Talk about some fancy footwork. On the plane to Dover, Del., for last week's Craftsman Truck Series event, rookie NASCAR driver Scott Speed took time out for a pedicure -- complete with toenails painted blue to match his Red Bull-backed vehicle. Riding to the 1-mile racetrack, he told crew chief Doug Wolcott that his feet felt so good, he'd probably have better throttle control.

"You've obviously never experienced the joy of having someone take care of your feet," said Speed, a former Formula One driver who still maintains some European tastes. "It was quite amazing, actually. My feet were very, very soft, very beautiful actually, by my standards. Don't knock it until you've tried it."

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And don't knock Speed, the sometimes flaky, always entertaining, and definitely promising Red Bull developmental driver who scored his first NASCAR victory last weekend, winning at Dover International Speedway in just his sixth career truck start. He celebrated in true Speed fashion, striking "the thinker" pose after taking the checkered flag, wearing his hat sideways in Victory Lane, and walking into the post-race interview room with his firesuit unzipped down to his waist.

"Mic check, mic check, one-two, one-two," he said immediately upon picking up the microphone at the interview table. The 24-year-old from Manteca, Calif., is a live wire who's soaking up every bit of his NASCAR experience, and why not? This time last year he was a struggling driver for a struggling F1 team, and only months away from being released from his contract. With the backing of Red Bull -- which conducted the driver search that helped him land his F1 ride, and also sponsored his car in that series -- he returned to the United States and embarked upon a slate of ARCA and Truck races, with an eye toward one day reaching Sprint Cup.

Unlike more high-profile open-wheel expatriates who have essentially jumped right into stock-car racing's highest level, Speed is being brought along gradually. The results thus far have shown potential -- a seventh-place result in his ARCA debut last year for Eddie Sharp Racing, a top-10 at Martinsville in just his second truck race, an ARCA victory at Kansas in April, and then last Friday's two-tire pit stop that propelled him to victory in a Bill Davis Racing truck at Dover. This weekend brings double duty, with a truck race Friday at Texas preceding an ARCA event at Pocono on Saturday.

"Certainly we had high expectations for him, and he's exceeding them," said Red Bull general manager Jay Frye. "He's ahead of the curve. He's a great kid. He's a sponge, he really wants to listen. He's very determined, very motivated. He's got it."

Oh, he's got it, all right -- talent, a zinging sense of humor, sometimes interesting fashion sense and an unshakable belief in himself. He's leapt out of the boiler room of F1 and into a developmental NASCAR ride, backed by an energy drink juggernaut with plenty of money to spend. Pressure? What pressure? "I'm certainly looking forward to continuing on and of course looking forward to my first Cup race, but I'm not in any rush," Speed said. "I'm having the time of my life just coming over here and trying to learn this sport. It's awesome."

He might not use that term to describe some other chapters in his racing background. A karting sensation whose career was launched when he won Red Bull's F1 American driver search, Speed went to Europe and won titles in two formula ladder series despite battling serious digestive ailments. Red Bull named him a test driver for its F1 team in 2005, and one year later he was piloting the real thing as part of Scudeira Toro Rosso, a second organization fielded by the energy drink company.

But Speed's F1 career was marked by crashes, controversies -- including an altercation with current Red Bull driver David Coulthard -- and mediocre results. He was released from his contract in July of last year with a career-best finish of ninth, and never having recorded a championship point. After that, it's no wonder he's relishing his time thus far in NASCAR.

"Honestly, I really think it comes down to I have nothing to prove," he said. "I've done what I set out since I was a kid to do. I've raced in Formula One. I've achieved one of the biggest goals of my life. This for me is a huge goal. It's a personal goal. It's something I challenge myself and have the ability to do. But if things go wrong or I don't make it successfully here, it's not going to kill me, you know? I won't be devastated. I'm giving it an honest effort and an honest shot, and I have amazing backing from Red Bull. Everybody making decisions on what I've done since I've come over from Europe, racing in ARCA, racing the truck, every decision we've made has been very calculated and it's been right. For me, it's just an amazing opportunity."

