"There'll never be anybody as good as he was -- ever," the Norwalk, Ohio, driver said. "He was way ahead of his time in every way -- mechanical, with the fans, everything. He was too good to quit when he did. There were a few issues he had at the time, and he needed to get those taken care of. Ever since he left, I haven't done worth a shit. Now I have something to race for."

Ron Krisher also said of Glidden, "I'm absolutely glad to see him back. He's got a reputation. If he doesn't find the right car and the right combination, in my opinion, he won't stay out here and race. He's used to being very, very good."

True. "If we can be competitive in most of the races," Glidden said, "that would be great. If we're going to be able to do it, financially, the realistic goals are to come out and win races. This drag racing is not a lot of fun if you can't win."

He said regaining his longstanding record isn't the motivation.

"No," he said. "If I had written a fairy tale before I started this, it wouldn't have been nearly as good as my life turned out. My gosh, I've been so fortunate over the years. I couldn't ask for more from the past than has happened. And I'm not greedy, so whatever comes in the future, that's the way it is."

Glidden said he left racing originally because "I just had a horrible case of burnout. My family was involved in the business. My (two) sons didn't know if they wanted me to treat them like a father or an employer. The traveling, everything added to the problem. And we got to the point where we just did a horrible job for a couple of years. And when our contract was up, Ford didn't renew it. We deserved to lose our contract."

This new opportunity is so unstructured that he laughed and said, "We don't know!" when asked what role belongs to each team member. And quizzed about his schedule, he said, "I do not have an idea. Phoenix for sure. But after that, I do not know." He said Schmidt was courting sponsors at the Winternationals.

Glidden knows his place, though: "The competition is different. Mentally, it's probably easier, because this is not my responsibility. I'm just here to drive the car."

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