It's neat to be referenced to a guy like that who obviously has such a strong stature in this sport and who has made a big name for himself here and who will always have that
I certainly knew that Kyle would be tough to beat ... We felt like he would be faster than us on the track. Of course you know that he's going to be aggressive on pit road. Those were the areas that he beat us.
I've told this to my family and I've told it to the fans and I think that whenever you tell them things like this, you need to hold to that
When somebody says who's the best 20 drivers, you never hear his name, and I don't think that's fair ... It took Dale longer to have success for one reason or another. He had to go earn it. You think about when he went to drive for Yates, you know people were saying he can't do it, he can't do it. Well, come to find out he could do it and he persevered through that, and I have a lot of respect for him for that.
It's the right thing to do ... It's just difficult in knowing that when I get out of the car Saturday night that that's the last time I will ever compete at this level. You can do a lot of fun things ... but nothing will ever match the kind of excitement that you get from driving the race car and being able to compete at this level. It's tough ... but it's the right decision.