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There's always a chance that I might not walk away from a racetrack. I don't ever want to think about that, but I'm prepared if something happens. I hope that nothing ever does. That's definitely a risk. My wife understands that. I'm definitely at peace with what God wants me to do. I have a lot of faith in that.
It is not easy to be the best. You must have the courage to bear pain, disappointment, and heartbreak. You must learn how to face danger and understand fear, yet not be afraid. You establish your goal, and no matter what deters you along the way, in your every waking moment you must say to yourself, "I could do it."
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.
It's a competitive business and obviously a lot of money is involved in the sport and the regulators sometimes have difficult decisions to make, but hopefully for the benefit of Formula 1 and all the fans across the world, we can move forwards into 2008 with all the focus on the race track rather than in the courtroom.
We go through the whole season working on next season's car and developing the car and making sure we fit in the car and all that sort of stuff. And we obviously give ideas of what we would hope next year's car would have even if it's small things like buttons on the steering wheel and different positions and whatever.
I’m really proud of my team. They have given me great cars all year long. Today, we finally got to show what kind of cars they have been giving me. We were up front, leading laps and showing how good this No. 22 Ford is. Once again today, my team showed they have my back and that will only make us better going forward.
The makeup of the drivers has changed a lot with so many young drivers coming and a lot of the legends moving on. Compared to when I started, it's gone through a lot of changes. The cars have changed a lot and the approach to racing. There are a lot more employees. It's become a much bigger business and more corporate.
I built my team with Dale in mind. He lives with me. He's part of who I am because I just appreciated who he was and how he went about things. People worked on his cars at Dale Earnhardt Incorporated before I got there. When Dale would walk by you could just tell people were thinking, 'these are Dale Earnhardt's cars.'
Hendrick definitely realises that we're young and trying to learn - and wrecking cars is part of how you learn. Jeff Gordon went through 20 something clips in his first season, but Rick Hendrick realised he had to take a chance on Jeff Gordon. They wrecked a lot of cars, but Jeff Gordon has given him four championships.
Exxon have done a very good job for us. Their difficulty and frustration has also been that as a customer we get very limited dyno time. But they were able to come up with a fuel that made the C-spec work, and we've managed to get that in the car and run that successfully, when the works team haven't been able to do that.
Being involved in NASCAR, I've learned a lot. I've met a lot of people. I've met a lot of special people. I've met some of our leaders. I've met some of the smartest people out there. I've met a lot of average folks. But they've all touched my life and made me look at things differently. I thank the Lord for my good days.
When you have turnover, somebody not work out, they'd leave, it really affects a young organization because you don't have your process down pat. You got people coming and going who are affecting your direction. It's just really hard to start from scratch and quickly put your direction in place and be able to stick to it.
There were a lot of races I was going to win at Milwaukee, but I had mechanical problems or something would happen, ... In the early years, it just took a long time for me to win a race. I got in somebody's oil one time and got in the wall, had a clutch go out once. . . so when I finally won one, it was a long time coming.
To understand the intensity of driving an F1 car, you have to be in it. When you're driving a 750hp machine at 200mph, the noise and the vibrations are incredible. The G-force when you take big corners is like someone trying to rip your head off. You hit the brakes, and it feels as if the skin is being pulled off your body.
To understand the intensity of driving an F1 car, you have to be in it. When you're driving a 750hp machine at 320km/h, the noise and the vibrations are incredible. The G-force when you take big corners is like someone trying to rip your head off. You hit the brakes, and it feels as if the skin is being pulled off your body.
And Dale Jr., Dale's son, and Dale and I all raced to the checkered - were racing toward the checkered, which would have been the greatest race in NASCAR history, I'm convinced of it, had we have made it that last quarter of a mile. But instead it became the worst race in NASCAR history when Dale crashed and died on turn four.
The one feeling that settled in and stayed there for a long while, and I still deal with, is guilt. I was there. I was a part of it. Why does it have to be like this? Was I responsible? Was I the reason Dale was in that position? I'd ask myself that question and look around at people and wonder if they were thinking that, too.
Long practise in driving a racing car at a hundred miles an hour or so gives first-class training in control and judging distances at high speed and helps tremendously in getting motor sense, which is rather the feel of your engine than the sound of it, a thing you get through your bones and nerves rather than simply your ears.
We've got some very strong and robust ladies, but, when your life is at risk, I think the strain of that in a competitive situation will tell when you're trying to win. The mental stress I think would be pretty difficult for a lady to deal with in a practical fashion. I just don't think they have aptitude to win a Formula 1 race.
I go into it with the attitude that I'm not going to look at my leg, and as soon as they get the wrapping off of it, I'm like, 'I've got to look.' It's like yelling at a dog going, 'Squirrel!' I cannot not look. And then I spend the rest of the time sitting there with a wet washcloth on my forehead trying to regain consciousness.
