Jeff Barkshire has had the opportunity to do a variety of things in life, but racing in NASCAR didn't appear to be one of them.

Sure he had lots of experience as a young boy racing Quarter Midgets and dreamed the proverbial I-want- to-be-a-racecar-driver dream. But at 15 years old, cars were in his rear-view mirror.

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You only get so many years to try to make it in racing. I figured I can go to college anytime if racing doesn't work out.

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JEFF BARKSHIRE

"We just didn't know where to go after Midgets. My family has never been a big racing family or anything," said the now 25-year-old Barkshire.

The Washington native went to college at Central Washington University to study mechanical engineering, although time in the classroom was short-lived as Barkshire's desire to get back behind the wheel of a car far outweighed his need to learn the principles of physics.

He convinced his father the two needed to revisit the subject of racing and Barkshire began working in the trenches at a well-known race shop in Wenatchee, Wash. The decision made four years ago progressively culminated into a family-run NASCAR Camping World Series West team where Barkshire is competing for rookie of the year, and after nine starts found Victory Lane for the first time at Evergreen Speedway last week.

"I know I didn't race for a long time, but I decided I just wouldn't be happy with myself if I didn't try it again," Barkshire said.

His earlier efforts started in the toilettes, literally.

In 2002, Barkshire began working at Evans Racing Enterprises, an accomplished NASCAR Elite Division Northwest Series team at that time.

"I got hired as the cleanup boy for minimum wage and the first thing I did was clean the bathrooms at the shop, but by two years they had taught me everything I needed to know in order to build a racecar," Barkshire said.

In the midst of his tutelage under team owner Garrett Evans, Barkshire secured a loan to buy one of the teams' Late Model cars for $15,000 and was able to go racing at various events around Washington. He raced when he wasn't traveling for the boss. He worked on Evans' equipment during the day and his own at night.

"You only get so many years to try to make it in racing," Barkshire said. "I figured I can go to college anytime if racing doesn't work out." (Continued)