I've risen from the dead. Though sometimes, when I wake up in the morning, I feel like I've died. I swear I'm aging in dog years. But no, I'm not dead. It's funny how stuff like that gets started.

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.

I respect everything the District Attorney and Sheriff’s Office did to thoroughly investigate this tragic accident. While the process was long and emotionally difficult, it allowed for all the facts of the accident to be identified and known.

To be a driver that can cross off one of those marquee events as a winner, that cements your legacy in motorsports, to be able to win the Daytona 500 is the ultimate dream of a race car driver.

For the drivers, a weekend off would be nice, but for the fans, it would not be a very good deal.

I don't care how good you are, you have to have that feeling in your gut that you want to win every week when you go out there.

If I have a love-hate relationship with Martinsville, then we're missing the love part of the equation.