Charlie Brock is car chief for the No. 82 Toyota driven by Scott Speed in the Sprint Cup Series.

Although that is in itself impressive enough to place on your resume, Brock's true claim to fame in the NASCAR garage is his connection with the old Alabama Gang. Brock is the grandson of legendary dirt-track driver Red Farmer, who also once served as Davey Allison's crew chief. This past weekend in the comfortable surroundings of Talladega Superspeedway, Brock spoke with NASCAR.COM about growing up around his grandfather and their often intertwined lives in racing.

“

I've lived a special life. I've been in racing since I was born. It's all I've ever known, all I've ever done. ... It's in my blood.

”

-- CHARLIE BROCK

Q: First, how about a little of your background?

Brock: Actually, people ask where I'm from and it's kind of hard to say. I was born in Brentwood, Tennessee, but then I lived in Hueytown, Alabama every summer from the time when I was 4 or 5 years old. I worked on my grandfather's race cars. I'd go back home to school in Tennessee, and as soon as school was out, I'd come back to Alabama. That went on until I graduated from high school in 1991, and then I moved down to live with my grandfather and worked for Davey Allison full time on his Busch [Series] cars. I moved to Charlotte in 1995 and went Cup racing.

Q: What has it been like to be the grandson of such a racing icon as Red Farmer? To others, he's a legend; to you, he's that but also just grandpa?

Brock: Yeah, he's my grandpa -- and he's like everybody else's grandpa in many ways. He's a special guy. He's an American legend; a living legend. He's still racing at 77 years old. You never see him turn down an autograph or turn down an interview with anybody. He's always there for the fans to do whatever they want. He helps everybody out as much as he can.

When I graduated high school, I moved to Hueytown and lived in the front bedroom of their house. I lived there until 1995 with him and my grandmother. We'd get done working about 4 o'clock in the afternoon and go load up the bass boat and go fishing in the dark. ... We spent every day together. Basically we would work together in Davey's shop and come home and eat dinner, and then we'd either go fishing or go out in the shop behind his house and work on dirt cars until 10:30 or 11 at night. Then we'd go racin' on the weekends. (Continued)