So, in 1990 he moved his rag-tag race team to the famous Nashville Speedway, a track that had launched the careers of Mark Martin and Sterling Marlin. At Nashville he raced Late Models winning two races, three poles, 10 top 5's, and ended 4th in points during the 92 season. He was coming into his own.
In 1993 he moved up another step and began racing the ARCA circuit. With determination and good sponsorship from Shoney's he debuted with a vengeance, scoring eight top 5's, and 10 top 10's. And at the end of the season he had firmly claimed the Rookie of the Year title. It was also in that same year that he made his first debut in Winston Cup, qualifying for the race in Charlotte, where he had the chance to walk down the line among his idols, the O'boys, who are the drivers from Owensboro like Darrell and Michael Waltrip and the Green family (David, Mark, and Jeff).
By taking the ARCA series by storm, he caught the eye of Winston Cup team owners and raced eight of the first 16 races. Then he was taken in by the legendary Cale Yarborough in the 17th race of the season and finished the rest of the season driving Cale's #98 RCA car.
"Everywhere I've been, I'd done well. But I haven't been in one place very long."
And he didn't stay long with Yarborough, before taking the top sport in the Michael Kranefuss team in late in the '96 season when he and John Andretti swapped rides. With the strong infrastructure at Kranefuss racing he was able to grab 13th in the '97 season with eight top 10's.
