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When Brent Sherman joined the Air Force following high school, he wasn't even a racing fan. Now 31, he's competing against drivers who have been behind the wheel since they were children. He ran a handful of Busch Series races in 2004 and has since caught on with ppc Racing, where he'll finish out the 2005 season. |
By JIM McCONNELL
Imagine trying to compete against Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson after swinging a golf club for the first time at age 23. That's essentially what Brent Sherman is trying to do in the NASCAR Busch Series.
Unlike most professional drivers, Sherman wasn't born with a steering wheel in his hands. He didn't grow up racing go-karts on the weekends or work his way up through the racing pipeline until he reached NASCAR.
Instead, after graduating from high school, Sherman enlisted in the Air Force. For six years, he worked as an air surveillance technician aboard an E-3 Sentry AWACS, while assigned to the 963rd AWACS Squadron at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma. During that time, he logged more than 3,000 hours of flying combat, surveillance and instruction missions over Saudi Arabia, Turkey and several other countries.
During the final year of his enlistment, Sherman was bitten by the racing bug.
His father bought him a three-day session at the Jim Russell Racing School in Sonoma, Calif., as a birthday present. After completing the course, Sherman was invited to compete against about 100 other graduates for a racing scholarship in the Russell Champ Series.
Wouldn't you know it? He won.
Suddenly, a career in the Air Force no longer looked quite so attractive. Sherman was determined to make a run at driving cars for a living.
"It would've been very easy to just stay in the Air Force," said Sherman, a 31-year-old Minnesota native who now lives outside Chicago. "When I got out, I had no other income. So I moved into my dad's basement to save money. It wasn't always easy, but I had to suck it up and make some sacrifices."
When Sherman began his racing career, he was still employed by the U.S. government. So he worked his regular job on the base from Monday to Friday, then flew out to California and raced all weekend.
After leaving the Air Force, Sherman raced in the Skip Barber Dodge Pro Series and Grand American Road Racing Association before switching over to stock cars and running his first full ARCA season in 2003. He was an immediate sensation, finishing fourth and second in the series points standings.
Sherman competed in a handful of NASCAR Busch Series races in 2004 in the No. 58 for Akins Motorsports and planned to run a full schedule with the team in 2005. But Glynn Motorsports bought out his team, and after 11 races and one top-10 finish between the two teams, Sherman and his sponsors parted ways with the team.
"I thought I was making the right decision," Sherman said of his initial move to NASCAR. "It was completely the opposite of what I thought. I probably had six different crew chiefs, and when you're trying to switch teams and crew chiefs all the time, it does affect your performance on the track. I just never got to jell with anybody."
Fortunately for Sherman, he had the one commodity that always opens doors in any business: money. With solid sponsorship from Serta and Hickory Farms, Sherman landed a new ride with ppc Racing in July, and he'll complete the 2005 Busch Series season in the No. 10 Ford Taurus.
Sherman was immediately encouraged by his new surroundings, especially since the other driver in ppc Racing's two-car operation, Kenny Wallace, has been in the top five in Busch Series points for most of the season.
"I've finally stumbled onto a team that I think I can be successful with," Sherman said. "They have a proven track record. They're going to give me what I need to succeed; hopefully they'll be patient enough to let me learn."
The learning curve is steep for a guy who's only been driving stock cars for the last few years. When the Busch Series last visited Richmond International Raceway in May, Sherman failed to secure a spot in the race.
"I thought I'd be running in the top 10 right away, but the competition is pretty unbelievable. These guys race to win every weekend," Sherman said. "But I measure my success differently than everybody else. I've been racing for six years, and there are guys who've been racing 10 to 15 years just in the Busch Series. I'm just trying to get better every week."
Sherman is enjoying a stable lifestyle on and off the track. Last year, he finally married Kathleen, his girlfriend of 10 years. He also added a new sponsor, Consort for Men, giving him even more financial security for the near future.
Sherman wouldn't rule out a move to Nextel Cup at some point, but said he wouldn't trade the situation he has now for a chance to run subpar equipment and lose on the next level.
"I'm not greedy," he said. "I just don't know what I'd be doing if I wasn't racing."
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