Every sport has a 'guy' that personifies what the sport is about and almost creates what the sport is on his own.

You don't talk to Richard Petty unless he talks to you.

I don't know of any other driver on the track that doesn't get hot under the collar.

Regardless of how I act, somebody is going to criticize me one way or the other.

Orange is my favorite color overall.

If I don't like the car, I don't get excited about racing it.

I can cook anything. Anything. I'm good.

I'm competitive, man. Competitive.

To me, I feel completely, um, utterly normal. I do everything everybody else does.

I never thought I would ever win a Daytona 500. I never thought we would sweep Bristol. I just never thought any of that stuff was going to happen or be possible.

I've been able to make a lot of money and live a lifestyle that I never dreamed of. And I've been able to provide for my family.

I didn't think I was ever going to be a Cup driver. When I was a kid, before I started racing in the Xfinity Series, I thought that I was never going to get a chance, and then, if I did, I wasn't going to run well enough to maintain that opportunity and keep progressing.

The 1979 Daytona 500 was awesome. It was almost like the first race that Ken Squier ever did. And so he was sort of introducing himself as well as the sport.

As a driver, it was easy to find the negative in things. But when I got out of the car, everything about the sport, my whole perception of just about everything in the sport, did a 180.

There's broadcasters that make me enjoy what I'm seeing because of their energy and how they explain what's happening and paint that picture.

That's one thing that frustrates me is to hear people today say I don't have passion; my heart's not in it. Man, what the hell? You can't go to 38 races in 42 weeks with your heart out of it.

Death is a weird thing.

I've done everything I ever thought I would do. I've done more than I thought I was capable of doing.

I always make things worse than they are or create problems that aren't there. And going and doing some simple task becomes a problem. I start imagining problems that aren't there. What people are going to think, who's going to judge me and am I going to be good enough? Am I worthy?

I went from thinking, 'I wonder if I can be a broadcaster. Will anybody give me a chance? Maybe I can get a shot at it,' to thinking, 'Man, I want to do this for a long time.'

I hate disappointing people and letting people down.

People get surprised when they see you out buying a DVD at Best Buy like somebody else should be doing it for you or something! They're like, 'What are you doing your grocery shopping for?' Well, 'cause I'm starving!

There was this guy I used to work with, and he listened to Patsy Cline all the time, so I liked that after a while.

My grandmother was a big Elvis fan, and I am, too, because she played Elvis, and she would keep me all the time when my dad was out of town.