JB: Who's your favorite superhero?
KH: Superman. I like that he appears to be this normal guy and then transforms into a stud when somebody needs help.
JB: People say we look like superheroes in our fire suits.
KH: Yeah, but no one looks good wearing a fire suit.
JB: You don't look good in your uniform?
KH: I don't think so, but my wife says I do.
JB: What was your favorite TV show growing up?
KH: I never watched TV, though if I did, it was always a racing show.
JB: Same thing today?
KH: Yeah. But I do like Rob and Big on MTV.
JB: Then you must be a big reader.
KH: I don't read a lot of books, but I did just read F1 Racing magazine.
JB: Close enough.
JB: You can bring three people to the nicest restaurant in town. Who goes?
KH: Rick Mears, George W. Bush and my wife. Mears is my hero. It was the coolest to win the Brickyard and stand where he stood after winning Indy four times. And I met President Bush at the White House. He seems like a good guy.
JB: Who drives to the restaurant?
KH: Mears can take us in my Silverado. My wife says I drive like an old man.
JB: But you look good in a fire suit.
JB: Does the Chase for the Nextel Cup make NASCAR more exciting?
KH: If not for the Chase, Jeff Gordon would almost definitely be the 2007 champion and we'd be racing for nothing. So yeah, it definitely makes it more exciting.
JB: But only if you're one of the 12 guys in it.
KH: Exactly.
JB: Other than Jeff Burton, who's your favorite current driver?
KH: Tony Stewart. Our personalities seem to click.
JB: Favorite driver to pick on?
KH: Denny Hamlin. He put a pie in my face on Live With Regis and Kelly, so in New Hampshire I ambushed him while he was doing an interview. It blew up on his face, and he said a bad word on TV. Now I look over my shoulder.
JB: Pie in the face. Never gets old.
KH: Unless you have one in your ear and a TV audience laughing at you.
JB: If you weren't driving, what would you be doing?
KH: I'd be an architect. Since I've become a Nextel Cup driver I've built a 70,000-square-foot race shop and two houses.
JB: Sounds like you're an architect now. Where's your favorite place to be?
KH: My home in Kernersville, N.C.
JB: Well, there or Victory Lane.
KH: Good call.