Full of pride and ambition after meeting and speaking with the former President and his loyal wife, I had the car’s battery charged and journeyed to Daytona, Florida, where I registered the Corvette into the 1998 Daytona 500. The annual Daytona 500 was considered to be NASCAR’s most spectacular stock-car racing event.

Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes® proudly sponsored my car. The #13 Chevrolet Corvette out-performed and out-paced the stiff competition most of the afternoon. Tony the Tiger, my pit-crew chief, was proud of me, especially because I was a rookie driver.

Throughout the race, I had skillfully and patiently worked my way to the front of the pack. Then I darted past Dale Earnhardt’s #3 black Chevrolet to take the lead as Earnhardt and I entered the final turn on the last lap. But I blew a left-front tire coming out of turn number four. The Vette went into a wicked tail spin.

The out-of-control racecar spun like a top; tires screeched and charred pieces of rubber flew in all directions. When the dust settled and the thick cloud of smoke cleared, I was a little dizzy. And the Vette, which had a crunched right-rear fender, was backed up against the wall, just a few yards short of the finish line.

Earnhardt, who had never won the prestigious Daytona 500, and who was the crowd favorite all afternoon, took the checkered flag. “The Intimidator” later congratulated me for my superb effort. Earnhardt told me, “Sir Wantsalittle Morefromlife, this just wasn’t your day. You drove a hell-of-a race. There’ll be better days!”

I turned and walked a few yards away from Earnhardt. I felt totally dejected. I said to myself, “I had this race in the bag. Some black magic cost me the victory. Lord, how can I bounce back from such a bitter defeat?”

The Lord instantly responded to my call. She showed up at the racetrack in blue jeans, tennis shoes, and a Dale Earnhardt T-shirt. She said, “Clarence Darrow stated, ‘As long as the world shall last there will be wrongs, and if no man objected and no man rebelled, those wrongs would last forever.’ Life isn’t always sugarcoated. Sometimes you have to take the sour with the sweet. However, you possess the ability to ‘bounce back’ from unfortunate personal circumstances or from major personal setbacks.”

God paused for a moment, then She said, “The late Dale Earnhardt won a remarkable total of seventy-six NASCAR events, and he tied the record of seven Winston Cup championships in his legendary racing career before a horrific, head-on, into-the-wall crash took his life at Daytona International Speedway on February 18, 2001. Like so many people who have achieved some measure of greatness in their lives, Earnhardt repeatedly bounced back from untimely defeats, throughout his story-book racing career. Wantsalittle, try to emulate the good example of Dale Earnhardt and numerous others who bounced back from times of temporary defeat and became highly successful individuals, as a result.”

The Lord paused again and continued, “If you’re not frequently making mistakes and suffering setbacks, it’s a good sign that you’re not doing anything. Carl Yastrzemski, a perennial All-star first-baseman for the Boston Red Sox, accumulated over 3,000 hits in his brilliant career. ‘Yaz’ once told a reporter, ‘If you want the hits, be prepared for the misses.’ That’s the way the game of baseball—and life—goes. After a brilliant career, Yastrzemski was later inducted into Major League Baseball’s Hall of Fame. Regardless of how many times you ‘miss,’ it’s most important that you keep swinging.”

“Yes, Lord, but will that necessarily bring me success?”

“Thomas J. Watson, the founder of IBM, said, ‘The way to succeed is to double your failure rate.’ Wantsalittle, use your mistakes and temporary defeats as stepping stones for greater accomplishments. Don’t be a quitter. Follow through on whatever you set out to do. If you experience a setback, find out what went wrong. Learn from what didn’t work. Think of something different. Try a new approach. Form new ‘success’ images.”

“Lord, I’ll learn from my mistakes and go forward from there!”

“Wantsalittle, Norman Vincent Peale truthfully said, ‘You are never defeated until you accept the image of defeat.’ As you think with a goal of bouncing back from your personal setbacks, you will realize greater individual accomplishments.”

“Thanks, God! I’ll see You on down the road.”

A week later, after repairing the damage to the Vette, I traveled to Rockingham, North Carolina for the G.M.Goodwrench 400. The race at Rockingham was another, major, annual, NASCAR event.

As I had done in the Daytona 500, I started near the rear of the field. More determined than ever, I gradually worked my way into contention. I moved into second position with only two laps remaining. Jeff Gordon, “the Rainbow Warrior,” had led the field most of the day. When we took the white flag, with just one lap to go, Gordon successfully blocked me. And it looked as if he would be able to hold me at bay to take the checkered flag.

The pressure was on me to try to pass Gordon and steal the victory on the last lap. I was able to pull up on his rear bumper, but I couldn’t quite muster the speed to get around him. Gordon was driving an “inside groove” on the track as he came into the corners. It was tough to get around him. Still, I thought that I might be able to just squeeze by him on the inside, right before we entered the second turn. Then, when I tried to sneak by Gordon and dart past him from the inside, he shrewdly pulled his car way down near the apron and cut me off. As we approached the third turn, I moved high up on the steeply banked racetrack. I tried to pass Gordon from the outside as we came out of turn number three. That last-minute maneuver didn’t work, either.

I was about to concede the race to Gordon and settle for second best. Suddenly, I remembered that the Corvette had a unique “overdrive” gear. Once again I pulled up on Gordon’s bumper. When we powered our way out of the fourth and final turn, I reached down and shifted into overdrive. Like a missile thrusting from its launcher, the Vette shot up off the track and soared over the top of Gordon’s #24 Chevrolet. My race car landed directly in front of him as we sped down the stretch.

Gordon made a gallant effort to pass me from the inside near the wire. But I just nosed him out as we zoomed across the finish line. Rusty Wallace finished strong and ended up in third place.

One spectator, Richard Petty, known as “the King” of NASCAR, reportedly said after the race, “Today, Sir Wantsalittle Morefromlife went from being a knight to being a king! Cheerfully, I congratulate the new ‘King’ of NASCAR!”

As I slowly motored the surprisingly powerful, but temporarily run-down, gas-thirsty Corvette around the track in the customary “victory lap,” a pigeon landed on the driver-side windshield wiper. The disinterested pigeon gawked at the roaring crowd. This time, the vast majority of the racing fans had collectively rooted and pulled for me in my upstart, underdog role.

I steered the Vette down victory lane. Then I anxiously crawled out through the driver-side window. I waved a royal-blue ball cap in view of hundreds of celebrating spectators, who had quickly gathered and crowded around me. Tony the Tiger could see that I was totally exhausted. Immediately, my crew chief congratulated me and handed me a cold quart of milk and a bowl-full of Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes®.

Respectfully, I rejected Tony the Tiger’s healthy reward. “Thanks, Sir Tony! But I’d really rather have a Tomarlbury and an ice-cold bottle of Zapmeister!”

(The moral of this episode: As Norman Vincent Peale said, “You are never defeated until you accept the image of defeat.” Always strive to bounce back from temporary setbacks!)

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