[Quality88]

If the money is not available to go racing, sometimes you have to go find it yourself. Marc Mitchell learned that imperative lesson early in his racing career.
A 24-year-old Auburn University graduate who majored in Building Science noticed more young drivers bringing sponsorship dollars to NASCAR teams in order to secure rides in the sport's increasingly costly, as well as competitive, arena.
"These days, drivers not only have to find a team that will work with them, but also a corporate company willing to invest in them," said Mitchell, a native of Tallahassee who grew up racing Legend Cars across the Southeast against the likes of Reed Sorenson and Joey Logano. "To break into the sport these days you have to have both."
Once Mitchell got to college, in 2002, he made time to race limited schedules during his four years at Auburn and convinced the university to sponsor some of his early ASA Late Model endeavors.
In 2005, Mitchell continued his climb up the racing ladder by signing with Tony Clements Racing and entered ARCA races at tracks such as Nashville Superspeedway, Kentucky Speedway and Daytona International Speedway with alumni support from Auburn.
A college education was always a part of Mitchell's life plan but so was learning the family road building business. After graduating from Auburn in 2006, Mitchell could more or less build an entire parking lot from scratch.
"When I got out of school I was the estimator, project manager and vice president of business development for my family's company," he said.
Using that business sense and knowledge of paving and asphalt, Mitchell pitched the boardroom at Ergon, the same paving company instrumental in resurfacing the Talladega Superspeedway three years ago.

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