His biggest challenge thus far in NASCAR is relaying what the truck needs to Wolcott and the crew, something he believes he's improving on every week. Frye can see it. "When you sit there and talk to him, he's as good as they get. He's a smart kid," the GM said. "He really understands racing and he wants to learn more. He wants to be good at it. He has all the qualities you look for in a driver. The painted toenails, that's a whole another thing. That's his choice. I wouldn't do it, but if he's happy, that's fine."

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I think everyone really hypes up the difficulty of our job, to be honest. At the end of the day, there's two corners. The car moves slow. It literally takes me an average of 10 laps to figure out a track. It's not that hard.

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SCOTT SPEED

Yes, those painted toenails certainly stand out in a Truck Series that's traditionally been a tough circuit populated by even tougher men. Ron Hornaday, the truck series' three-time champion, won't be painting his toenails any color anytime soon. But Speed's choice of polish doesn't affect his opinion. "He is a winner on the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series," Hornaday said, "so he's going to fit in really well."

Another three-time truck champ, Jack Sprague, agreed. "He obviously can drive a racecar," Sprague said. "There's not a question in my mind, blue toenails or not."

Even Sprint Cup points leader Kyle Busch took notice. "That was pretty cool," he said of Speed's first victory. Of course, that was until he learned that the ex-F1 driver intimated that NASCAR isn't as difficult as it seems.

"I think everyone really hypes up the difficulty of our job, to be honest," Speed said. "At the end of the day, there's two corners. The car moves slow. It literally takes me an average of 10 laps to figure out a track. It's not that hard. The hard part of this sport is learning what the car wants and how to give it. You're not going to go around that track fast unless your car is set up right. The best guys are the guys who know what their car wants in the race, who have the experience to know what the car should feel like in practice and for the race. Honestly, it's really not that difficult to drive around any of these places so far."

To that, Busch -- who'll be able to make such comparisons himself after he takes a spin in a Toyota F1 car in Japan toward the end of the year -- could only shake his head and smile.

"He's got a rude awakening when he gets going a little bit further," he said. "Just because he won in his [sixth] start doesn't mean that it comes all that often. People around the sport go years without winning. Sometimes they go 50, 80, however many races between wins. It's a hard sport. He's probably pretty gratified that he won, and yet he probably doesn't know when his next one is going to come. We'll see. It's not as easy as it looks here, that's for sure. You've got 43 of the best competitors in the whole world racing together, and it's obviously hard for a lot of them to make two corners and figure out two different corners in a racetrack. But hopefully I can have some fun and see a little of what he experienced over there."

Speed seems to realize the difficulty level will increase as he progresses. Wait until you get in one of those new Sprint Cup cars, somebody told him. "Yeah, you know it," he said. "Those look a little bit more difficult."

And when exactly will that be? Right now, Frye said, there's no timeline. But there's a distinct possibility that Speed take his first twirl in a Sprint Cup car before the current season is complete.

"At the end of the year when you've got extra inventory, who knows," Frye said. "We're capable of it. We have a test team. But the main thing right now is to make sure our two Cup cars are getting better, and they are. Toward the end of the year, if we had the opportunity to do that, we'd think about it."

Not that Speed is in any hurry. He seems perfectly content doing what he's doing now -- tossing off one-liners, occasionally wearing giant-sized sunglasses, whipping all comers in Guitar Hero and contending for race wins without anyone looking over his shoulder.

"What I am most happy about over here is, I have stability in my life," he said. "When I was over in Europe racing Formula One from year to year, I did not know what was going to happen in my life. I did not have a steady paycheck coming in. It was like, all right, today I'm a Formula One driver, but I can tell you that doesn't pay very well. There was no stability. Right now, I have stability. I know that for the next few years, I will be doing this, and it's not going to go away. I have the full support of Red Bull, and I can relax. I can finally sort of relax. I know I'm going to be OK for the rest of my life."