BUFFALO TWP - One can't get much closer to history than Carl McKinney.

He's driving it.

McKinney, 33, of Cranberry Township is making his debut in the Late Model division this year at Lernerville Speedway. He's doing so behind the wheel of the car Lynn Geisler drove to his 100th career Late Model feature win at the Sarver track last season.

McKinney has been a member of Geisler's crew for the past 15 years. He drove an E-Modified at Sharon Speedway for the past five years.

"My goal was always to get into a Late Model," McKinney said. "I figured it'd be a couple of years down the road. But Lynn was selling this car and everything just came together."

The car is now painted powder blue and wears the No. 6M - the same number McKinney drove to two E-Mod point titles in the last three years at Sharon.

The E-Mod equipment has all been sold. Instead of working on Geisler's car on Friday nights, McKinney is now parking beside it in the pit area at Lernerville.

"It will be interesting to see if anything rubbed off on him after all these years," Geisler said. "It will be fun.

"I think Carl can do well in this division. He's a thinker on the track and that will be to his benefit. He has good skills. Going from an E-Mod to a Late Model, the increased intensity of the competition will be his biggest adjustment."

McKinney won 10 features during his E-Mod career, but doesn't expect to make an immediate impact on the track this season.

He anticipated this change in division coming, so much so that he built an engine for his E-Mod last year that would easily transfer into a Late Model.

"I was planning ahead," he said. "It's going to take a little while, but everything fell into place during the off-season, so I figured, why not start the learning curve now?"

His crew remains the same as his E-Mod crew: Pat and Wes McKinney, his mother and father, fiancée Rebecca Strutz of Mars and cousin Joey Socha of Cleveland.

Socha plans to drive to Lernerville from Cleveland every Friday afternoon, help with the racecar, stay overnight and drive home Saturday.

"Whatever needs done on the car, I'll help do it," Socha said. "I do a lot with the tires and, of course, I'll be helping to clean the car the next day."

While he's not officially with Geisler's weekly crew this year, he hasn't stopped being part of it.

"Any special shows, other weekend races Lynn's taking part in, I still want to help," McKinney said. "I couldn't be doing this without Lynn Geisler's help. I'm very grateful to him.

"I'm still going over (to Geisler's garage) on Tuesdays. I used to go Tuesdays and Thursdays, but now I have to devote Thursdays to my deal."

McKinney's goals this year include "keeping the car in one piece."

"But I also believe I can contend for (Western Pennsylvania) Rookie of the Year if I keep progressing."

He'll have at least one fan next door to him in the pits.

"Other than myself, there's no one else I'd rather see in victory lane than Carl," Geisler said. "And I'm not even sure I'd rather see myself there over him."

"I worked with one of the best Late Model drivers around for years," McKinney said. "I hope I was paying attention."