Coleman finally the right height in first NBS season

TALLADEGA, Ala. -- At one time, Brad Coleman was worried about being tall enough to get behind the wheel. Now, it seems the sky's the limit.

The 19-year-old Houston native, who still grabs a peanut butter and jelly sandwich before each race -- "it gives me good energy" -- has taken just seven years to go from the kid goofing around at the local go-karting center to the young man with a Busch Pole Award flag flying proudly from a pole out back of the No. 18 Chevrolet hauler at Talladega Superspeedway.

Coleman wins first Busch Series pole

He may just be 19, this is just his seventh career Busch Series race, but that doesn't matter to Brad Coleman who won his first pole with a qualifying lap of 184.229 mph for the Aaron's 312 at Talladega.

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"I had been driving karts ever since I was tall enough to do Malibu Grand Prix [in elementary school]," Coleman said Saturday before the Aaron's 312. "But never something serious like racing go-karts.

"There was a height restriction. You had to be like five feet tall and I was struggling to get there. When I finally did, I was really happy."

Then a chance meeting with road racing legend Price Cobb changed Coleman's life.

"One of my dad's friends was co-owner of [Houston Indoor Karting Center] and he invited me over for the grand opening," Coleman said. "And he also knew Price, which was why Price was there. And that's how we all met."

It was the first time Coleman had driven a high-performance kart, but he looked like a seasoned pro.

"I was just going around, lapping all the older guys," Coleman said. "[Cobb] invited us to breakfast the next morning and we worked a deal out there.

"He invited me to move out to Colorado and live there and travel with his Toyota Atlantic team and learn about racing and see if I really truly wanted to do it and I just fell in love with it after that."

Since then, Coleman's career path has shadowed that of Jeff Gordon, starting with open-wheeled cars and then moving to stock cars. The major difference? Coleman drove in the 24 Hours of Daytona in a prototype before his 16th birthday, about the time Gordon was still tearing up the midget and sprint car circuits in Indiana.

"I started doing open-wheel cars, road racing," Coleman said. "Then I started doing Late Models while I was doing sports cars. I've just done so many different types of cars. I trained for any opportunity I had, but once I started driving Late Models, I just fell in love with NASCAR."

Like most drivers in the Busch Series, Coleman's ultimate goal is to advance to Nextel Cup.

"The Busch Series is pretty much like racing in Nextel Cup, and with all these drivers in it you learn so much," Coleman said. "If you do well in the Busch Series, you stand a good chance of doing well in Nextel Cup. This year is a learning experience, learn as much as I can and move on to next year."

He's got a list of accomplishments that defies his age, but racing against Gordon might end up being Coleman's biggest thrill.

"I've always looked up to Jeff Gordon growing up," Coleman said. "It's real cool knowing that one day I'll have the chance to be racing against him.

"Just watching him go by all the time, I still feel like a fan. It's like, 'Oh, man, there's Jeff Gordon!' It's just awesome, almost being able to meet my idol growing up."