DRO: When you had the rainouts at Indy this season, there were hundreds of legends or near legends there and yet ESPN closed up shop and left. Was there no thought of getting some of those drag racing legends together or going to John Mazzarella's motorhome and listen to a great bench racing session amongst those guys in order to document the history of the sport at Indy?

MD: You gotta refresh my memory on how that happened, cause it got rained out. Here's what happens on a rain out - a lot of people don't understand, if it calls for a chance of rain. Normally we don't tape until the last session on Saturday to do our qualifying show, or we don't start voicing it over. We'll tape all the runs and we'll use them as highlights, once we start going on camera and voicing everything over. If there's a possibility of a rain out, we'll start voicing over and doing an actually show on Friday qualifying in case there's a rain out.

So we have X amount of programming that we have to fill for that weekend. So there's a lot of time that will get thrown away because of programming changes and weather changes. I'm not really familiar with how we get. . . . I remember we got called on Sunday night and I don't remember. . .we did the qualifying show and then we did run the previous years and then I think we cut back in and usually we'll have Marty (Reid) or whoever in the booth and we'll cut back in saying, 'This is a show from last year, we're still on hold waiting for the rain or the decision,' and then we show last year's show.

DRO: I guess I'm asking about doing things differently. When you have an opportunity to sit and talk with the Snake, Connie, the Greek or some of those legends to document history or sit there with Shirley. Has that ever crossed any body's mind before everybody's gone? Would it interest you?

MD: Sure it would, I'm a fan of the history of the sport. It would definitely interest me. One of the things and that I'm not real up on is the way a rain show goes and the schedule the way it's so basically messed up and the way it has to be put together and deciding what you have to do. It's a lot more hectic than just a regular show. You actually have more opportunity as far as with the scheduling during the race to shoot the stuff than you do on a rain show, because everything's constantly changing during a rain show, and just

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reacting to different changes. I mean, you have a general plan about what you're going to do but those plans change depending on announcements from the weather.

DRO: Do you talk to your dad much?

MD: Ahhhh, not much anymore - we've kind of had a little falling out over the years and my dad remarried and it's just one of those things. He's a tough guy

DRO: Did that make you tougher?

MD: Did it make me tougher? You know, I don't know, maybe.

DRO: Or did it make you NOT want to be that way?

MD: A little of both, I think. I mean, there's only two things in my life -- racing and my family. I don't care about anything else. I don't gamble, I don't drink, I don't smoke; I just like drag racing and I like my family and mountain biking when I'm home and that's about it. I'm a boring kind of guy. My Dad's been known to have a temper, and a lot of people think I'm really easy going, but I have the same temper he does, it's just my fuse is a lot longer than his. But when it does blow up, it's the same thing; yelling, screaming, throwing things, wanting to kill everybody and we basically look stupid, which most people do when they go crazy and yell and scream. But I've tried to -- over the years after seeing his temper -- I've tried to say, I really don't want to do that; I want to be a little more objective.

I've always tried to take the stand that I won't go out and start any sh*t but I'm not going to take any. If someone gets in my face, I'm gonna stand up, but if it's something that's menial, if it's not directly involved with my life, racing or my family, then I could care less. Somebody can say what they want, I'm just going to walk away and go do my thing, 'cause I'm not going to waste my time with it. Maybe that's how I'm a little bit different. My Dad's mellowed out as he's gotten older, which we all do.