Newman said. ''But he just never was able to walk away with it. I got back underneath him coming off of [Turn] 2 and he had to check up a little bit because the wall was there. We raced clean, we raced hard, we had fun.

[Stewart, who had taken the lead from Newman with eight laps to go, was in no mood to dissect Newman's pass after the race.] We tried, ... There wasn't a lack of effort there.

Guys are doing it in the middle of the corner, coming off it and coming on. It's softening the front bumper because it's the guys that are doing the hitting. Trust me, I did my share of it, too.

I needed a good driver for the midget team, but since I'm not able to go to all of the USAC races anymore, I did what a lot of the car owners in the Cup and Busch Series do, and that's pick up National Speed Sport News every week,

When I do dig down, I'm very [irritated] underneath, ... Why can't I just write a book about taking a walk and having a cup of coffee? It kind of annoys me about myself. If I could do it differently, I would. It's not some kind of principle. It's just in my nature somehow.

I saw Ryan (Newman) coming up in my mirror and I've seen a lot of cars behind me in practices, but I've never seen one come up so close.