One email in my in-box contains 12 photo attachments.
Of the dozen images there is the same young face in half of them.
''We tend to be a bit picture happy,'' said Denise Williams in a note accompanying the email. ''The little guy is our grandson, Cooper, our one and only.''
Article Photos
Tim Williams shows his grandson, Cooper, the Michael Waltrip garage in Cornelius, N.C.
Submitted photos
As I examine each of the photographs, one especially catches my eye. It shows Cooper and his grandpa, Tim Williams, walking hand-in-hand in the Michael Waltrip Racing garage in Cornelius, N.C. In the background are many gleaming cars, including ones driven by Sprint Cup stars Clint Bowyer, Mark Martin and Martin Truex Jr.
''(Cooper) is a future driver, for sure,'' Denise writes.
The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.
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Tim Williams and I graduated from Jamestown High School in 1979. At that time, I was uncertain about my career plans. For Tim, well, he'd known what he wanted to do with his life before he'd even entered Lincoln Junior High.
''Cars have been my whole life,'' he said last month, ''whether it is racing them, working on them, painting them, or buying and selling them.''
In fact, Tim was barely a teenager when he began pumping gas for his dad and grandpa at the former Third Street Atlantic in Jamestown.
''I remember, before I could even drive,'' Tim said, ''people would bring their cars in and dad would say, 'Drive that car inside.' ... That was kind of cool.''
Fast-forward nearly 40 years.
During that span, he worked on the cars of his his older brothers, John and Rick, who were drivers at Stateline Speedway. He competed in the Late Model Division at Stateline, beginning the day after he graduated from JHS. He built several winning Spectator cars for his younger brother, David. He started his own business (Tim Williams Fastlane Chassis), and, later, he capped his nearly 30-year career driving trucks and Super Late Models at Lake Erie Speedway.
But for all Tim's success and passion with cars - his career has also included operating a family-owned garage and wrecker service and holding management positions at car dealerships in Jamestown and North East, Pa. - his one burning desire was to be employed by a NASCAR Sprint Cup race team.
So seven years ago, Tim and Denise sold their home in North East, packed up one of his race trailers and headed to North Carolina.
''I just knew I was going to make it happen,'' Tim said.
It just took a couple months.
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Once in North Carolina, Tim began going from one race shop to the next, dropping off resumes. Ultimately, he heard that Michael Waltrip Racing would be hiring and he successfully sold his talents to management. By December 2005, Tim joined MWR as one of its first 30 employees. The race team employs about 270 today.
''I always said that I came down here to work in NASCAR,'' said Tim, who now does research and development testing for MWR. ''I knew I could do it.''
Based out of the Cornelius, N.C. garage, Tim has worked on all of the cars owned by Michael Waltrip Racing and is one of three mechanics on the test team.
''It's definitely constant learning,'' he said.
Given his background, though, Tim has been more than up to the challenge.
''The only thing I regret about the move is that we didn't do it sooner,'' he said.
Saturday night's Sprint Cup race at Charlotte Motor Speedway marks the fifth in the 2012 Chase. Bowyer currently is fifth in the standings with 2,139 points, 40 behind first-place Brad Keselowski, while Truex is No. 8 (2,131 points).
''I think we can do well,'' Tim predicted last month. ''Both (Bowyer and Truex) have as good a chance as anyone.''
Tim knows about chances. He took one seven years ago and he's enjoyed the ride ever since.