I think it's a good time for me to reprioritize my personal life and get things figured out there. In life, for years, I've had racing, God and family. I'm trying to get it God, family then racing. |
I think that being that (the contract) is up, it's a good time for me to reprioritize my personal life and get things figured out there, |
I was with the Petty family for 11 years before being blessed to work with Jeff and the No.24 team, ... Kyle and Richard are giving me an incredible opportunity to come home. |
If he were to run over a quarter on the race track, he'd tell you exactly where that quarter was laying and ... he'd tell you if it was on heads or tail. Some guys are going to tell you that there's a quarter out there. Some guys are not even going to see the quarter. |
In life, everything has its time, ... You'd like to think that something works forever, but it is a performance-driven sport and the bottom line is that you have to perform. If we were to get into the chase and win the championship, I don't see anything changing. |
It's a huge challenge for us to get the (43) car back to Victory Lane, to get the car in the Chase, to get back to where I would love to see us win the championship, ... Is it a reality next year? You've seen a lot of things happen in the sport and you look at it and ask: 'How'd that happen?' |
It's obvious those guys work well together, but that's no surprise. Jeff has known and worked with Steve for a long time. Both of them are smart and capable people and I think they are going to have a lot of success together. |
It's one of those situations you'd love for it to be a storybook finish and you win the championship and walk off into the sunset, |
Jeff Gordon is one of the greatest drivers out there, and so is teammate Jimmie Johnson , ... It'll show in these final 10 races. I was struggling with a lot of decisions that were going on with me, and that wasn't fair to Hendrick Motorsports or the team. |
Kyle and Richard are giving me an incredible opportunity to come home, where I started my career, ... and I'm honored and excited to do that. |
Really, here, it's all about hand-eye coordination, and obviously for Jeff Gordon, everything that happens here happens in slow motion for him. For a lot of guys it's happening real fast. For Jeff, he's seeing it develop way out in front of him. |
Richard told me 'I know you're either going to stay where you are, or you're coming to work for me. There are a lot of things out there for you, but that's all there is to it. And you know what you need to do.' |
So this is a great opportunity that's out there for us. I'm glad we've got a chance to get back in it. It's really giving us something to look forward to, in such a dark situation. |
This is just another step toward what we want to do at Petty Enterprises. We keep trying to do it every day and keep getting better and better. |
To do that, I've got a lot of things I've got to work through. |