Last Monday morning, while many of his former NASCAR peers were preparing to run the rain-delayed Auto Club 500 in California, Buckshot Jones was working traffic, too. But he was on I-85, far from the hustle and bustle of Sprint Cup racing, chauffeuring his sons Kolton and Levin to school in Norcross.

And even though his NASCAR career never reached its full potential, he wouldn't have it any other way. He's now earning his living as a land developer and spending quality time with his kids, something many NASCAR drivers have little time to do.

Still, he said, there are some lingering regrets about his racing career, which essentially ended midway through the 2002 season when he was released at age 31 by Petty Enterprises.

Ironically, one of the best runs of his Cup career came in his final start, at Talladega in September 2003. Driving a car prepared by Dale Earnhardt Inc. he started 16th, drove to the front and led 19 laps before a blown tire took away any chance of a good finish.

Although he mostly struggled while racing Cup cars for the Pettys, his career in the Busch Series, now known as Nationwide, was another story.

Driving cars he and his father fielded themselves, he won twice — at Milwaukee in 1996 and at New Hampshire in 1998. He also won two poles and scored 13 top-five and 33 top-10 finishes in 147 career starts.

"Looking back on everything, I wish things would have worked different and I could have raced a couple more years," Jones said. "I had a lot of fun. I got to meet a lot of people. I got do something I really loved.

"But I was given an opportunity to do something else and make a good living and stay at home. When that came along I said, 'Man, I can't give that up.' "

That something else is real-estate development. Jones buys undeveloped land, divides it into lots, makes improvements and then sells it in parcels. He handles both residential and commercial tracts.

Lately, business hasn't been so good around home for the Hoschton resident.

"Georgia is absolutely terrible," he said. "We haven't started any new subdivisions, so I'm actually kind of bored right now."

To stay busy, he has been working in and around Greenville, S.C., where the real-estate market is stronger.

"We've got four different subdivisions going on, with about 300 lots in all, and one commercial tract," he said.

But he said the thrill of scoring a big real-estate deal doesn't come close to the elation that comes from winning NASCAR races.

"The only thing better than winning a race is having a child," he said. "Nothing else compares. If you hit a home run in land, you make a lot of money. In racing, if you win a race, there's no amount of money that you could ever put on that."

Jones said that even though he misses racing, he doesn't regret his decision to walk away.

"I miss racing a lot, more so now, but I'd never go back and do it full-time," he said. "Being able to be home and be with my two boys, I wouldn't trade that for anything.

"When you're racing, you don't know anything else. Seeing Mark Martin and other guys who have children, I think they regret to some degree not being able spend as much time with their children. But what else are they going to do? They didn't know anything else.

"But me, I've always been close with family. I'm not going to do it any other way."