There is nothing that amazes me more than some questions race fans ask. Now that I am no longer a driver, I guess I think about what people have on their minds more than I once did. When you're driving a race car, you don't have a lot of time for thinking-other than thinking about your car and what you can do to make it go faster.
I'm busy enough these days that I don't have time to hang out at the country store and do a lot of whittling, so to speak. I stay on the go most of the time, but I do find myself seriously trying to answer questions that people ask me
Like the other day, this guy looked me straight in the eyes and asked: "Tell me, what kind of race fan would you be if you had never driven a race car?"
I laughed for a minute, thinking behind the laugh what kind of question he was asking. Then I began. First off, I told him, me being a race driver happened to be the way things happened. Then I explained to him the way things are at this period in my life. "I wouldn't go," I told him. "I would stay at home most of the time and watch races on television."
That staggered him pretty good. After he recovered, and he did recover, he fine-tuned his question a little. "Well, let's say you were a young fan and just starting out, but by some means you have a certain knowledge of racing. Where would you go?"
"Well, if there was one dirt track left for Winston Cup cars, I'd go there each time the gates opened," I told him. "But there are no dirt tracks."
I do love dirt-track racing. I think this gives the driver so much more expression of himself. On dirt the track gets rough, then maybe gets slick, so the driver must adjust and keep adjusting.
We have run some dirt tracks that became so hard and slick about halfway through the race that we would switch to asphalt tires. Other times I've run on dirt tracks so rough you could almost hide in the holes.
Of the racetracks we run now, I would want to make sure I had a ticket for Bristol, just for the excitement of it if for nothing else. Bristol is the closest thing we have to way-back racing. It doesn't take many seconds to get around the place, and you can keep up with the driver you're pulling for all the way around the track. I also like the road courses. I think racing there is pretty neat.
I guess if I were a fan, I'd probably get a motorhome just so I wouldn't have to fight the traffic. I'd get there early and stay late. I don't think I could stand to fight the traffic on Sunday morning and then fight it again after the race. Talk about road rage. Man, you haven't seen anything. I'd go nutty just getting into the track.
Then the same gentleman asked me how I would pick my favorite driver if I were a fan. I said I think I would pick somebody who is my image, or an image that I would want to be like. I think I would look for a person who is a good driver, and I would also want to know how well he handles people.