Motor Racing Outreach is great. They provide a chapel service every Sunday for drivers, wives, crew members, and others in the NASCAR industry so that we can gather and celebrate our faith. It's important to me to have this time before the race on Sundays. They also provide other services such as at-track childcare and counseling.
We lost three very young, very talented drivers in a really short time and that had a lot of influence, too. Certainly Dale's death was a huge smack in the face to everybody, but all those deaths in such a short period of time was awful. It forced people to look at it and say, 'Hey, this isn't a coincidence. There's something going on'.
You've got different governments and manufacturers saying, 'Oh, we'll be electric and autonomous by 2030 or whatever.' In my view Formula One is at a crossroads. What is its purpose? We have Formula E, and a lot of manufacturers are morphing into that area. But the emotion, the entertainment, the excitement of those cars just isn't there.
I don't think any of us knew the dangers of repeated concussions or the fact that even when you got a concussion, the idea to go get treatment for it never entered our minds. We just didn't have - we weren't educated enough. We were really ignorant to it. I would get concussions in my early 20s racing, and it was a bit of a badge of honor.
The competition is a big part of it [racing] - the passion you have for the sport and the knowledge you have. You're not just going to wake up one day and say, " think I'll do something different." This is what I've done my whole life. My competitive nature and my passion for the sport, those are the things that keep you wanting to do better.
When you drive a car, either you manage it and feel it with the grip of the car, or, like me, you fix it on visual speed. If you do it through the grip, you lose it very quickly - because when the track changes, you can have scares. I do it visually, so if I am going too fast I fight to get the car back, but I do not do it by feeling the grip.
I can't blame the drivers for making the move, and I can't blame the owners for being upset. Keep in mind, this ain't like the real world where you work somewhere and you can stay 40 years. Being able to see where you are going just a few years ahead is a pretty cool deal, and it doesn't happen too often in any sport, much less stock car racing.
I've been waiting to get back in the Miller Lite Ford since Homestead. The team at the shop have put a lot of effort into building me a fast Ford Fusion for Speedweeks. Being in the Unlimited gives us a chance to see what we've got to work with for the Daytona 500. I think both myself and Joey in the No. 22 will be fast down here. I'm ready to go.
Dale was just trying to get third. Maybe he was thinking that he could get a run on everyone coming out of Turn 4. But the race was over. Junior and I had pulled away, so there was no need to block. That always hurt me when people said he was blocking for me, because it almost felt like it was my fault that he died. But I don't think that anymore.
I don't mind at all being approached when I'm 10 or more feet away from the car. If I'm anywhere away from the car, I'm fine. That's completely expected. But when I'm next to the car or within 10 feet of it, I'm thinking about that or working in that direction. And that's just something I'd rather be able to work on than be interrupted, really, by anybody.
I mean, I've always felt like a lot of people's misconceptions of me have to do with how I grew up. I grew up poor, and I grew up rich. I think some people who have never met me have a misconception that when I was living with my father when he was successful, that I was somehow adversely affected by his success or the money he had and was making at the time.
Our racing simulator is more about gathering data about the car, trying different setups, and trying to find speed in the actual racecar as opposed to speed in the actual driver. There's no other way to get that kind of testing in, without doing the actual event, or getting outside and spending the money to make it happen. And it costs a lot to go to the racetrack.
Ty and I are extremely competitive. We don't go soft on each other. We push each other, which ultimately helps us both. We race against each other in everything we do, whether it's a foot race to the car when we go out to a restaurant at night or on the racetrack. It's in the back of my mind that he's on the track with me, but we're both competitive and want to win.
I believe that if you think about disaster, you will get it. Brood about death and you will hasten your demise. Think positively and masterfully with confidence and faith, and life becomes more secure, more fraught with action, richer in achievement and experience. This is the sure way to win victories over inner defeat. It is the way a humble person meets life or death.
I got on a plane. I remember when I got on the plane, the talk was, you know, they're checking Dale out, that it's more than what it looked like, but I still didn't think it would be anything more than maybe some injuries. Then I landed at home and my phone just lit up. I started getting those messages. I mean, I was blown away. I couldn't believe it. I was just in shock.
There are certain times when you can maybe intimidate certain people to force them to make a mistake. There are other people you know that you've got to make a clean pass. I try to make clean passes. That's something that I've been doing since I was 7 years old and that's the way I like to do it. It doesn't mean I always do it that way, but that's the way I prefer to do it.
