Scott Dunham Sr. loved having his boys in the grandstand while he raced his stock car at Selinsgrove Speedway in the 1990s. When those boys, now in their 20s, decided it was their turn to compete, the retired driver knew he needed to return to the pits.

With Scott Jr., 23, and Marlin, 21, racing as rookies in the speedway's roadrunner division this season, Scott Sr., is getting a close-up view as the their crew chief.

Scott Sr., who won the daredevil division (forerunner to today's pro stocks) championship at Selinsgrove in 1996 and last raced regularly in 1998, admitted he had mixed feelings about his sons following in his footsteps.

"I thought I would like to see them race, because it is a lot of fun. But, I didn't want to see them get hurt," he said last week as the Selinsgrove-based team got ready for warm-up laps.

"When they decided they wanted to race, I told them I would help them because I wanted them to have good, safe cars," Scott Sr., 50, said.

Scott Jr., driver of the No. 77, bought his father's old race car and the Dunhams picked up a street car in Philadelphia and built it into a roadrunner-legal car in the offseason for Marlin, who drives the No. 69.

"That first week, we were scrounging to get everything here," Scott Jr. said.

Not only did the Dunhams make it out to start the season, they ran well and have stayed in the hunt for the track title as the second half of the season approaches. Marlin is fifth and Scott Jr. is eighth in a tight points race.

All three said they were surprised to have done.

"A lot of people have commented about that," Scott Jr. said. "I've been very surprised as well, but I felt that I could get a little bit better if I wouldn't have had some bad luck to start the year. I had some tire issues, some distributor problems, but we are overcoming that and becoming better."

His father added, "I am very surprised and I'm not the only one. We have (received) a lot of compliments from a lot of different people who say that they can't believe how they are running."

Scott came agonizingly close to getting his first career win when he led the first 11 laps of the 12-lap feature a month ago before a tire blew out coming through the second turn.

"That was a rough night," he said, adding, "You just keep stabbing at it and eventually the win will come."

Scott Sr. was equally dejected. "I could have cried that night. It was really heartbreaking."

He said Marlin later discovered the tire problem: they were running the wrong wheels on the No. 77 and the problem was quickly corrected.