Which Brad Daugherty do you know? Do you know him from his days growing up in Black Mountain? Perhaps you remember him as an All-American basketball player for the University of North Carolina. You might recall Brad for his NBA career that spanned eight seasons for the Cleveland Cavaliers. He's currently recognized as a NASCAR analyst for ESPN. With so many facets to Brad, and with another NASCAR season just around the corner, we decided to let you get to know him a bit better as Brad is featured in our "Five Questions" series.

First, how did a basketball player from Black Mountain get interested—and develop an expertise—in NASCAR?

I grew up in Western North Carolina around racing and cars. My father and my uncle were car and racing guys, especially my uncle, so I spent a lot of time tinkering with cars, building engines, building hot rods, going to racetracks. One of my best friends in high school was Robert Pressley, and his father Bob was one of the greatest short track drivers ever, so I’d go over to Robert’s house and help work on Bob’s cars. Then later Robert and I were able to go racing together. I have been around it my whole life and it’s my passion.

In your outstanding basketball career, what is your most memorable moment?

My second game of my rookie season, we played the Washington Bullets and I got to face up against Moses Malone. And this guy obviously was a great, great player. In the first half of the game, he had like eight or nine offensive rebounds, which is just incredible. He was so hard to guard, so active, and I knew I had arrived. We ended up winning that game and I scored like 25 points and had like 14 rebounds, a couple of blocks. I knew after that game that I could play at the highest level in the NBA, and I think that was my most memorable thing in my basketball career.

In your professional career in general, you’ve traveled to many places and certainly have the means to live in one of those places you may have fallen in love with. Why have you decided to stay in the Asheville area?

Asheville just offers so many different opportunities. Culturally, it’s extremely diverse. I’m a mountain kid at heart. I love seeing the mountains every day of my life and I don’t take them for granted. The people that live in Western North Carolina and the Asheville area are just good, solid, down-home people. I lived in South Beach for awhile, Miami, Atlanta, Cleveland, throughout Florida, but I just love the mountains of North Carolina and I’m very, very proud of the heritage that I have, my family has, in Western North Carolina. I really feel blessed to be able to bring my children back here, raise my kids here, and live here in Asheville. It’s a wonderful place to raise a family and a privilege to be from here.

When not on the job for ESPN, what do you like to do with your time?

I own a Sprint Cup race team, I’m in Charlotte probably three days a week with my race team, and it takes a lot of time. I’ve got two wonderful partners and we work full-time at getting our race team ready to go each season. During my off-season, I get to watch a lot of my kids’ basketball games and get caught up on those, so I watch a lot of high school basketball. I’m an avid outdoorsman, and I spend several weeks during our offseason hunting, so those are things I like to do.

You've become an entrepreneur over the years, are there other businesses you would you like to start?

I own several businesses and have for years. I’ve been a Ford Lincoln-Mercury dealer for 18 years in Ohio and am a partner in five different dealerships. I own a Sprint Cup team which has been a tremendous undertaking and a lot of fun, and I own a couple of other small businesses. I’ve been pretty busy. I’ve worked harder since my retirement than I did when I was playing.