[Verse 1 - come in with the pulse already going, low and half-spoken over a moving bed] Everything changes. That's the one thing you can count on. Nobody asks if you're ready. Nobody hands you a vote. I found that out at speed, a long time back, when I was young. So I quit bracing against what's coming. I take it and I run. [Chorus - full band hits, organ and soul-tinged backing vocals in, gritty low melody with fight, the lift] I'm into the last corner now, the front straight opening up ahead. There's a sadness riding along in the seat beside me. But I know what's waiting the second I get off this turn, the flag up and wavin', and everything I ever ran for. Foot flat to the floor. Drive it like you stole it. [Verse 2 - pull the band back but keep the pulse under it, never fully strips down] I picked a life that could take a man young, and it took a few I loved. I still talk to them. They don't answer, and they don't get old. They stopped where they stopped. I kept going. I've outlived my own mother and father now. Older than either of them ever got to be. Doesn't feel like it should be allowed. [Verse 3 - build steadily across the verse, empty-room lines drop for a bar then climb back, pushing into the chorus] Then the biggest change of all pulled up quiet at the house. Both beds still made, the girls grown and gone to their own lives. I stood in that empty room and I did not come apart, because every change before it had already taught me how. A friend told me once that racing is learning. Living's the same. Every loss showed me something true I didn't want to see, and handed me back to myself. Being glad it happened at all is what lifts a man up off the floor. [Chorus - bigger than the first, full band, organ and backing vocals, gritty low melody with fight] I'm into the last corner now, the front straight opening up ahead. There's a sadness riding along in the seat beside me. But I know what's waiting the second I get off this turn, the flag up and wavin', and everything I ever ran for. Foot flat to the floor. Drive it like you stole it. [Bridge - the one breath, thin to voice and organ on the going-down lines, then swell hard on the last line into the final choruses] I lost my love and I won her back. Married the same heart twice. Built a good run of work with people I was proud to stand with. Twice I had to let it go, and it never once got easier. Then I lost the last thing, the belief I had any business still trying. Only got it back by going all the way down, far enough to see how much worse it gets, and wanting it anyway. [Chorus - full drive back in, organ and backing vocals wide, gritty low melody with fight] I'm into the last corner now, the front straight opening up ahead. There's a sadness riding along in the seat beside me. But I know what's waiting the second I get off this turn, the flag up and waviin', and everything I ever ran for. Foot flat to the floor. Drive it like you stole it. [Outro - biggest, full and open, backing vocals wide, drive it out and let it ride, no hard stop] Leaving's part of living. Everybody's turn comes up. The whole point is to build something with your life before you go. That's the gift, and I'm still here spending it. I was the youngest at the table once. Now I'm up at the front of the line, So I hand down what I was given to whoever's coming up behind me. I'm still racing to my destiny, learning every lap. Bring on the next one. Drive it like you stole it. [End] Lyrics © 2026 Paul Pfanner.
