Going for Broke

NASCAR team owner Jeff Milburn might never win a race, but there's more to life than a checkered flag

A A A Comments By Robert Wilonsky Thursday, May 24 2007

...continued from page 4

Courtesy Jeff Milburn

Jeff Milburn has a dream and a fast truck. He doesn't need much else.

Courtesy Jeff Milburn

The love of fast cars came early for Milburn.

More About

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Weekly Newsletter: Our weekly feature stories, movie reviews, calendar picks and more - minus the newsprint and sent directly to your inbox.

And if it doesn't, well, there's always that movie work to fall back on. There's always some garage that needs a mechanic. There's always some movie star or rock-and-roller who needs a hot rod custom-built by yesterday. There's always work for a guy who can make something out of nothing. But it's work all the same, and work ain't the same as a dream you've been chasing since you were out of diapers and tearing apart the lawnmower carburetor.

"This might be it," Milburn says, "These next three races might be it, and then I might be in too deep. But, fuck, that would be depressing if this was as far as I could go, because then if you quit, you've gone backwards, and I don't ever wanna go backwards. That's why I needed to stand up when I was in that wheelchair. You don't wanna go backwards. You don't wanna talk about what you're gonna do; you don't wanna talk about what you did. You just wanna be doing shit."