For two childhood friends to be teammates in any professional sport is a rarity, so the bond shared by two kids who grew up in Peachtree City, Ga. -- Reed Sorenson and Shane Bourgeois -- is even more unique.

The neighbors grew close on the baseball diamond, but only played that sport together for a year before Sorenson's march through the national Quarter Midget ranks -- including nine championships -- caught Bourgeois' attention.

Sorenson, who for more than the first 10 years of his career raced in equipment fielded by his family, came to depend on Bourgeois' help, even as he achieved success at each level he attempted, from Quarter Midgets as a 6-year-old to Legends cars to ASA Late Models.

When they reached the threshold of their teen years, the die was already cast, Sorenson recalled.

"I was so involved in racing that by the time I turned 12 that was it for me," Sorenson said. "Shane started coming for fun, then he started working on it, and he started making a little money because my dad would pay him a little bit."

Beginning as 12-year-olds, Sorenson drove Legends to three Atlanta Motor Speedway track championships, in 1998, 1999 and 2001, while winning 22 of 43 starts. But that was a crucible that forged their love of the sport.

"We'd race in Charlotte on Tuesday nights, at Atlanta Thursday nights and then somewhere in Georgia on Saturday nights," Sorenson said. "Most of the time it was Shane, me and my dad doing all of the work.

"Those cars were pretty easy to work on -- but still, we were only 12 or 13 years old. But we had a lot of fun doing that and we learned the basics of what it took to work on racecars.

"And we did a lot of other stuff, for fun, too."

With driving being a more intoxicating endeavor, Bourgeois stayed active in football, where he thrived in high school to the point where his parents wanted him to concentrate on that.

"I really didn't know what I wanted to do with my career," Bourgeois said. "[Looking back] I would have never expected to have made it up here, but I just kept working at it, and the right things came along.

"I didn't know much about cars at all when we started with the Legends. But like Reed said, over the years we learned more and more, as we went, and as we moved on to the ASA cars we continued to learn."

The ASA years included Sorenson becoming the youngest driver to win the national series' Pat Schauer Rookie of the Year title, at age 17 in 2003. That achievement led to him signing a driver development contract with Chip Ganassi Racing.

ASA was a turning point in more ways than one for the youthful partners.

"When we got to ASA it turned a little more serious, because it was a professional racing series and you were racing against professional race teams," Sorenson said. "That's when it got tough, because it was just me and Shane and one other guy, and my dad.

"That was hard work, because you had to know what you were doing to work on those cars. And it was stressful, because we were racing against teams that had three or four full-time people -- and we were trying to go to high school at the same time we were racing."

The men Sorenson and Bourgeois faced that first full season, such as Mike Garvey and Butch Miller, could probably barely remember their high school years. Against them, the high schoolers did well enough to finish fourth in the series.

"We weren't doing it just to waste our time, or just as a hobby," Sorenson said. "We wanted to win and we did everything we knew how to do to make sure we were as fast as we could be."

The deal with Ganassi led to the buddies making the decision to relocate to the Charlotte, N.C., area -- considered the hub of NASCAR stock car racing.

In 2007, the culmination of the pair of 21-year-olds' rise through the ranks of motorsports in tandem has them at the pinnacle of American motorsports, the Nextel Cup and Busch Series, with Ganassi's team.

"Now it's a lot different than what we did, even back in the ASA days," Sorenson said. "Now everyone is specialized, and they have to put 110 percent into their one little area on the cars.

"When you're together as much as we've been through all those years, you see a lot of good times and some bad times. By the time we get to where we are now, it's a lot more relaxed and we know how lucky we are to get this opportunity, and how much we appreciate it."

Sorenson continues his career behind the wheel, driving No. 41 Dodges in both Nextel Cup and Busch. Bourgeois, continuing the role he's held for more than a decade, works in Ganassi's suspension department at the shop during the week.

He's on the road crew, where he works as a general mechanic, whose main duty on Saturday and Sunday is setting up Sorenson's pit area, getting his pal belted into his racecar, and then supporting the over-the-wall crew and other workers in the pits during races.

Sometimes he just looks around and shakes his head.

"I never thought I'd be doing this as a career," Bourgeois said. "Back then, it was fun, but now it's a career and I never thought I'd be up here, this early."

While Sorenson -- who contested the full Busch and Nextel Cup schedules in 2006 -- continues to hone his craft behind the wheel, Bourgeois has greater aspirations.

The epitome, for him, would probably be to serve as crew chief for Sorenson -- but for now he's patiently and methodically working toward a mechanical engineering degree at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

"I'm just finishing up my third year there," Bourgeois said. "I just do that at night, taking two classes -- so it will take me about five or six years to get my degree.

"My ultimate goal is to be a crew chief, but that depends on the education and the experience I get, and that'll get me there some day, hopefully.

"You know, a lot of people don't like what they do as a job -- but I love doing this. So for me to have a job that I love to do, as young as I am, is pretty rare."

Depending on what racetrack they're at and which area of the country it's in determines what they might do with their free time, but one thing's for sure when they're back in North Carolina.

"We like to hang out at the lake," Sorenson said. "Just like anyone else would do."