I have written or edited about the auto industry on and off (mostly on) since 1985, first at The Indianapolis Star then, for more than a dozen years, at Bloomberg News in Detroit, followed by almost nine years at SME Media. I've chronicled how some auto-factory towns dried up as the industry restructured; how other rural areas benefited from investment in U.S. factories by international automakers; been inside plants; saw how automakers used racing as a marketing tool and (in some cases) for developing engineering talent. I've been everywhere from the factory floor to (on one occasion) driving a race car on the same track as an executive.