I think with what's happening, a lot of people are becoming more observant through time, and it helps us. We're getting good data.

I'm hoping more people are geared to do that if we have another explosive eruption. We're very happy to have samples, and most people are very enthusiastic about getting them, so it's a win-win situation.

Sometimes they call in with questions like, 'Am I seeing what I think I'm seeing?' It's fun to see how people are interpreting the data on their own, taking a stab at being amateur scientists.

A lot of teachers from elementary to university classes have been requesting ash samples through our Web site to do science projects. It's intriguing. From all over the United States, people are seizing the opportunity to do real-time studies of the volcano.

We've got multimillion dollar sponsors and 150,000 people in the grandstands, ... He just wants all of us to act like men and represent NASCAR in the proper way.

He told us it was our game if we could pick up the intensity. And we did.