There's no disguising how much love former Supercross and motocross hero Ricky Carmichael has for the sport that financially fixed his destiny for life.

But there's also no question that Carmichael, 29, who plans to race more than half of the 2009 Camping World Truck Series schedule for Kevin Harvick Inc., has no desire to revisit the atmosphere he thrived in for more than a decade.

“

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.

”

-- RICKY CARMICHAEL

That is, except when he can pick his spots, like designing the odd Supercross track or doing color commentary for a race broadcast. Last weekend he did both at Daytona.

The mood in the NASCAR garage versus what he found for a decade in motocross paddocks across the country convinced him he'd made the better choice, when he explained that he'd had virtually no feedback from the motorcycle community on what he'd accomplished in the last two years on four wheels.

"I don't know what they think," Carmichael said. "Motocross is so competitive -- you know, stock car racing is, too; it's all competitive. But it just seemed that in motocross and Supercross that the other rider has so much input that the problem was [laughing], we didn't talk too much, all of us racers.

"Some of us are friends, but your arch-rivals; really it's kind of a hate relationship, because it's so competitive and if you're going faster, some guys are really jealous of it and can't get past the fact that the other guy works harder. They just think he's cocky or whatever. So I don't know how they feel.

"I think that some of the old racers are pulling for me, for sure, and I'm sure that I have some that are hoping that I fail [laughing]. It's a pretty brutal sport, in that aspect and that's the only thing that I don't miss about it. The lack of respect is just terrible.

"And that's the cool thing about what I'm learning in this [NASCAR] deal. It's awesome that a Johnny Benson or a Ron Hornaday will come and swap notes with you, or give you advice. You would never, ever find that unless a guy was five seconds slower than you in motocross. There ain't no way I'd go to the guy that's getting third place and tell him about my bike and the lines I'm taking and this and that -- there just ain't no way."

Carmichael, who won a whopping 15 championships and 150 races in a variety of indoor and outdoor motocross disciplines, exactly two years ago branched into four-wheeled motorsport as a Ginn Racing development driver, wheeling a late model car prepared by Mark Martin Performance.

From there the natural progression was the 2008 Camping World East Series, where Carmichael finished sixth with a pole position, three top-five and eight top-10 finishes in 13 races driving for Ken Schrader Racing. Then Harvick, with one eye on Carmichael's obvious talent for race craft and the other on his Monster Energy sponsorship, signed Carmichael as a teammate to three-time Truck Series champion Hornaday. (Continued)