucky they are to live here where you can be in the mountains in two hours, or the desert or go surfing… you know, whatever.
LBP: Or go see a race in the desert.
JL: Yeah, go see a race. It’s pretty awesome. We live in North Carolina, which is a great state but you lose a little bit of the amenities that you have here.
LBP: Well, congratulations on being honored here Smooth’s tonight and thanks a lot for coming by. Good luck on Saturday. You can catch Jason at the California Speedway on Saturday in Fontana.
JL: It’s the San Bernardino 300 in Fontana, starts at 4:00 on Saturday. It’s a double-header with the Craftsman Truck Series and Nationwide.
LBP: You used to race trucks, too, right?
JL: Yup, raced about everything. About everything there is. I’ve been real lucky.
LBP: He’ll be in the #38 Great Clips car, thanks so much for joining us Jason.
JL: Thanks for having me.
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A special surprise guest at Leffler’s honoring was American racing legend Parnelli Jones, who I caught up with (and am not ashamed to admit that the first thing I did was ask for a picture with the two-time Indy 500 winner).
Parnelli Jones with son Page (left) at Smooth’s on Wednesday night.
Jones was in attendance to honor Leffler, and had great things to say about his fellow SoCal native. The two got to know each other when Leffler spent time working on Page’s cars as a kid.
“His dad bought him a 3/4 midget,” Jones says. “We helped him as best we could. He was upside down a few times but developed some great car control.”
He was so determined to be a racecar driver that I don’t know what else he could’ve been.”
Jones then stepped up to the microphone to deliver a few words about his longtime friend and protege, before stepping aside for Leffler.
“Wow,” Leffler said. “It’s pretty neat when Parnelli Jones introduces you.”
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Smooth’s owner John Morris also said a few words about the man of the hour, and found time to announce that Leffler’s racing suit will be hung and joined by those of four other famous drivers along the restaurant’s staircase during a ceremony this Tuesday.
Among them are Parnelli Jones and Bobby Rahal, both winners of multiple Indy 500s. Looks like Jason’s got a lot to live up to.