Focus : Breaking Away : ‘COACH’S’ CRAIG T. NELSON MERGES HIS PASSION FOR RACE CARS WITH A FILM ABOUT BIKE RACING

It’s just been a few days since Craig T. Nelson’s Screaming Eagles auto team participated at the famed Sebring race in Florida. Unfortunately for the Emmy Award-winning star of ABC’s hit comedy “Coach,” things didn’t go according to plan at the 12-hour event.

“We only got five laps,” Nelson says good-naturedly. “So basically, one guy did five laps and then the engine went. I was standing in the pit being an owner watching my investment go up in smoke.”

Nelson, 50, is eating a huge seafood salad at one of his favorite restaurants on Lankershim Boulevard in North Hollywood, not far from where “Coach” films at Universal Studios. He’s in an amiable mood despite the fact that the race forced him “into a real kind of reality check, not only about the money being spent, but, ‘Is this a viable format to be racing in? Is it a real thing or an imaginary ego boost? Is it something that you really want to do? How much are you committed to?’ ”

He’s already made some decisions about the future and is putting together a plan to really “take a look at what we are doing in terms of the season, as far as racing goes.”

Nelson, who also is executive producer and recurring director on “Coach,” became hooked on racing three years ago when he came in third place at the Toyota Celebrity Long Beach Grand Prix. The sport, he says, not only pumps up his adrenalin but also demands incredible concentration and physical sense.

“You really have to work at it, and for that period of time when you are in a race car, you’re so focused that nothing else goes on,” Nelson explains. At the same time, Nelson adds, racing also “reveals a sense of identity. It gets you back to real important basics like, ‘I really want to stay alive right now.’ It forces you to take stock of yourself. It forces you to pay attention. It’s a real moment-to-moment sport.”

Not so coincidentally, Nelson plays a professional bike racer in the film “Ride With the Wind,” which premieres Monday on ABC. Nelson also wears the hats of executive producer and co-writer on the drama.

Sporting long hair and a beard, Nelson plays Frank Shelby, a veteran racer whose years on the track have taken their toll. Not only does he race in the fast lane, he also lives in one. Abusing alcohol, drugs, friends and women, Frank is at the end of his tether. Ultimately, he finds hope and recovery when he meets two people: sophisticated bank manager Katherine (Helen Shaver) and Danny (Bradley Pierce), her young son, who is dying.

Nelson says he and the TV-movie character share the same type of thrill from racing. “It’s a different mentality,” Nelson says, sipping on iced tea. “One is almost a journeyman, Gypsy nomad who follows the route of the caravan, and the other is someone who enjoys it perhaps as a hobby. The majority of the guys I met (who raced) were from the Midwest and had done it from childhood on.

What drew him to the project, Nelson says, was not only the journey Frank takes in the drama but Frank’s drug abuse. “Finding at one time in your life a chance to give that up and making the decision to do that,” explains Nelson, who, like Frank, battled substance abuse. ‘If you have that problem, this choice will come up.”

In Frank’s case, he says, a miracle saves him. “Sometimes it’s through other people, and sometimes it’s not. It happened through this kid who he responded to, for whatever reason.”

Nelson, a perfectionist, says he’s not sure he did an “adequate” job in rewriting the original script. “I’m not altogether pleased with what happened in the end result,” he says candidly. “It’s a combination of things. I feel somewhat that because of the restrictions I had network-wise, in terms of who this person was, I had to de-emphasize all of the rough aspects of him.”

Nelson says his aim was to explore “the emotions, feelings, the looks and the changes that occur in us without this pinpointing everything and making it so apparent. I don’t think I was entirely successful with that either. It’s a love story and I felt the love occurred in a strange and interesting way. It happened through hands, touch and the ability of two people from completely different worlds to find some repose in each other.

“There are a lot of good things in it, a lot of good characters. There were some ideas I really liked which I will use again, if I ever do this again. I am proud of a lot of it.”

“Ride With the Wind” airs Monday at 9 p.m. on ABC; “Coach” airs Tuesdays at 9:30 p.m. on ABC.