The Pembertons

Robin and Ryan Pemberton were the typical siblings as children. Anything you can do, I can do better, was a common ideal for both.

The only problem is, the desire to stay "one up" on each other hasn't left the pair of brothers, both now established crew chiefs in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series.

"It's just being competitive," said Ryan Pemberton, who left the No. 77 Jasper Engines & Transmissions Ford late in 2002 and will return to MB2 Motorsports in 2003 to chief for Jerry Nadeau's U.S. Army Pontiac. "It don't matter what it was, really, we've just always been a competitive family.

"When we grew up...it doesn't matter whether it was racing across the parking lot on foot, a basketball game out in the front yard or racing. I guess if I could do anything else I probably would have played professional sports, but I couldn't do that so this is the next best thing."

"We just wanna run up front. You wanna beat 'em, you have a little bragging rights when you go home," said Robin Pemberton, a crew chief in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series since 1985 and currently vice president and general manager for Petty Enterprises.. "But you wanna be running, you wanna beat 'em for first and second, and not anywhere else.

"I want the best for him (Ryan). I think he wants the best for me. I mean you wanna beat 'em and it's not just because he's your brother. But there's times when you find yourself looking at other competitors and you have friends out there and...we'd like to beat 'em, but we would like to have them be second and us first. That would be a great feeling."

The older of the two brothers, Robin, 44, broke into the NASCAR Winston Cup Series -- as a crew chief -- for both Bobby Allison and Greg Sacks 13 years ago. He's also worked with the likes of Morgan Shepherd, the late Neil Bonnett, Mark Martin, Kyle Petty and Ted Musgrave, before landing the job as the crew chief of the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford in Roger Penske's organization, which he kept until late 2001.

"It's a typical deal like everybody," Robin said. "It starts off as a nighttime hobby that you do. You just work on cars or work on somebody else's race car, and that's basically how it gets started."

Once he saw his older brother (13 years the elder) make it up the ladder of success, there was no doubt in Ryan's mind what he wanted to do with his life.

"You know when you're following your brother around, you watch what he's doing," Ryan said. "You automatically have an interest in it. But I think really when Robin started working for Roush Racing about the fall of 1987, that's when I really wanted to get into it.

"I was living in Greensboro (N.C.), and at the time, the shop was pretty close to Greensboro. I got to hanging out a lot over there. That's pretty much it, how you just get hooked on it."

Ryan got his start on the ground floor, literally. He began sweeping floors at Roush Racing in 1988, and later became a mechanic. Eventually the pair and third brother, Roman, would work together at Roush.

That alliance eventually ended and in 1991, Ryan moved over to Robert Yates Racing, where he worked as a tire specialist for the late Davey Allison.

From 1993 to 1995, Ryan went to work at Team SABCO for Felix Sabates and driver Kyle Petty, and then got his first taste as a crew chief for Larry Pearson's NASCAR Busch Series Grand National Division team in 1995-96.

Pemberton was then hired at MB2 Motorsports to be its first crew chief for the No. 36 Skittles Pontiac team in 1997, with the team's inaugural driver Derrike Cope.

"He had always had it in him and he's really mechanically oriented," Robin said of Ryan. "When he was just six years old, he was taking lawn mowers apart and putting 'em back together. I mean he's way more advanced than I was at that age."

Ryan, however, realizes that he's got a long way to go to top anything his brother has ever done in NASCAR Winston Cup racing.

"I go to him for advice," Ryan said. "He's been doing it for years and years, so I go ask him. He knows what I'm asking. I wanna do the things that my brother's done. I think that I pattern myself after him a lot. I've always said if I can be half as successful as he is, then I'd be fairly successful myself.

"It's so hard to beat somebody like him. He's won a lot of races and been competitive, and made runs for championships. I wanna try to do that, I mean at least have the opportunity to win the championship and win races.

"That's what we all want. There's only 30-plus winners a year and one champion a year. It's very tough, and just being a little competitive every week, week in and week out, that's when the wins will come. And if you do it right, the championship will come."