Drive-By Truckers - Daddy's Cup lyrics

Well, before I could walk
I had a wrench in my hand
I was my Mama's little angel
And my Daddy's second chance
He went end over end the
First year he went pro
And he lost part of his eyesight
So he couldn't race no more

But he never lost his touch when
He got under a hood
He knew how to make them run and
He knew one day he would
See his name in victory lane
And engraved on that cup
Just like all them other crazy fools
With racing in their blood

He would put me on his lap when
He'd drive and I'd take the wheel
He'd say "What do you think about


That son? How does she feel?
You just wait till them little legs get
Long enough to reach the gas
Once you put her on the floor one
Time there ain't no turning back"
Every Saturday
He'd take me out to the garage
He'd take an empty bucket and fill
It full of engine parts
He's sit me down and pour em out
In front of me on the floor
I'd have to tell him what each one
Was and what each one was for

We'd jump in his old car and go
Down to the race that night
He'd tell me what each driver was doing
Wrong and what each one did right
He could always pick the winner before
They ever took a curve
#3 might have the car but
43 has got the nerve

But before I turned 18
Daddy said "Now pretty soon
You'll be old enough to race but
I'll leave it up to you
I taught you all about it
Taught you everything I know
You gotta have a car to do it and
You gotta work and buy your own"

The first one I bought was a Mustang #2
Nobody kept 'em any longer than they
Kept a pair of shoes
They started showing up at every
Used car lot in town
A V-8 on a go-cart, easy terms, no money down

Me and Daddy and my uncle took her
Home and we tore her down
Checked her out real good
Cleaned her up and bored her out
Took out all the seats
Pulled the carpet off the floor
Knocked out all the glass and
We welded up the doors

The first time that I raced
My qualifying was a shame
I started out way in the back
And came back about the same
I pulled her in the pit
Couldn't look my Daddy in the eye
He said "If you quit now son
It's gonna haunt you all your life"

See, it ain't about the money
Or even being #1
You gotta know when it's all over you
Did the best you could've done
Knowing that it's in you and
You never let it out
Is worse than blowing any engine or
Any wreck you'll ever have

Since then I've wrecked a bunch of cars
And I've broke a bunch of bones
It's anybody's race out there
And I've learned to run my own
I'd shove em in the wall and
I'd hit em from behind
I'd let them know that I was there
I'd let them know that track was mine

It's been several years now since
My Daddy passed away
But his picture's on my dash every
Time I go to race i lost more than I won but
I ain't gonna give up
Till they put me in the ground
Or Daddy's name's on that cup