Alex Laughlin understands his role within the cockpit can be at breakneck speed with little time to think, only the opportunity to react.

Outside of the car, some of his activities can be a little more tedious, like applying decals of a new sponsor or speaking to members of the United States Congress.

Laughlin was invited to Washington, DC., and July 25, 2018, addressed Congress on behalf of the Congressional Motorsports Caucus.

"It came about through my relationship with the Fitzgerald guys, one of my big sponsors this year," Laughlin explained. "We are basically just trying to educate Congress on motorsports. It was kind of a motorsports 101 basically, but I got to talk about the economics of it and how when, for example, NHRA comes to town, on average has 80,000 fans that roll through. Based on hotel rooms, food, it stimulates that local economy by about $20 to $25 million per stop.

"There’s definitely a huge influx of dollars spent in the areas that we travel through, and I know that they like seeing that. While there is a lot of money being paid, there is a lot of money being spent, and there’s a heck of a lot of tax dollars going in and out also. I got to talk about sponsorships and the days of somebody just writing you a check and just putting their name on the car, those days are few and far between – almost gone.

"These days everything is business-to-business. I got to explain some of the B-2-B relationships that I’ve worked on. I sat next to Walter Czarnecki. He is the VP for Penske Racing, Roger Penske’s partner and all of the truck leasing company. It was really cool because even when it was his turn to talk he referred back to a lot of the stuff that I had said. It was cool hearing somebody of his experience – he’s been in the industry for 50 plus years – to refer back to comments that I made that he agreed with me, especially on the sponsorship stuff."

The toughest aspect Laughlin admits was in taming his enthusiasm for drag racing, and instead delivering an even-keeled presentation about the sport he's passionate about.

"I didn’t have a long time to talk, so I did have to focus on key selling points, kind of hit the high spots," Laughlin said. "I wasn’t really nervous until a couple of minutes before I was actually supposed to start talking. Because really I went in there and didn’t have a complete plan of exactly what to talk about. I know this stuff like the back of my hand, and so it’s easier to talk about something that I have a ton of experience in and something that I’m passionate about. It worked out well in my opinion, and I don’t think it could have gone better."

And in the moment, Laughlin admits, talking about his race car became just as easy as driving it.