Ask me about the challenge of becoming as good at music as I am at motorsport, and I have to say: my career has been racing, and I don't plan on music becoming my next career.

Winning the Indy 500 in 1995 and the Formula 1 championship in 1997 are very special moments for me, and the people in NASCAR show me respect for what I've achieved so far in my career.

I was happy to ski and play a lot of ice hockey. But I've come back because I was - and am - a racing driver. This is what I do.

Ultimately, the best driver will always do something special, whatever the rules and whatever the regulations. Same thing with the teams.

There is greater income inequality in the United States than in any other industrialized country. Yes, the debt is a problem that must be dealt with. To me, however, the disappearing middle class is even worse - bad for our economy and really bad for our democracy.

My mother was a stay-at-home mom until I was about 11, when she got a job - and it was like a light came on inside her. It's not wrong to be passionate about your career. When you love what you do, you bring that stimulation back to your family.

You always bump into politics in life, and as a man, I'm party to a number of environmental issues that concern me first and foremost, as a man, as a father.

What I do have is an appreciation for the fact that I've been very blessed and fortunate with timing, in getting opportunities that I wouldn't have otherwise gotten, if I weren't from a football family where my grandfather had so much success. I'm not naive enough to think otherwise.