"Oh, I don't want to watch these guys," he said, as politely as he could. "I want to watch the other guys."

His eyes followed the Dash cars, and I knew what he was implying. He was waiting for the Cup cars, and he wished he could be out there, too.

I slapped him on the left shoulder and told him he'd be out there soon enough, but that everyone starts somewhere, and we went our separate ways.

That's when someone told me I had just been talking to Adam Petty.

Adam Petty, the son of NASCAR racer Kyle, grandson of Richard and great-grandson of Lee, died of massive head injuries Friday sustained in a crash while practicing for a Busch Grand National race at New Hampshire International Speedway. He was 19.

We'll never really know what kind of driver he could have been. In his only Winston Cup start April 2 at the DirecTV 500, he started 33rd and finished 40th, thanks to a sour engine. His Busch Grand National career was more of the same, with his best 2000 finish being 12th at the Touchstone Energy 300 on April 15. Mostly, there were finishes at the back of the pack (seven finishes of 25th or worse in 11 starts), to go along with the promise he showed in a limited run in the Busch in 1999 (three in the top five, four top 10s).

This was a work in progress, now forever unfinished.

For whatever reason, the Pettys seem to have hit a run of bad fortune. Great-grandfather Lee died three days after Adam's Winston Cup debut, and the Petty team has struggled.

And now Adam.

Maybe Richard, "The King," used up a sizeable amount of luck en route to his 200 wins and seven titles.

Most likely, it's just racing.

We seem to forget the men in the machines. We know they are there, but we just don't really identify it until something great happens, or something tragic.

Heroes aren't supposed to die, are they?

If Adam had a strength, it was his appreciation of the Petty legend -- and his ability to embrace it and not shirk away from it.

"I'm really honored to be a Petty," Adam wrote in an open letter to race fans. "My family really puts no pressure on me at all."

Certainly there were other avenues Adam could have pursued instead of racing. But when you're a Petty is that really the case? When your family has been associated with stock car racing since the sport's beginning, isn't there an unwritten pact with the racing gods you must commit one of each generation?

Adam Petty (center) followed his grandfather Richard (left) and father Kyle into racing.(AP)

Adam was racing Go Karts around curves when other kids were practicing pitches. For his 14th birthday, Kyle bought him a late model chassis out of the Winston series and told him that when he built it, he could go stock car racing.

Adam wrestled with it, working on the car, then quitting, but finally he got it together.

"It just sat there, untouched, for a couple of months, and then I decided to put it together and go racing," Adam said. "It was really worth it when I finished. I really admire my dad for making me work hard to get where I am today. It makes you appreciate success much more if you have to work for it."

So don't think Adam was pushed -- the late model chassis project was a test that took him two years to complete.

And don't judge Adam by his two wins (one in American Speed Association and another in ARCA series). Or by his limited Busch career, or his one Winston Cup race.

Don't say that he coulda, shoulda or woulda been the one to restore luster to the Petty name. Just say he was a Petty.

And he was comfortable with that.