The IRL needs guys like us to help tell their story, because they've got a good one to tell. Rusty will be good, and I'm happy for him because this will help get him ready for (2007).

These guys aren't having fun anymore. They have a lot of pressure on them. They have to perform and they have a lot of people they have to beat. When I was running, we had just a few people that we had to beat. You could have a bad day and still finish sixth or seventh. Now, if you are off a little bit, you finish 37th.

It's hard to have a good time and do your job. We'd get our cars inspected; we'd cover the car up and go to the beach. We'd go to the liquor store and buy a case of beer and sit on the beach or go sit in the lounge at the hotel maybe until it was time to come back the next day.

We looked a little rusty. But it's good to finish the first one.

Understand that the sponsors are the people that are making this sport happen. It's not the purses; it's the sponsors. The sponsors want to be in Texas, they want to be in California, they want to be in Las Vegas.

With a $16 million purse, it's pretty damn important. Just a few years ago, we only had a handful of big races that paid big money that you really wanted to win. It was Daytona, the Charlotte 600; they threw Indianapolis in there and the Southern 500. They paid you a $1 million bonus if you won three of those races. Those are the ones you set your sights on when the season started. Now, everything pays $1 million, and that has diminished the value of some of our bigger races.