The best thing about time passing is that, every so often, an event re-occurs in your life -- an event that the first time it passed was so positive, even if you didn't realize it at the time -- it could be considered priceless.

One of those happened in November 2000.

“

He's got one helluva future. A lot of people are gonna be jealous of him, cause he works harder than anyone I know, he's a good person and he's gonna have all the success that a guy could have. I truly believe that.

”

-- CARL EDWARDS

Riding an elevator at NASCAR's Weekly Racing Series banquet's hotel/resort complex, the elevator stopped and a totally wired young man got on with a buddy. You weren't sure he wasn't OD'ing on AMP -- before it even existed -- just high on life or heaven forbid, "banquet punch" or something else.

They got off, the doors closed and I put the card he gave me -- that simply said "if you need a driver, you need me" -- in my pocket and, after scratching my head and thinking "I wonder if he had a clue who I was, or what I did?" carried-on for the rest of the weekend.

I officially met Carl Edwards two years later, at his first Truck Series event with Mike Mittler's little hard-working team at the late, lamented Memphis Motorsports Park.

And now eight years beyond that -- though the exact circumstances are quite different -- a similar thing happened last weekend at Texas Motor Speedway.

In three, or five years -- but I bet a heck of a lot less than that -- I wonder if I'll look at meeting Steve Arpin as one of those "priceless" moments.

Sharing a few minutes of insight and laughter with Kenny Wallace turned into a handshake with a kid who roared up full of energy and easily dealt with the fact that Wallace didn't even know Arpin had won the previous weekend's ARCA Series race at Salem Speedway.

But when Wallace realized introductions were in order, he offered one and Arpin immediately reached in his pocket and handed over a slick, professionally-done business card that only carried his name and every possible means to contact him: from a street address to two Web sites. (Continued)