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In the absence of NASCAR races actually going on, it’s natural to daydream and reminisce.

Talking to Cotton Owens about David Pearson was like reading a Superman comic. Talking to Dale Earnhardt when he was in a bad mood was like pulling teeth. Talking to Richard Petty any time was, and most likely still is, a pleasure.

The wisest sentence about NASCAR I ever heard was from Bobby Allison: “Every year the tracks get more alike, the cars get more alike, and the drivers get more alike. Then they wonder why can’t nobody pass one another.”

A textbook illustration of the Law of Generations, often credited to the author Pearl S. Buck, is the France family. As demonstrated in the novel The Good Earth, the first generation lifts a family up by its bootstraps, the second generation takes it beyond its wildest dreams, and the third generation squanders the empire.

Out of all the people in NASCAR who are no longer with us, I miss Benny Parsons the most, but I think most often of David Poole.

The best broadcasters only speak when they have something to say. Most racing announcers act like they get paid by the word.

I don’t listen to many podcasts because I don’t have the time. I can read faster than I can listen.

More than anything else, I will miss Matt Kenseth’s sense of humor.

You can like racing by watching it on TV, but it takes being there in person to love it.

If a rumor is making the rounds, and no one will deny it on the record, it’s true.

My favorite race car was the 1969 Ford Torino Talladega. My favorite Torino was Pearson’s blue-and-gold No. 17. Darlington is my favorite track and the hardest place to write. I call it The Track Too Tough to Cover.

Too much technology makes it harder, not easier, to understand what is really going on.

I love press boxes because I hate for television to dictate what I see.

Money is relative. Most of the drivers who claim they’d race for free have never had to.