Story and questions © by Dwight Drum
Photos © by Dwight Drum
Web work by Gary Larsen

Driver of the Safety Wins Ford
Cavalier Homes, Inc., CEI/DriverCare

"The sport has changed over the years, but it's still the same thing. Most race tracks still have four turns and two straight-aways and the smartest and the fastest normally win."

Jimmy Kitchens has a racing heart and a safety mind. That may seem like a paradox to some, but if the focus sharpens inside motorsports the safety factor grows. The high-speed traffic is what creates the thrill of NASCAR, but it's safety that keeps it stable. Kitchens is a dedicated racer who drives the Safety Wins car in the Busch series, but he also is a spokesman for a defensive driving course provided by a federal grant for people who drive on the job. The program is offered at NASCAR Busch series tracks for impressive effect, but mostly it's all about good sense behind the wheel. Jimmy Kitchens brings good sense and speed to the track because he understands the application of a fast mind.

Dwight asked Jimmy Kitchens:

"I would like to think not. I've had some successful times; however I haven't seen the success in the Busch series that I've seen in other series and other divisions. Being that Busch is the second most competitive series in the world, I would like to have my best moment to come in the Busch series hopefully."

"The fire is not the problem these days, it's the funds. I've been chasing this sport for a long time. I grew up around it. I had a lot of desire to understand how racecars work and what makes them go fast. In the beginning it was build your own car and go racing. Now it's try to drive what someone else has built and maybe you had a hand in it at least to help the guys get the car dialed in. It's a feeling of accomplishment when you get a car dialed in and you make a good qualifying lap or you have a good race. To answer your question I guess the competition is the answer where everybody gets the fire to want to race."

"My first year I raced I always thought the Winston Cup now the Nextel series and the Busch series were so far out of reach. Even as a kid I thought the local short track stuff was so far out of reach. As I got into it, I started seeing that I could be successful. When I was successful at one level I would move on to the next. I've got to the Busch series and maintained a presence there, but not as a successful competitor as I had wished to be."

What do you like best about stock car racing?

"I like the competition. I like the people in the sport. I've met some awesome people. The sport has changed over the years, but it's still the same thing. Most race tracks still have four turns and two straight-aways and the smartest and the fastest normally win."

"When I'm not at the track and when I'm not driving, it's the feeling of being able to race and driving a racecar. I miss just being around the atmosphere. The sound of the engines. It's a let down after you've been successful in other series to have to miss a week or two of racing. That's what I've been having to do and it's kind of tough, but I go and work for other teams when I'm not driving. I try to stay at the track as much as possible."

"I feel like everybody has got their niche in life. Some people it's to program computers, or fly fighter jets. Some people it's to play baseball or football and sadly enough some people go through life and never figure out what they want to do. I think the racer has a lot of determination and drive. I think the race has to have a lot of self-confidence. You have to be willing to take the risks that are involved, physically and financially and everything that's involved in becoming a successful racer."

"Believe it or not, I use the same strategy that a good athlete would use. Eat well. Get on a good work out program. Take good care of yourself physically and the mental end of that will come into play. That's the biggest strategy, and of course, you're equipment has got to be prepared properly. Make sure you've got a good crew. But number one now days, you've got to have a goods sponsor to get all that. So you have everything in place. You have a good team. You have a good sponsor. I would say most important strategy is to be healthy enough so at the end of three or five hundred mile race, you could out-think the other guy or physically you were in better shape. That's a good strategy. As they say to finish first, you must first finish. You can't win the race on the first lap. Strategies change throughout the race. Different strategies play. If I was going to advise anybody on a strategy, I say the first thing you've got to do is get yourself healthy and get your mind working properly and have a good home life, a good background of cars and racing. That would be a good strategy to look at."

"I think they don't realize that their vehicle could be a weapon. It's as dangerous as a weapon. I don't think they realize it's dangerous. Until they see or they are involved in an accident on the highway, they don't realize how important it is to pay attention. So many accidents are caused by drivers not paying attention, talking on a cell phone, eating while they are going down the road, listening to the stereo. So many distractions. We go through our Safety Wins course and we talk about distractions and concentration levels and accidents. They are caused by that. I think as a racer you realize what can happen in an automobile, whether you're on a super speedway, a short track or on Interstate 77 or a country road. So therefore you think the difference between a racer and a person who just drives every day. I think the racer realizes the dangers a lot more and how quick things can go from having good day to things going bad, just because of the lack of concentration."

"Win, lose or draw, I'd say everybody wants to be a winner, but it's not necessarily what I did, but it's how I did it. At the end of the day or the end of my career I'd want everybody to say that I was a hard worker, that I was determined. I raced the guys clean. Somebody you could race with without them crashing or causing problems. I want to be remembered as a good racer who came up the hard way and tried hard and did everything he could to make it."

"Not having the equipment to race with. The fear of driving a racecar is not having the equipment you need to perform with. I did have a wreck early in my career. I was upside down and that was probably the worst I've had."

"The attention level and I think racecar drivers concentrate more on their surroundings and being able to drive defensively by reading other vehicles and other drivers and not taking anything for granted. We don't take anything for granted on the racetrack and same on the highway. Don't trust anybody you're driving around. "

"Anytime you're with family in a good environment that's peaceful. After a big meal at my mothers house in Alabama in a recliner-that's as good as it gets."

"Again, the things that most people do are not paying attention and distractions. I try to relate to them what racecar drivers do. Like we have a NASCAR driver's meeting two hours before each race. It's basically a safety meeting, and it's just reminders of everything that we're doing throughout the day. It's not necessarily the exact same things, but it's just good reminders."

"People get up and drive to work every day, they don't have somebody reminding them to turn your cell phone off till you get to the office. Turn your stereo down so you can hear traffic. I stress the distractions and paying attention to what you are doing. Road condition and the mechanical condition of your car are important, but the most important is distractions. There are many distractions like drive in windows or food and cell phones ringing. Next thing you know you are.

"A driver now has many titles. A fortunate driver has to have a sponsor and he has to be a company representative first. He has to be a sales person and that has to come first and foremost, because without the corporate dollar, you're not going to go first. You're not going to have the good car or the good people to work with you. A racecar driver has to be a good spokesman and a good representative for a company. He has to be able to understand the mechanics of the racecar and be able to communicate well with the crew as for their needs in making the car better. He also has to help others ands work with NASCAR on various issues that come up from time to time on better racing, safer racing, and rules changes. So you have to be a diplomat."

"I feel like the sport has changed over the years because of the corporate dollars. It's made the sport better in a lot of ways, but in other ways it's taking a lot of the grass roots away from the sport. The focus is on younger drivers a lot now. It kind of hurts guys who have gotten the sport where it's at or have put their life into it, but haven't gotten success yet."

"The day of paying your dues to make into Nextel Cup racing are pretty well history. It's a matter now of getting your sponsorships together. If you can bring a sponsor, now, the cars are so good. There are so many engineers. If you can bring a sponsor now they can make a driver out of you.

"I don't want to be remembered as that. I want to be hired off my abilities to drive racecars. It's really hard now days to be hired off their abilities unless they've had the opportunity to get into good equipment.

"I'd like to be able to do like Neil Bonnet did. I'm not saying I'm the caliber of driver that Neil was, but he came up with absolutely nothing sand made it successful in Winston Cup racing.