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LOUDON, N.H. -- Martin Truex Sr. looked at his rearview mirror and saw the future chasing him.

For the first -- and only -- time, father and son raced together. The son, Martin Truex Jr., only wanted to pass his father. He didn't. Engine problems held him back.

But the son didn't need to pass his father that day. The father, who had spent more than 20 years driving modifieds and stock cars in the Northeast, knew that his 19-year-old offspring already had passed him in racing.

Soon everyone would know.

Seven years later, father and son are back at New Hampshire International Speedway, where they once raced together. They are rarely apart. As the son, the new face of one of NASCAR's most renowned teams, chats with reporters, the father is nearby. When the son drives, the father sits atop the team's pit box -- a place he has been for nearly all of Truex Jr.'s Nextel Cup races. The father will be atop the pit box today for the opening race of the Chase for the Nextel Cup.

His son, competing in his first Chase, is not among the title favorites. Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart dominate that discussion. Doesn't matter. In 10 weeks, Martin Truex Jr. could be celebrating his first Cup championship. That would complete a journey that began at this 1-mile oval when a father put his son ahead of him.

Dad Just Quit

Martin Truex Jr. couldn't understand what his father was doing. How could his father, a former New Jersey track champion and a Busch North winner at New Hampshire -- a victory almost as prestigious to Northeasterners as Daytona is to Southerners -- all of a sudden quit? And just after they had raced together for the first time? After his father finished fifth?

This was the son's inspiration walking away. A man he called his hero, and heroes aren't supposed to fail us.

"I didn't agree with it,'' Truex Jr. said of his father's decision to quit. "I wanted him to keep racing because I knew he loved it so much.''

The father knew one day the race cars he drove would be his son's. He just didn't know which day that would be. Until that New Hampshire race.

While his son might some day inherit the family business -- the nation's largest independently owned clam and specialty seafood company -- it was a passion for racing that passed from father to son.

Truex Jr. had tried the fishing business. He even worked as a deckhand on a clam boat.

"I did it enough that I knew it wasn't what I wanted to do,'' Truex Jr. said.

Racing was the son's focus. Racing was what he was best at doing.

The father could see that through the rearview mirror. The father started fourth, outside row 2. The son started fifth on the inside of row 3. The father cut down on the son and got into the bottom lane at the start. The son fell back and then started catching his father. He closed on his father's back bumper.

"It was getting ready to be a lot of fun,'' the son said, a wide, mischievous smile spreading across his face. He admitted that the memory was as fresh as if it took place yesterday.

The race had already had been fun for the father. He admitted he spent as much time looking at his son as looking ahead.

The son's car faltered, and their duel was finished. Even in those 20 or so laps, the father saw enough.

"When they get to where you feel like you're in their way, you need to give them a better opportunity,'' the father said. "The best opportunity for him was for me to stop doing it and to focus on him.''

He wasn't just a father blinded by pride. The son's talent was hard to miss.

"There was a lot of bright light there, you could see it,'' said Kelly Moore, who raced the Truex family through the years and races against his son, Ryan, in the Busch East Series (formerly the Busch North Series).

Martin Truex Jr. showed how good he was two months after that race with his father. He won the Busch North race at New Hampshire. Moore, the series' all-time victory leader, finished second.

Truex is No. 1

Second is where the son will start today's race. Regardless of where he finishes in this Chase, many will view Martin Truex Jr. not only as No. 1 -- his car number -- but as No. 1 at Dale Earnhardt Inc.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. will leave the family team after this season. That will make Truex the team's face. Earnhardt said his soon-to-be-ex-teammate can "take on that role and really get the whole company believing in him.''

Truex, 27, is a two-time Busch Series champion, and he earned his first Cup victory at Dover in June. Former champion Kurt Busch calls Truex a dark horse in the Chase. Earnhardt said Truex's drive will lead him to more success.

"You look at all the photo albums and pictures of him coming up in go-karts and running his modifieds and running the ... Busch North Series,'' Earnhardt said. "He wants to win a championship, and he wants to win races, and that's all that matters.''

There's one other thing the son wants. It's something, no matter how long he races, he knows he'll never get, though. The chance to race his father again. The father looks at it differently. For him, the itch to race is long gone.

"I'm just enjoying being the dad right now,'' he said.

Contact Dustin Long at 373-7062 or dlong @news-record.com