REAR VIEW: Scott Pruett's biggest investment

It was equal parts ballsy and crazy and probably couldn't happen today, but it led to a successful 10-year career in IndyCar.

In 1988, Scott Pruett was 28 years old and at a crossroads in his racing life. A world class go-karter, he'd captured the 1987 Trans Am title but wanted to be in open wheel – Formula 1 or CART – and knew the clock was ticking. He tested for the Larrousse team but realized there wasn't much of a future for an American in F1.

So he invested in himself.

"I took all the money I had in the world, as well as borrowing some, and offered $70,000 to Dick Simon to let me run the Long Beach Grand Prix," Pruett recalled with a chuckle. "I was young and dumb and too stupid to know any better, like I've been most of my life, but I felt like it was my one chance to try and show people what I could do."

Now making your debut at Long Beach is tough enough, but doing it without ever having sat in an IndyCar seems like double jeopardy. Yet the native of Roseville, California managed to finish in the top 10 on the first day of practice, then qualified 13th out of 26 cars in between Teo Fabi and Derek Daly. His car broke down in the race, but he'd proved his point.

"Andy Kenopensky of the Machinists Union called me to sub for Kevin Cogan after he got hurt that summer so I ran The Meadowlands and Mid-Ohio, where I qualified eighth," he continued. "That's all it took because then I started talking to Steve Horne and he signed me as the full-time Budweiser driver for the 1989 CART season."

In his first full season, Pruett finished eighth in the point standings to earn rookie of the year honors, but then missed all of 1990 after a breaking both legs in a testing accident when the brakes failed. In 1994 he was hired to test tires for Firestone, which was launching its IndyCar comeback in 1995 following a 20-year hiatus. He battled for the lead at Indianapolis in 1995 before crashing, but he came back to score a last-second victory over Al Unser Jr. in the Michigan 500.

He also won at Australia in 1997 and finished sixth in the 1998 standings before heading to NASCAR.

Today, at age 57, he's assembled one of the greatest sports car records in history with five Rolex 24 wins, one at Sebring and a class win at Le Mans in addition to 10 championships.

But no man ever believed in his own abilities and then backed it up like Pruett did almost 30 years ago.

"It could have gone either way," he acknowledges. "But it turned out to be a defining moment."