After successfully navigating 300 miles at Nashville Superspeedway last weekend, it's one down and a career to go for Travis Geisler.

A 23-year-old Cranberry native who used to race weekly at Motordrome and Jennerstown speedways, Geisler signed a deal a couple of weeks ago to race a limited NASCAR Busch Series schedule of 11 events for DCT Motorsports, which is owned by John McGill and Carl Natale of Cleveland. Veteran NASCAR driver Steve Grissom, 41, is the team's other driver.

In his debut at Nashville in the Pepsi 300, Geisler qualified his Chevrolet 23rd in the 43-car grid. He moved up slightly during the race despite awful tire wear among all the competitors, but ultimately finished 24th. He successfully avoided several wrecks along the way, including one among the leaders with just more than a lap to go.

"He did a great job driving," McGill said. "I told him our goal was to qualify good, which we did, and finish the race. I didn't care whether we moved up or whatever, that would have been an extra bonus. Just get the experience under his belt and finish the race.

"I told him after the race, 'If you keep the same attitude and approach to things through your career, you're going to go a long way.' He's very humble, respectful ... he pays attention. I think he did an outstanding job. He was very calm. I was much more nervous about the program than he was."

The deal between Geisler and DCT dates back more than a year and was initiated by Geisler's older brother, Ben, who oversees the NASCAR division of Atlanta-based Next Marketing. Geisler was looking at rides in the ARCA series, where fellow Motordrome and Jennerstown racer Ryan Hemphill competes, when DCT sought a younger driver to work with Grissom and crew chief Ricky Pearson at the team's Spartanburg, S.C., shop, which the team leases from NASCAR great David Pearson. Ben Geisler, who unlike Travis chose not to follow his father and local dirt legend, Lynn, into a race car, hooked the two parties together.

"When [Ben] and I were growing up, my dad needed somebody to pay for it and somebody to fix it," Geisler said. "[Ben] fell into the pay-for-it role and I fell into the fix-it role."

But it was Travis who cashed it in after offseason conversations and a test at Nashville in late March. A Vanderbilt University graduate, Geisler had landed a ride much bigger than he believed he could acquire so early in his career.

"I looked at this opportunity as a place to come and be able to grow, get some experience and improve with the team," said Geisler, who left Western Pennsylvania to live only seven minutes away from the shop in Spartanburg. "We have a lot of intangibles in place, like the teamwork, the chemistry. When we're away from the racetrack, we have a blast. I'm able to still be in the shop, which is very important to me. I've always done that and when you go to a big team you kind of become just a steering-wheel holder and that's not quite what I'm ready for yet."

McGill plans to run a full NASCAR Busch Series schedule next year with Geisler behind the wheel, but he has no plans right now to move up to the Nextel Cup Series. While the team will compete at Talladega Superspeedway April 24, Geisler won't be back behind the wheel until May 8 at Gateway International Raceway near St. Louis in the Charter 250.

Lugnuts

Motocross racer Brock Hepler, 17, of Kittanning, had a stellar rookie supercross season in the AMA 125cc East Series. Hepler, who races for Suzuki, scored two second-place finishes this season and wrapped up second place in the standings behind James Stewart at the Pontiac Silverdome earlier this month. ... Jennerstown Speedway is delaying the start to its season one week so track workers can finish improvements, including a new back wall, an extension of the front wall and drainage to help a new racing surface. Practice at the NASCAR-sanctioned oval in the Laurel Highlands will be May 1-2 with opening night May 8. Owner David Wheeler expects to make up the lost weekend later in the season.