Cassill, Gase have fun with Periscope app

KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Cedar Rapids natives Landon Cassill and Joey Gase were both in action at Kansas Speedway this weekend, racing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series SpongeBob SquarePants 400.

The two Iowans took some time after the driver's meeting on Saturday to take part in a Q&A session for the app Periscope, and answered questions from fans all over the country.

They touched on a variety of topics, including venturing off asphalt and into the dirt — a surface Gase has never raced on and one on which it's been nearly a decade for Cassill. When asked his favorite dirt track, it didn't take Cassill long to find his answer.

'My favorite dirt track? … I don't know. I just love going to Vinton,' Cassill said. 'It's not anything fancy, like high-banked or big or fast or anything, but it's probably the track I ran dirt the most when I'd most recently run my Modified. I used to live in Vinton when I was really a lot younger, so I've got a lot of friends there.

'I am O.G. Vinton. I used to go there when I was a kid and root for Arlo Becker, so I'm definitely O.G. Vinton and probably going to stick to my roots there.'

Gase quickly agreed with Cassill.

'I would have to say the same one,' Gase said. 'I've never raced on dirt, but I watched a lot of it, and I would say Vinton.'

Gase has done more than his fair share of interviews in the week since his fifth-place finish at Talladega Superspeedway, and lots of attention and congratulations from his peers. Just after the driver's meeting Saturday and before the Q&A on Periscope, Gase was stopped by Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the garage area to extend the thoughts he had on Twitter and chat about the run last weekend and the race in Kansas.

Last week at Talladega was also highlighted for Gase by a television segment that introduced NASCAR fans who didn't know to the circumstances around his mom's death and organ donation. With Mother's Day on Sunday, a fan asked Gase about how he'd honor his mom.

'In Iowa, we'll be honoring her on the hood again,' Gase said. 'Fox Sports did something awesome for us last week in Talladega and did a big special on my mom, so that was really big for us.'

Cassill was asked, too, about the bicycle with which he trains and competes in triathlons. He and his dad, Roger, competed in a sprint triathlon in St. Louis on Saturday morning — Cassill finished third overall, his dad fifth — before coming back to Kansas City, Kan. for the Cup race.

He was asked what bike he used and how he manages doing a triathlon and driving a 400-mile race on the same day.

'I ride a Cervelo P5. (And) I don't know, I train a lot, so I kind of recover quickly,' Cassill said. 'I ate a big meal, some healthy food. I don't know, I feel great. The triathlon went really well this morning.'

In the most lighthearted and fun part of the Q&A came when Cassill was asked by a fan about his run-ins with Danica Patrick in the past.

Cassill gave a hearty laugh when the question — 'why are you such an ass to Danica?' was presented to him at the end of the Q&A.

'I'm not an ass to Danica. She races hard though, so we race her hard back,' Cassill said, prompting laughter from him and Gase, standing next to him. 'She gets into these tiffs with a different driver every week and sometimes I'm that guy. I don't know. She's mean; she's hard to pass. You know, she's fast. It's hard to pass her, sometimes you've got to put the bumper to her.'

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