On screen and on the track, driver finds success
A look at some of the young drivers who are on the sport's horizon
By RICK MINTER Cox News Service
Chad McCumbee, who gained his greatest fame through his role in a movie, is hoping racing history repeats itself as he prepares to drive for Petty Enterprises in the Nextel Cup race at Pocono Raceway next month.

The late Bobby Hamilton used a stint as a driver in the movie "Days of Thunder" as a springboard to a career in Nextel Cup, a career that saw him take two of his four career Cup victories in a Petty-prepared car.

McCumbee, who will drive the No. 45 Dodge while Kyle Petty takes some time off to be an analyst for TNT's broadcast of Cup races, played Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the ESPN movie "3" about the life of the late Dale Earnhardt Sr..

"Hopefully I can be as successful as Bobby was," McCumbee said.

"Everybody at Petty Enterprises has been good to work with, everything you could ask for."

McCumbee had been building a strong résumé before he was discovered by the movie's producers. He raced go-karts from the age of 10 at tracks around his hometown of Supply, N.C., and graduated to the Allison Legacy Series, where former Cup driver Donnie Allison noticed his potential.

"[Allison] was the first guy to say, 'Hey, you can do this as a career,' " McCumbee said.

From there, he moved to Harrisburg, N.C., enrolled in the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and took a job with Andy Hillenburg's FasTrack Driving School.

He began driving Hillenburg's ARCA cars and did well with them. And it was at FasTrack that McCumbee's movie career got its start.

"Barry Pepper, who played Dale Earnhardt Sr., came through the school to learn something about what he'd be doing with the movie," McCumbee said.

"He asked me if I had any acting experience, and of course I said 'no.' "

Still, he was asked to read some lines and was hired to play Dale Jr. "I think it was the Southern drawl," McCumbee said. "And the racing history

I had helped, too."

He said acting was one of the

coolest things he's ever done, but he

wants to make his mark as a real race driver.

He's running well in Bobby

Dotter's No. 08 Chevrolet on the Craftsman Truck Series this season, but a

steady run in the Cup race

at Pocono would be a big

boost for his career.

"I just want to do a good job for the Pettys," he said. "I want to keep them in the top 35 in owner points, finish the race, stay on the lead lap

and learn as much as I can."

NASCAR