Nearly 20 years later, Jeremy Marsh still remembers the feeling he got running out on to the basketball court at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis.
It's the same feeling he got when he jumped off the wall during a pit stop the first time as a front tire carrier for the ML Motorsports pit crew."I had goose bumps from head to toe," Marsh said earlier this week.
In 1992, Marsh was a junior and played guard on the Al Rhodes-coached Warsaw Community High School basketball team that was 26-2, ranked second in the state and advanced to the Final Four.
Nowadays, Marsh works full-time for the Warsaw-based stock car team, which is scheduled to compete in Saturday's Kroger 200 NASCAR Nationwide Series race at O'Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis.
Whether it was little league as a youngster, playing basketball for the Tigers - he was a known three-point shooter, earning him the nickname "the rifleman" - or trying to beat the other race teams off pit road, Marsh thrives on competition.
Competition fuels Marsh. It makes him go. Just like Sunoco fuels the blue, orange and white No. 70 Chevy owned by Mary Louise Miller and her daugher Stephany Mullen and driven by Mark Green.
"Growing up, I was involved in whatever sport the season was," said Marsh. "I played soccer, baseball, basketball, tennis. I was always involved in something. Everything I've ever done, I've always wanted to win."
As a basketball player for the Tigers, Marsh was on the winning team more often than not. And now he's enjoying success with the only Indiana-based NASCAR team.
Basketball and racing are beloved by the Hoosier State, and both sports have been good to Marsh, who says he got interested in racing when he watched Jeff Gordon win the inaugural Brickyard 400 in 1994.
Marsh later worked on a late model race car driven by Warsaw Parks Director Larry Plumer. He got involved with ML Motorsports as a pit crew member during the 2000 season.
Marsh, who now responds to the nickname "flip-flop" because of his favored footwear, has been a full-time employee at ML Motorsports for five years.
"Living in Warsaw, working on a NASCAR team wouldn't be possible without Dane and Mary Louise Miller," said Marsh. "They're the reason the race team is here in Warsaw. It's pretty cool that our shop is in Warsaw and we compete with the big boys from Charlotte. I probably wouldn't be doing this if the shop wasn't here in Warsaw. When I was in high school, basketball was a very big deal, and now NASCAR is pretty big. I'm proud to have been a part of Tiger Basketball, and now to work with the race team is an incredible feeling."
ML Motorsports is in its fourth season of Nationwide Series competition.
The 2008 season has produced the team's best NASCAR results to date, as the team finished fifth at Talladega in April and qualified fourth at Richmond a week later.
In the past eight races, ML Motorsports has finished in the top 15 four times.
Being 12 hours away from Charlotte, N.C., the hub of stock car racing, or competing each week against a number of Sprint Cup drivers that pull double duty, haven't discouraged Marsh or his teammates.
If anything, it's made them work that much harder.
And without question, racing on their home turf this weekend at ORP is going to be special for this group of Hoosiers.
"Yeah, it's a special week for us," said Marsh. "It's the only time we get to race in Indiana. It's close to home. It's in our backyard, our goal is to go there and win. With Brian (Ross') success there in late models and the Hooters Pro Cup series, I definitely think we can go there and finish in the top five."
Crew chief Brian Ross, a local racing legend known by most as "Flyin Brian", has won a number of races at the famed Indiana short track in a variety of divisions as a driver.
To go there and take the checkered flag as a crew chief would only add to his racing resume.
It might even give Jeremy Marsh goose bumps again.
Marsh and his wife, Erin, live in Warsaw and have three children, Nick, Blake and Emma.
Saturday's Kroger 200 will air live on ESPN2 at 8 p.m.
