The deal came up to get into professional racing. Coach Carter wanted to train me, but I decided to race. He said, 'You're throwing your life away, your future.' I said, 'Coach, everyone has to take a chance in life.' Racing is what I always dreamed of doing.

Motor racing is going to miss a phenomenal race driver and I'm going to miss a good friend. I think I will learn a lot with Sam. He is an experienced driver even though he is young. He's been fast at a lot of tracks where we haven't done well so I hope to learn from him.

I've been dreaming about this since I started racing. I've lived for this moment. it was a very great race, the competition was stellar.

You'd like to expect clean racing, but I know (this race) last year it wasn't clean racing,

When I talk to them now, being a 14-time winner means a lot to them. They see I'm a success. If I come back as the world champion, the kids are going to love it. Their eyes are going to light up.

I never looked at it that way, that I would be the first black champion. It would just be cool to be the world champion. It would be cool for my whole team.