“Probably I’d want them to know the hurt of losing a teammate that’s been here for years. You lose a guy who comes in six months, you can move on. You lose a kid like Tony after eight years and I’ve moved on, but it hurts. He had to do what he did. But if you lose other kids on your team for reasons, that hurts too. I saw some of the kids who have left over the years recently. A couple of them are with Jerry Toliver. I go down there, shake their hands, and tell ‘em I miss them. That’s kind of a personal thing because they become like your children. You see them lose and you see them cry and you see them win. I’ve seen them have a girlfriend or a wife leave. I’ve seen them through the death of their loved ones, mom and dad, and I’ve seen them in pain and they become family to you. I’ve seen it all over the years and the hardest part is when they leave. I run around, try to see them all again. It’s probably one thing you don’t tell the media. Why? ”

“Everybody wants a big exciting jumping story, but the love you have for these kids is big. You give them a world champ ring when they win or you give them an extra week vacation, but you can never pay them for the dedication that they have. They helped me build this empire that my children will inherit. Kids like Eric Medlen, coming up. Jimmy Prock just signed for four years. We call him four-year-Jimmy. I’m so excited that he signed. I had two years left, but I asked for an extension when AAA signed for four years. I signed him. He had a lot of decisions to make with his family and being home for the winter. He’s got to spend time with us. We’ll evolve. It will all be a matter of time.

“I don’t know what serenity means. The only serenity is when you finish that interview in the final round, and you’re walking back or riding back with Coil and Coil says ‘ Well, we’ve got about 20 minutes to reflect‘. As soon as they give you that trophy, the gut ache starts again. You’ve got that 20 minutes at the end of the track and you don’t get much time.”

“I want to keep my health. I don’t want to push myself to extremes, but the heat of battle is serenity. The racecar is serenity. That’s my dream in life. That and my children being healthy. And that my daughter Ashley will grow to love the sport as much as me.

“My oldest daughter Adria, she runs my offices, finally got pregnant with my son-in-law Bobby. She’s excited and to watch these children is wonderful. She said, ‘You’re going to be a grandpa.’ I said---not after I cross that glue box. When I go in that glue box, I ain’t going to rip your hearts out.

“Yeah. Austin Coil taking me to Texas, Odessa and El Paso, to run in a sand storm. He said, ‘If you can get to the other end of this watch Jim Dunn. He can get to the other end. He’s a master on a loose track. I gotta teach you that, if you’re ever going to win.’ I went out there week after week and three-wheeling the motor and throttle-stopping the car to learn where the half-throttle was. On one run I peddled it and Coil said, ‘you never forget it.’ I still know it to this day. That’s why I can peddle them the way I do out there.”

“Austin Coil is my greatest teacher. I’m not putting down any sponsor. It ain’t what have I done for you. They don’t want to hear that. It’s what can you do, now. Get out. Go to work.

“I rolled over on the roof at Pomona in my early years with Coil, like 1988 and I was pinned in the car. Back then the first roof hatch---I invented the roof hatch, nobody knows that, when I had a fire years ago in Orange County and the roof melted. That next week we put a hatch in it and then we went to Pomona and the roof collapsed because it had no strength. But I was proud to see Jungle Jim try to make it a rule. Jungle Jim was out there sawing a hole in his roof. Then he just taped it back on. That’s how it was in the old days.”

“When I rolled the car over in Pomona I was trapped in the car, and I tried to kick out the side window. We used to not have side windows. We had the side windows and I couldn’t get out. I was terrified. Lord, get me out of here. This life has to be long. I’ve accomplished nothing and you’re going to let me die in here right now. The car was on fire. I kicked the windows out. That’s when we went to aluminum screws so you could get rid of the window. Every now and then some new kid puts steel screws in it and doesn’t realize if you get pinned against the wall, you can’t get out.

“On the roof in the sand, buried, side windows are the only way to go. When I came out of it, I said God you must have a plan. You set me on fire 20 times and rolled me end over end. I had done everything in a racecar you can do. Parts come out. Tires go flat. Wheels come off and go by me in the lights at Bakersfield. All that stuff I had done, but I never rolled over on my roof. I went end-o and when it went over I thought this is not good. And it landed and I walked out and I said, God you must have a plan for me. I realized there must be some bigger picture or you wouldn’t be picking on me this bad, right?---and I went on to win 12 championships.

“Nothing moves like real energy and I’ve got to admit there’s days I have to pump up on POWERade and get down that coffee. I have to calm down before I go to the starting line. Look at my leg jumping right now, cause I just got out of the car and I’m not afraid to get back in it. It’s the adrenaline. The heat of victory. Man, it’s just the sound of that car pounding. It’s kind of like when you see a beautiful girl walk by. You say, wow, the adrenaline comes up, the heart beats, or when you hear a song come on and the music is beating and the tempo gets higher and higher. The racecar has that same sound. Some guys, I don’t think they get it. I talk to them about their car and they’re not saying the right things. My car talks to me. And I love that. That tempo on the burnout. Then there’s that sound when it kicks the rods out. Oh, everything went quiet. You know what comes next, a big fire. Guys say, how do you know when you hit the fire bottles? Because it goes silent and you know all hell is going to break loose. Then the fire comes. The bottles hook me also.”

“I thought Castrol created a high-mileage logo for my racecars for older cars. I thought they directed that to me. The Castrol folks are great marketing people. I can’t lie to anybody, I don’t have the energy I had when I was 30, but can you tell the difference? I run all the time. I knocked 10 pounds off over the winter to get back down to my fighting weight. I really focused on it, because I believe it’s going to be the biggest battle of my career coming. There is so much competition. Toliver is coming back and Bazemore’s probably going to be right there too. Tony having his own deal and Gary Densham is ready for a championship.”

“It isn’t just me driving beyond others, it’s finding the money to make it possible. I’m good in the boardroom. I’m good with people, the old Vince Lombardi ethic. You’ve got to lead your people and make them a team. I manage to do that. I did it with one team. I did it with two and now I did it with three teams. That’s my ability and my ability just to get up for the fight. A lot of people drive a racecar with fear. Don’t get me wrong we all have fear in life, but you have to respect your car. I respect it. It’s kept me alive for so many years. Bottom line, when I go out there fear never comes into play. I don’t allow it. I’ve learned to control anything. A final round Big Bud Shootout in Indy. I’ve see guys sweating so bad they couldn’t interview. I just say it’s another day at the office. If it goes A to B and you do the Christmas tree, you’ll be fine.”

“I always compare it to when Garlits ran 200. Everyone tried to say, they’ll never run that fast again. The sky is the limit out here. The way I look at racing, every day is an adventure to me. Tony is on an adventure right now. Financially he may be struggling to put it together, but that’s the dream. It isn’t the destination. Follow that road and you meet all the people. I know there are doors closed behind me and there are doors that are going to open. I know that. That’s the way I look at life. Every day something new is going to happen. It’s going to dip into the four sixties. I’m going to be there when that happens. It’s going to run 335. I want to be a part of that. Probably too a big moment is the energy in my daughter’s eyes. She’s not going to come out and just kill the world. If she does God bless her. She’s going to learn the ups and the downs, the hurt, the pain. Being late on a red light and then being good. That’s what she’ll learn in time, as I learn every day of my life.”