OVAL OFFICE INTERVIEWS.(Brief Article)(Interview)

How did you first get involved in racing?

Jeff Burton: I began driving at the age of five, so I've been doing this almost 30 years. I guess driving just came naturally for me. With two older brothers racing ahead of me, I was following them around track to track basically from birth. I would go with them every week to their races, and when I turned five, I started racing go-carts myself.

Casey Atwood: When I was 10, one of my friends got a go-cart. I watched him race out at Nashville Speedway. I wanted one right away. I begged my dad until I finally got one, too. As soon as I started racing, I really liked it. Then we started traveling and I was doing pretty good. I moved up to late models when I was 15. My dad was paying for it himself, so I figured that would be as far as I would go. But I did pretty good in late models and started getting some attention. After two years, the Busch deal came along. Once I was in that Busch car, I decided that's what I wanted to do.

Johnny Benson: I was 19 years old and had worked in my dad's race shop ever since I was a kid.... I raced dirt for a while around Grand Rapids (Mich.), then moved up to asphalt and just kept progressing all the way up through NASCAR.

Mark Martin: I started driving fast when I was 2 years old with a pedal car. I crashed a lot, but I've always loved going fast. I got my first race car when I was 15, and after I had won a whole bunch of races, I realized that I could do this for a living instead of just for fun.

Steve Park: My dad was a racer so it was just a natural progression for me to get involved. He bought me my first go-cart when I was 10, and I've been racing ever since.

Ricky Rudd: My father ran a salvage yard and so wa always had ...