Drawn To Racing

Friday, Dec. 7, 2001 | 4:19 a.m.

As the Sun's award-winning editorial cartoonist for the past 18 years, Mike Smith is accustomed to poring over newspapers and magazines for his inspiration.

For the past three years, however, Smith has turned to an unlikely source for material for a weekly cartoon he inks for the Sun: the tracks and garages of the NASCAR Winston Cup stock-car racing circuit.

Smith's "StockcarToons" runs each Friday on the motor sports page and has become one of the more popular features in the Sun's sports section. His cartoons are carried in dozens of papers across the country, including the Washington Times, Atlanta Constitution, Detroit News and Portland Oregonian.

Sports Publishing LLC of Champaign, Ill., recently contracted with Smith to publish a book of some of his more memorable cartoons from the past three years. The result is "StockcarToons -- Grins and Spins on the Winston Cup Circuit." The 163-page book is available in local bookstores, on Amazon.com and by calling (877) 424-BOOK.

The Sun recently sat down with Smith to talk about his latest cartooning venture:

Las Vegas Sun: How did the idea of doing a weekly cartoon about NASCAR come about?

Mike Smith: It really started when I did the Richard Petty Driving Experience at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Afterward I think I had an endorphin rush for three or four days and I kept saying things to my wife like, "I was born to drive." I started thinking maybe I should have been driving a car instead of drawing these cartoons, and I thought it was too bad there's not some way I can combine the two. Around the time the first Winston Cup race was coming here in March of 1998, I decided to draw up a handful of cartoons and we put them on the Sun's website and they got a pretty good amount of reaction. I took those cartoons and sent them to my syndicate, United Features Syndicate, which was actually my wife's suggestion.

Sun: What has been the reaction to the cartoon from NASCAR fans?

MS: From viewers of the website and from readers of the paper, we get more reaction on the NASCAR cartoon than we probably do on the editorial cartoons. That's partially because NASCAR fans are so dedicated and interested in anything involving their sport. NASCAR fans really follow every little detail of the sport, so it only seems natural that they would be into something that is making fun of some of the things that they feel strongly about.

Sun: In some of your cartoons, you lambaste some of the icons of the sport. Do you ever get negative reaction from hostile fans when you take on "their" driver?

MS: That's the funny thing about it. You can do any kind of cartoon on Dale Earnhardt -- whether it's something praising him or something that's ribbing him -- and Dale Earnhardt fans will really like it. Jeff Gordon is a different story. If you do a cartoon giving Jeff Gordon a hard time, then you're going to hear from Jeff Gordon fans and they're going to say things like, "Hey, Mike, how many championships have you won?" Most of the fans really understand that this is a cartoon that sometimes is poking fun at the drivers and they get a kick out of it. Some people even send in e-mails and say, "Hey, when are you going to do something on my driver?"

Sun: I notice you have taken on Mike Helton, the NASCAR president, in a few cartoons.

MS: Especially with the Earnhardt investigation and initially all of the criticism regarding how that was handled, that certainly was a lot of fodder for cartoons. And Mike Helton is fun to draw; he's just a great person to caricature.

Sun: Are there any topics that are taboo?

MS: No, I don't really approach it that way. As a cartoonist, you want to try to avoid practicing any kind of self-censorship because that's just going to limit your creativity. If there is any judgment call to be made, it's really better left up to the editors.

Sun: How does drawing a NASCAR cartoon differ from drawing something for the editorial page?

MS: When you're doing the editorial cartoon, you're really criticizing a person in a position of power and really going after their philosophies or their programs or things that they have said. There is a lot more of a political point of view that's involved with formulating an opinion in a cartoon on politics.

With the NASCAR cartoons, this is really a cartoon that's drawn from a fan's perspective because I'm a fan, I really enjoy the sport, and I have a lot of the same feelings and the same opinions about the sport that average fans have, so I think it really reflects their opinions. It can take some shots at the sport, but the NASCAR cartoons probably aren't as harsh as the political cartoons can be.

Sun: The editorial cartoons are your job. Is the NASCAR cartoon more of a hobby than a job?

MS: Actually, this whole job is kind of a hobby that turned into a job, really. I get teased all the time, "Is that all you do, Smith, sit around all day and play with your crayons?" Actually, the drawing part of it is a very small part of the job. It's the reading and the research and the keeping up with the events and the thinking that takes all the time.

You really have to be up on everything that's going on and then sit there and look at that blank piece of paper until something comes into your mind.