Carmichael still in touch with his two-wheel side (cont'd)

Not surprising, as is the case with many motorcycle racers, Carmichael's virtually never ridden street motorcycles; and these days even his dirt riding is sporadic.

Back in the day, Carmichael says he had "two complete race bikes, in case one of them broke, and tons of spare parts to build other ones, if I needed to. Now, I just have one factory bike, a [Suzuki] RM-Z450. It doesn't have the latest and greatest stuff -- obviously Chad Reed and a couple of other guys on the team have all that -- but I have a good enough bike to get me by, and I still enjoy it.

"Practicing Supercross and stuff like that, it's hit and miss -- some days I ride twice a week and then I won't ride for three weeks. When I used to [race] it was minimum three times a week, practicing, and sometimes four. So it's a huge, substantial step down -- but there's no need for me to, really.

"There's no need for me to take that risk. And it's so tough to go and ride Supercross when you don't do it all the time and you're not in top physical shape. You're just asking to be injured at that point."

In closing the book on his own motocross career, as well as having any thought that either of his young children would go that route, Carmichael takes a pragmatic view.

"If it's going to be in motorsports it's definitely going to be on four wheels," Carmichael said. "I just know motocross and I know the direction that it's going, which, I'm always going to support that sport because it's provided a great life for me.

"But at the same time, the bikes are getting faster, the tracks are so, so technical that if you don't do things you don't have much success and it kind of puts you in a tough position and a risky position and I don't know if I could handle my kids [twins, who turn two in mid-March] -- my little boy, I don't think my little girl will ever do anything like that, but I don't think I could ever see my little guy doing that.

"I seen my dad wreck one time and I couldn't imagine my own child [doing it], so I'm going to push him on the four-wheeled side of things, IF he wants to do that; and then just support him in whatever he wants to do, whether it be baseball or football. But I'd love to see him do baseball, because I really liked that as a kid."

In the spring of 2007 Carmichael found himself in the midst of a media circus when Martin stepped out of the Cup Series' points lead to come to Columbia Motorsports Park to oversee Carmichael's professional four-wheeled debut, rather than racing at Bristol. Carmichael himself had raced his final Supercross the weekend before in Orlando, Fla.

With what he's seen since, Carmichael said he couldn't give a blanket recommendation for any other motorcycle racer to try what he'd done.

"I don't know if I would recommend it or not," Carmichael said. "For me, I love it, so I would want someone to advise it. I think it would be cool for some people to make the switch, but the first thing I would advise them is to finish their business in motocross and Supercross and then move on.

"Until they do that, they need to focus on one thing and that's to accomplish their goals. That's the first thing. And after that, then go auto racing, whether it be in a stock car, or open wheel."