Patrick Dempsey Talks Racing Vs. Grey’s Anatomy

Patrick Dempsey came out of a career slump to rally on Grey’s Anatomy, but now the star is interested in a totally different sort of rally — the racing sort.

As Patrick Dempsey readies to film his 200th episode of the still popular medical drama, he also premieres a new documentary about another love, motorsport.

Dempsey’s four-part documentary series on Velocity, Patrick Dempsey: Racing Le Mans, debuted last night, and the actor turned driver spoke a bit about his experiences behind the wheel versus in front of the camera.

Touching on racing, Le Mans, spending time in France, and Sandra Oh’s recent departure from the 10-year-old show, Dempsey described a project that he seems quite passionate about.

Of his stay abroad, Patrick enthuses:

“There’s a great tradition when you go to Le Mans that you rent a chateau that’s close to the track. It’s been that sort of tradition since the ’20s with the Bentley Boys. We were basically 10 minutes from the racetrack in this beautiful chateau. It was timeless. And it was such a fun place. We had film crews around, and we had time to kill sometimes. It was like having a mini-film camp; stuff came out of that. It was a blast.”

If it sounds like he’s taking it seriously, you heard right — Dempsey also told BuzzFeed:

“[Racing has] become a full-time business at this point. At the level we’re racing at, we’re constantly searching for sponsorship and the right partners.”

The star says of Le Mans that he’d “love to go back and race” if given the opportunity again, but he isn’t as emphatic about his nighttime soap future, adding:

“You know what? I don’t know at this point. I’m waiting for them to present something, and we’ll see what happens from there.”

Above is a clip of Patrick Dempsey to introduce the project.