James Hylton isn't ready to let go of the steering wheel just yet. The eternally young 72-year-old, who came within a few laps of qualifying for the Daytona 500, wants to give the Nextel Cup Series another try -- this time at Talladega Superspeedway in April.

"We've still got the car we ran Daytona with, the same car," Hylton said. "We've prepared this car for Talladega, which is not a real big jump. Unless something drastic happens, we'll be at Talladega, because we're set up to go there."

Hylton, piloting a No. 58 Chevrolet formerly driven by Robby Gordon at Richard Childress Racing and set up by RCR engineers, stood eighth in Daytona's first 150-mile qualifying race before a clutch problem shuffled him out of line and knocked him out of contention. He's in talks with the sponsor of that car, Retirement Living TV, to back him again in the April 29 event at Talladega.

The Inman, S.C., resident had originally hoped to try to make last weekend's event at Bristol Motor Speedway, but couldn't get a Car of Tomorrow built in time. Yet the two-time winner and former rookie of the year on NASCAR's premier circuit is still buzzing over the publicity generated by his attempt to make the Daytona 500.

"As far as fan support, I've never seen anything like it," he said. "It's just constant sending out autographs. The middle-aged and retirement-aged people are really supporting me, and I'm getting a lot of stuff from the kids, too. I get more support now than I got when I was winning races back in the Cup days."

Part of that comes from the natural fascination in watching a driver seven years beyond retirement age attempt to compete in what's become a young man's sport. But Hylton also believes he's tapping into the latent dissatisfaction of traditional race fans, who are happy to embrace a vestige of the sport's past. (Continued)