The prodigious career of Brian Vickers dates back to the age of 10, when he began racing go-karts. Before graduating to the Allison Legacy Cars Series in 1998, Vickers left go-karts a three-time national champion and accumulated 83 career victories.

While in the Allison series, he captured five wins in just one season before advancing to NASCAR's Weekly Racing Series where the 16-year-old continued to turn heads. By the end of 1999, Vickers had six Late Model wins and 11 pole awards.

He was the 1999 "Rising Star of the Year" as voted by Motorsports Magazine. In 2000, he joined the highly competitive USAR ProCup Series. During his first year in ProCup, Vickers won two races and became the youngest winner in series history, also taking home rookie of the year honors at the banquet. In 2001, Vickers once again captured two ProCup wins and finished second in the point standings.

Vickers made his Busch Series debut in 2001 at Milwaukee. An early accident took him out of contention after just 54 laps, but Vickers did compete in three more Busch Series races in 2001 before making 21 Busch starts in 2002 with a family-owned team. His best career result came at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway, finishing seventh after starting 38th.

In 2003, Vickers became the youngest Busch Series champion in history, winning the honor at the ripe-old age of 20.

Credit: nascarracingnow.com