Where is ... Steve Grissom?

Steve Grissom isn't exactly looking for a ride in any of NASCAR's top three divisions, but that's not to say that he would turn one down.

Instead, these days, Grissom is more focused on the burgeoning racing career of his son, Kyle. The 18-year-old raced this year at the famed Hickory Motor Speedway, where he won one race with fellow second- and third-generation drivers Chrissie Wallace (daughter of Mike) and Coleman Pressley (son of Robert and grandson of Bob) coming in second and third, respectively.

Kyle wants to go racing, and his daddy wants him to if it's truly the career he wants to pursue. Really, it's all the kid's ever known.

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Steve Grissom

"It's definitely what he wants to do," Steve Grissom says of his son, a senior at Cannon High School in Concord, N.C. "Since he was two weeks old, he's been going to the racetrack. Back when we had our own Busch team, he was at the shop all the time. He's done quite a bit of racing, got quite a bit of experience."

Still, this is certainly a daddy-knows-best-situation if ever there was one. Steve Grissom has known the very heights the sport has to offer, and its lowest, darkest valleys. He knows how tough it is to get a foothold in the sport ... and how easy it is to lose one.

He's never tried to talk Kyle out of trying to go racing, necessarily, although they've had what Grissom calls "a lot" of conversations about how hard it is to break into the sport. Would Steve like to see Kyle do something different? Maybe. Racing can be a hard road. But if that's what the young man wants, Daddy Grissom just wants to be there to help guide his son's career, whichever path it might take.

The youngster started racing when was -- get this -- 4 years old. He's progressed ever since, from go-karts to Bandeleros to Legends cars to Late Models. Steve owns the cars that Kyle now races.

"It's a lot of fun [working with Kyle]," said the elder Grissom, who also has 6-year-old twin daughters, Katie and Stephanie, with wife Susan. "It's pretty neat, in that I kinda know what he's going through and can relate a good bit to what's going on. It's been a lot of fun following him up through the ranks.

"Wanting to [race] and getting to, you know, sometimes that's kind of a tough deal. There's only so far you can go [on your own]. The main thing is getting the right break or the right opportunity. ... I know Kyle's my son and all, but he really does have the ability and the potential to make it in the sport. Like a lot of others drivers, it's all in just getting the right breaks. That's kinda the tough part about the whole deal."

Steve Grissom first made a splash in big-league stock-car racing when he won four Busch Series races in 1990 -- the first two of which came in a row during the summer, while the next two were in the final couple of races of the season. He would go on to capture the 1993 Busch Series championship with his family-owned operation.

It wasn't easy, not with a family team. Then again, that's what made the title all the more special, because it had been a struggle to get the deal up and running, and then to make it successful. Grissom eventually topped future Cup colleague Ricky Craven by 253 points.

"It definitely meant a lot," Grissom said. "It meant a lot at the time and it means a lot now, knowing the situation and what it took from everybody concerned -- the guys on the team, my whole family, my mother and daddy, my two brothers, Susan. It means a lot."

Grissom's first Cup effort came with Diamond Ridge Motorsports in 1994. The ride lasted halfway through the 1996 season, when he was released by team owner Gary Bechtel. It wasn't the best of situations, but Grissom made it back onto the track with Larry Hedrick in 1997 and '98.

He hasn't had a full-time Cup ride since. Grissom ran a full Truck schedule for Petty Enterprises in 2000, and also ran some Cup races for the team. Asked if he's satisfied with the way his career has turned out to this point, Grissom takes a second to form his answer.

"In ways, yeah, but mostly, no," he said. "It's probably just a couple of mistakes made along the way. [It was] hard to overcome those. ... How's the right way of saying this? You don't always realize this, but the older you get, maybe the smarter you get. Maybe a couple of different moves might would've been better in my interests."

The Alabama native misses driving, misses racing. When you're a racer, that's what you do. You race. Grissom did run this year's Busch Series season opener at Daytona. Past that, he's devoted to getting Kyle on track, both literally and figuratively. He's not actively pursuing another ride for himself, but if the right deal came along, at just 44, he'd definitely be interested.

That's the way life works. The way family works.

"You always keep your ear to the ground," Grissom said. "I've got a lot of friends in all three garage areas, so you kinda keep up with what's going on. But knocking on doors, making phone calls ... I've done all that stuff. Now I'm focused on Kyle."