Approaching the tunnel leading into Daytona International Speedway, Owen Kelly flaunted his Dale Earnhardt Jr. red-hooded sweatshirt. Having traveled thousands of miles from Australia, he was eager to watch the Great American Race for the first time and more proud to do so with Junior Nation.

After witnessing NASCAR's marquee event, Kelly journeyed back home taking with him fond memories and daydreams of what might have been. Thoughts of what life might be like for a 30-year-old V8 Supercars Series racer from Tasmania to spend some time in the American world of stock-car racing.

“

If this was the only time I was going to meet [Dale Earnhardt Jr.], I was going to tell him I'd like an opportunity to race his cars. I wasn't NOT going to tell him.

”

-- OWEN KELLY

"But I never thought I'd drive for Dale Jr. that day," blurted the now 31-year-old Aussie transplant living in Mooresville, N.C. "Obviously the question doesn't even come up in your head. You're just happy to be at the Daytona 500."

But the question, later that winter, did come to his head -- the question of driving for NASCAR's most popular driver.

Through happenstance and a random turn of events, Kelly is now on a three-year United States visa from Australia to race Late Models in the Southeast for JR Motorsports. More than that, Kelly landed his first Late Model victory this month in the season finale Mid-Atlantic Championship at Caraway Speedway in North Carolina.

Kelly pulled off an upset victory with six laps to go on two veteran Late Model racers.

"I knew I could do it. You wouldn't do it if you didn't think you could win, but every week you have to put yourself in a position to win and then you have to get the breaks," Kelly said from his home located on Earnhardt's more than 200-acre estate in North Carolina. "The win was a huge relief and also it was one of the biggest races of the year. It definitely justified Junior's decision. I'm sure at first people were like 'who is this dude Junior brought back from Australia.'"

Humor, along with talent, is something else Kelly brought back with him from Down Under; the catalyst for the fast friendship struck between him and Earnhardt who both met during an off-season vacation at Phillip Island, Australia.

Kelly was finishing the last round of his V8 season.

"I had heard Dale Jr. was coming because he was on holiday ... a public relations guy brought him down to our pits and I met him," Kelly recalled. "He and his friends were going to Sydney and the Gold Coast."

So Kelly offered to be their travel guide more or less and the group ended up at the nearby track testing V8 cars together along with fellow Aussie Marcos Ambrose.

"He was like a kid in a candy shop," Kelly said of Earnhardt's reaction. "I wondered how a guy who drives in the Sprint Cup Series could be that excited. He did an awesome job."

The group chummed around awhile and drank a few beers and ended up discussing Kelly's future stock-car career. The Aussie mentioned he had raced a few Late Model events for Robert Pressley in his off time with the help of his pal Ambrose back in May 2007. Kelly and Ambrose raced go-karts against one another as youngsters.

"If this was the only time I was going to meet him, I was going to tell him I'd like an opportunity to race his cars," recalled Kelly. "I wasn't NOT going to tell him."

Kelly said Earnhardt told him that he had to get with the other Kelley (his sister) and work something out. At the end of the beers and an honorable handshake, Kelly had a job racing stockcars in America.

The transition you could say was as tough as moving from V8 cars to Late Models.

"Finding the supermarket was a bit of a mission and the worst part was trying to get a phone," he said. "They wouldn't give me a phone. I was on a visa and had no credit, which is actually worse than having bad credit. Little things like that, you take for granted."

But since his relocation in March, Kelly is fending well for himself. In 23 Late Model starts this season, he has several top-five finishes and at least a dozen top-10 finishes.

Kelly started racing at 8 years old looking to follow his father's path. He raced go-karts for 10 years before moving to Australian Formula Ford Championship racing in 1998 and progressed onward to the Australian equivalent of Sprint Cup Series racing, the V8 Supercars Series.

He enjoys American stock-car racing and hopes to advance to the Nationwide Series soon under the JR Motorsports banner.

"At some point," he said. "But I'm not trying to speed that up. We are learning a bunch with the Late Models and Dale Jr. is the best person to tell you when you're ready to step it up, so I'm going to wait until he's happy to present that opportunity."