I told Zippy, 'If you sell this car to Bob, I'm going to kick you ... .'

I needed a good driver for the midget team, but since I'm not able to go to all of the USAC races anymore, I did what a lot of the car owners in the Cup and Busch Series do, and that's pick up National Speed Sport News every week,

Hey, you've got to remember that I just drive. I get in the car and I drive. It's been literally that simple.

I'm not going to just stop doing it because I got hurt once. People get hurt in car wrecks every day, and they don't stop driving the car the rest of their life to work. It's my passion. It's what I want to do with my life. It's a part of what I do.

You get around people who see us away from the track, and it's a pretty big contrast. You're still competitive, and you still want to win everything, but I think in the car, we're focused and passionate all the time. We get outside the car, and we're a lot more relaxed and easygoing, enjoying things away from racing.

I guess I take a lot of pride in that no matter what type of car we drive, we're always competitive in it. That's something I've taken a lot of pride in my whole life.

The coolest thing is you have 160,000 fans that you can see all day long or all night long. I can remember (passing) Jeff Gordon for the lead and I could see the people cheering. The grandstands are right on top of you. When you get out of the car after practice or qualifying, you can see what the fans are eating and what they're drinking. You're that close.

Coming into the corners, you use a lot of brake, and it's hard to not only get the car stopped, but to get it to turn. Then you go through that challenge all over again.