I really don't (stay calm) all the time. I just try to. Part of not just racing but in life, I try not to let the highs be too high and the lows be too low. I try to stay somewhere right in the middle. In racing it's not always easy to do. You can get too excited or overconfident when things are going good and it's easy to get too far in the ditch when things are going bad.
The experienced fighting pilot does not take unnecessary risks. His business in to shoot down enemy planes, not to get shot down. His trained hand and eye and judgment are as much a part of his armament as his machinegun, and a fiftyfifty chance is the worst he will take or should take except where the show is of the kind that . . . justifies the sacrifice of plane or pilot.
You know, when Arnold Palmer came on TV with an old tractor and told me to buy Pennzoil, I bought that, and when Dale Jarrett advertises UPS, I can go along with that, too. But I don't think having an 18-year-old, somebody who's probably gotten five packages in his life and they were all 'Girls Gone Wild' videos, tell me what delivery service I should use would have much effect on me.
I never was a cheerleader. I'm an athlete. I'm probably not coordinated enough to be a cheerleader but that doesn't matter. I've always wanted to compete. And if I compete, I want to win. I was born competitive and that's in my blood. Whatever car I'm in, whatever series I'm running, whatever track I'm racing I want to be a factor. I want people to know that Shawna Robinson was there.
Tony Stewart -- Broke out a new chassis at Pocono Raceway last June and raced to the checkered flag for his first victory of 2003; has finished among the top 10 in all but two of his 10 career starts here; Turn one is probably the easiest of the three, but you've got the challenge of having to downshift in the middle of the corner, .. You go down the backstretch and into the tunnel turn and it's basically one lane.
If a thing is old, it is a sign that it was fit to live. Old families, old customs, old styles survive because they are fit to survive. The guarantee of continuity is quality. Submerge the good in a flood of the new, and good will come back to join the good which the new brings with it. Old-fashioned hospitality, old-fashioned politeness, old-fashioned honor in business had qualities of survival. These will come back.
It was a battle all day with our M&M's Camry. I don't know why, we just didn't have what we needed. We never seemed to have the ticket we needed today. We got better all day, which was a positive and salvaged something out of nothing -- so all things considering it was okay. It's so late in the year, you're just running laps now and getting what you can get and seeing if you can win next weekend at Homestead to finish the year.
Major Richard Bong was an example of the tragic and terrible price we must pay to maintain principles of human rights, of greater value than life itself. This gallant Air Force hero will be remembered because he made his final contribution to aviation in the dangerous role of test pilot of an untried experimental plane, a deed that places him among the stout-hearted pioneers who gave their lives in the conquest of sky and space.
Daytona is a restrictor-plate race and, unlike Daytona, guys can't get in a line at Phoenix and go to the front. Daytona and Talladega (Ala.) have always just been two different forms of racing. With the draft being so important at those two tracks, it's more of a team deal than an individual deal. What happens at Phoenix and the races after that has to be done on your own. You can't help each other at Phoenix. You just have to go race.
It's been a long four years for Junior Nation. I am happy for his fans and NASCAR. Now, let's celebrate this win and help our sport grow. I have thought that ever since we took all our eyes and undivided attention off of Dale Jr. and gave him some breathing room, he was able to be more himself and relax a bit. Some of that pressure left him. Today we just saw the 'Old Dale Jr.,' the one we've been looking for, for a long time. He is back.
Our sport is in a changing of the guard right now. It happens every 10 or 15 years, and Brad is the leader of that change at the moment. Sometimes his words and outspokenness offend some folks, but he doesn’t back down from his comments. He doesn’t back down in his driving either, and when competitors see him coming in the rearview mirror, they have to be wondering what he’ll do and what he’s thinking. I think fans love that and gravitate to drivers like Brad.
I'm way too old to change sports now. Sportsmen start so young - some of the ski jumpers we were talking to, they were jumping those giant ramps at nine years old. It's definitely something they've dedicated their entire lives to, and that's why they're so good at it. I started racing when I was 11, so there are a lot of similarities there. They grow up as a kid, find something they are passionate about, and they continue to work at it to try to be the best they can be.
I was taught that everything is attainable if you are prepared to give up, to sacrifice, to get it. Whatever you want to do, you can do it, if you want it badly enough, and I do believe that. I believe that if I wanted to run a mile is four minutes I could do it. I would have to give up everything else in my life, but I could run a mile in four minutes. I believe that if a man wanted to walk on water and was prepared to give up everything else in life, he could do that.
There's definitely a sense of responsibility and it's something I take very seriously. It's an honor. There's pressure, but that's a good thing and something I feel very fortunate to have. I take great responsibility for it. Not every number gives you pressure. This number, the No. 3, means so much. It pushes me to be better, to go to the gym, to talk to my crew chief Gil Martin, and to be with the guys on the team every day. The number pushes me and that's a good thing.