I was sleeping in a bed at the Las Vegas Flamingo when I heard the news on ESPN. I shot straight up like I had been catapulted. Couldn't believe it.

Kenny and I had been friendly at times and not so friendly at others. We weren't goin' to dinner buddies or anything, but we often talked and joked and we even played H-O-R-S-E and shot baskets at the Chili Bowl one year.

He was a great racer and competitor. He had a toughness about him in the car that was just fierce. He and Tony Stewart couldn't have been more different in terms of the way they found their way into the sport, but they were very similar in the way they approached it and the tenacity they brought.