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LEBANON, Tenn. — Had lunch with Richard Petty just the other day.

Well, that's not exactly the truth ...

Richard Petty cooked my lunch the other day, 'bout as good a "Super Dog" as ever greased a paper plate.

And that's exactly the truth ...

Absolutely!

Which is one of Richard Petty's favorite words ... Absolutely!

This Richard Petty uses that word a lot, almost as much as the other Richard Petty uses "You know what I mean ..."

OK, let me clear up any confusion you may be residing in at the moment.

Lebanon, Tenn., ain't Level Cross, N.C., and the Richard Petty I was sitting across from was (and is) the owner of the establishment in which I was sitting, the Week Day Café. And this Richard Petty has never so much as sat in a stock car, least of all stock car #43.

Absolutely!

This Richard Petty is 29 years old and dropped out of Middle Tennessee State at age 20 to cook for a living.

You listen to this Richard Petty and you have two choices as to what led him to the commercial cook stove.

The first choice is ...

"I love to cook, got it from my mother. From the time I was old enough to stay by myself, about 13, I was cooking every day of my life. I cooked everything."

The second choice is ...

"Got started when I was at Middle Tennessee, at the student center by 4:30 every morning to cook breakfast for the other students. Made $6.17 an hour. That irked me, but I had to do something to make money to stay in school."

Take your choice. One of the two is true.

Absolutely!

What is also true is you can't believe Absolutely everything when you're in the presence of this Richard Petty.

I figured that out while glancing over the single-fold menu for the Week Day Café. At the bottom of page 2, this:

Ask Richard or Mama if they had a hankering to stir up something special for the day in addition to our regular side menu items.

I asked Richard if Mama was around, said I'd like to meet her.

"She ain't here anymore," said Richard. "She left. Mama had some problems."

Your Mama?

"Naw, just what we called her. Sort of thing that sounds good in a restaurant."

Well, I asked, what about this right here, where it says: "Mama's Dumplings."

"Those are my dumplings," he said. "We just called them Mama's Dumplings for the sound of it."

But this Richard Petty, just like the other one, has goals.

"Got it all planned out," he said, "Retire when I'm 60 and have enough money to play golf every day the rest of my life."

Serious about that, Richard?

Absolutely!

On the way out of town, I thought some about this Richard Petty ... around burping fueled by the best Super Dog to ever grease a paper plate ...

Absolutely!