Still, the Fresno, Calif., driver said, "I don't have all the answers. But I have a lot of questions. Things don't get fixed overnight, but the problem is big enough that a plan needs to be implemented. I don't know where we need to start, but we need to start somewhere."

Legend Don Garlits wanted Scelzi to stop, or at least reconsider, driving a dragster next year. Garlits, who topped the NHRA's 50 Top Drivers list from which Scelzi was conspicuously absent, suggested Scelzi was pushing the envelope after his frightening crash at Brainerd that left him unscathed physically, caused multiple fractures to John Smith's left arm and leg and totaled both cars.

"When God decides that I'm going to get killed in a Top Fueld dragster, or I'm going to die of old age, or I'm going to die slipping on a banana peel, that's when the time's going to be," Scelzi said.

As for the wreck at Brainerd, he said, "I wasn't sure if I had done something wrong. I didn't think I did. Some people said, 'Why didn't you shut it off?' Well, the g-meter was still climbing. No one possibly could have known what was going to happen. Broken intake valve. Hardly ever happens. It did. It was unfortunate. But it wasn't anybody's fault. That's the risk we take."

Anybody who'd think Scelzi walked away cavalierly doesn't know anything about Scelzi.

"Some of this stuff never heals," he said, unapologetic for showing his feelings. ("If someone wants to test my manhood, then step right up," he challenged. "I don't feel I have to hide my emotions for anyone.All the real tough guys I've ever met in my life -- the bad-ass legends -- they're all dead or in prison. being tough didn't get them anywhere.")

Scelzi said no one has the right to judge another's feelings. "Everybody deals with tragedy and accidents in their own way. And I don't know that there's a right way or a wrong way to deal with it."

But he knows how to deal with charges that he's reckless.

"There have been comments that we have a big sponsor, Winston, and we can just go and put another car together but what does John do? It irritates me. You hear the bad things: 'Scelzi never lifts.' . . . 'Maybe he should calm down when he's driving a race car.'

"You know what? I don't feel I do anything out of control when I'm driving a race car. I'm not out here to hurt myself or anybody else. If I was doing something wrong, Alan would have talked to me a long time ago or fired me. I don't feel I'm a loose cannon."

Scelzi said he was so upset by accusations during the U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis that he was ready to quit. Referring to unidentified critics, Scelzi said, "I was to the point I could say, 'You guys can all kiss my ass. I'll walk away from this deal right now.' If somebody thinks stuff like that doesn't bother or affect a driver, they're out of their mind.

"It does matter what people think of me," he said. "I'm not a guy who says, 'I don't care what anybody thinks. I just want to win races. It's very important what people think of me as a person. I take it personally. It's important that everybody out here care about each other."

Sclezi said the NHRA has "more than just drivers. There are families out here." But his immediate family -- wife Julie, four-year-old son Dominic and Dominic's little brother or sister who's on the way -- is what matters most to him.

They, he said, are why "I only want to do this another three years. At that time, I'll be 44 and I'm going to go back to work (at the truck-body manufacturing company he owns with his brother). I'm going to raise my family and let them play baseball and do all the things I don't want them to miss and I don't want to miss."

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