About this time last year, the seniors at Carlisle School in Martinsville held a vote to predict which of them was most likely to succeed. They chose Brad Coleman.

Prescient kids, as it turns out. But not even they could have imagined how soon success would come.

There Coleman was last Friday at Talladega Superspeedway, less than a year after graduation, winning the pole for the NASCAR Busch Series race. And there he was the next day, at 19 the youngest driver in the series competing against a slew of big names, placing ninth in the Aaron's 312 for his first top-10 finish.

It's turning out to be a breakthrough rookie season for Coleman, who seems to have the market cornered on breakthroughs. A racing career that has taken him from go-karts in Houston to the Busch Series -- all in a span of just seven years, with a couple of years of schooling at Carlisle along the way -- continues Friday night when the series visits Richmond International Raceway.

You can bet the folks at Carlisle will be watching.

"Of course in this area, people are fanatical about the sport anyway," said Simon Owen-Williams, the Head of School at Carlisle who has made tentative plans to attend the 8 p.m. race. "But to know who's behind the wheel makes it particularly exciting. There's a great sense of pride here."

Coleman says his two-year stint at the Henry County private school was instrumental in his racing development. There he could develop a flexible academic schedule that allowed him to test and race open-wheel cars and eventually late models.

"I was the guy sitting on the airplane doing homework," Coleman said with a chuckle.

Coleman moved from his native Texas to Virginia as a sophomore, following road-racing legend and mentor Price Cobb across the country to chase opportunities behind the wheel.

After a year of living in Danville and taking online courses through his old high school, Coleman missed peer interaction and enrolled at Carlisle. He moved to Martinsville a few months later.

"It's such a close-knit community," said Coleman, who now lives in Charlotte and visits friends in Martinsville about once a month.

"Everybody knows everybody. There was only 32, 33 people that graduated in my class. All the teachers are just great people. Everybody there is just awesome.

"My first day there I was really nervous, but they all came and introduced themselves to me and showed me around. It's an awesome place."

After graduation, Coleman spent the summer running ARCA races, where he caught the eye of Joe Gibbs Racing. A team representative called him and offered him a Busch ride after his final ARCA race of 2006.

"The first call that I got, I couldn't believe it was really them," Coleman said. "I thought it was a friend playing a joke on me. There are so many people that say, 'Hey, I'm interested in you,' and then it never works out.

"I wasn't truly going to celebrate until I signed the contract. But once I did, I celebrated like crazy."

And the celebrations keep coming. He's already grabbed the pole in just his seventh career Busch race, competed against boyhood idol Jeff Gordon and begun earning the respect of moonlighting drivers from Nextel Cup, his dream destination.

"Just keep what we've been doing," Coleman said when asked about his goals for the rest of the season. "Keep finishing races, getting a better finish every time we go out."

As the folks at Carlisle know, he's got a strong chance at success.