HAMPTON, Ga. -- Fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly. And Burney Lamar has to race.

Lamar hasn't had a full-time ride since being released from his Busch Series job near the end of the 2006 season. Still, he refuses to become the answer to the trivia question: "Hey, whatever happened to that guy who drove Busch cars for Kevin Harvick?"

"It tears you up inside but all you can do is keep going," Lamar said Friday at Atlanta Motor Speedway. "In '05, we won some races and did good in some Truck races, and man, life was good. It was a high for us. And then we go to Daytona and finish second. And then we go to Atlanta and finish eighth."

"Once the finishes started declining, it got bad in a hurry. I thought it was a low then, until I sat out almost this whole year. I thought I'd be able to get a ride right off the bat and that wasn't the case. Come March, April, May, here I am working on the house to make money, thinking I'm going to get back out there and I'm not."

He failed to qualify for his Nextel Cup debut this weekend but caught the attention of many in the garage area who wondered if Lamar -- married to model Niki Taylor -- had given up on racing.

"A lot of people thought, 'Oh, he's not into racing anymore. He's set for life,'" Lamar said. "But I tell you what, when you've been racing your whole life, that ain't the case at all. It's tough to hear people think that. But I've been to all the Truck races, trying to get something going. It's tough."

Lamar said he's been pounding the pavement every weekend, banging on hauler doors and hoping for another chance. But there's one problem: He doesn't have a helmet full of cash to cement a deal.

"It's real difficult," Lamar said. "I know I can drive. ... Getting the opportunity is the problem. A lot of people coming in are more fortunate than I am with financial backing. There's a lot of good drivers [in this position]. I wasn't the only one. There are a lot of people in the same boat. It's just really tough in the Busch Series.

"It's so tough mentally, not being out there racing with these guys when you know you can do it. You have to believe in yourself, and I do believe in myself."

Three years ago, the former Southwest Tour rookie of the year was signed as a development driver for Kevin Harvick Inc. and immediately went out and was competitive in NASCAR's regional stepladder series, earning Lamar a full-time Busch Series ride in 2006.

But after three top-10 finishes in his first eight starts, including running second to teammate Tony Stewart at Daytona, Lamar's star faded quickly. Despite some good qualifying efforts, Lamar couldn't crack the top 10 again -- and after crashing out of three consecutive races, sponsor Dollar General pulled the plug.

Lamar admits perhaps he got complacent once he landed the ride.

"Some drivers get content, they lose that hunger to win," Lamar said. "I think I did a little last year. The reason you get that way is because there are so many things going on. You have so many obligations that you never used to have when you were racing. And you kind of get side-tracked on what's important -- and that's driving the wheels off the car, every lap."

"That's one thing as a rookie last year, I'm not afraid to say I thought I had comfortably made it into the NASCAR big leagues. I kind of got comfortable. I also didn't voice my opinion. In other words, I have a lot of it as my fault. There were some things that were beyond my control and some things that weren't."

Lamar's in the classic Catch-22 situation: Potential sponsors and owners want experienced drivers, but he can't improve without seat time.

"I've only run 31 Busch races and two Truck races," he said. "That's all I've got. My stock is going to rise. A lot of tracks, I've only been to one time. So the more seat time I get, the better I'm going to be. It's just a matter of people believing in me to put me in the seat to show them I've got what it takes."

The key, according to Lamar, is not to doubt your abilities.

"I've had a lot of time to think," Lamar said. "A lot of people will say they've raced since they were 5 but I have raced non-stop since then. This is the first year that I haven't had the chance to drive something and man, you just go back and think about everything that you could have done different.

"I've learned a lot from last year. I can't thank Kevin and DeLana enough. They spent enough money on me to go to almost every racetrack one time. And that's half the battle as a rookie."

Lamar believes he has a plan that will succeed, given a second chance.

"It's really tough," Lamar said. "I remodeled the house. I remember sitting there, listening to the radio, to things going on in racing and thinking, 'If I can just get that opportunity again, there are so many things I'll do differently to make it.'

"And I'm confident that once I get back in the seat, in something competitive, I'm going to stay in the upper leagues. I'm not going to let what happened last year happen again."

And he now has a motto to live by.

"Drive every race like it's your last," Lamar said. "People told me that, but you have to experience it. That's what you're going to see from me from here on. 'Give it everything you've got.'"