Charlie Nearburg is an American former race car driver. Born in Dallas, Nearburg founded Nearburg Exploration, an oil and gas exploration firm. He used his profits from his successful business to finance his auto racing career, becoming a long time Toyota Atlantic competitor. In 1997 he drove in the 24 Hours of Le Mans

24 Hours of Le Mans

The 24 Hours of Le Mans is the world's oldest sports car race in endurance racing, held annually since near the town of Le Mans, France. Commonly known as the Grand Prix of Endurance and Efficiency, race teams have to balance speed against the cars' ability to run for 24 hours without sustaining...

 in a Ferrari 333 SP

Ferrari 333 SP

The Ferrari 333 SP was a sports prototype car built by Michelotto to World Sports Car regulations for Ferrari. Unveiled at the end of 1993, at the behest of amateur racer Giampiero Moretti , the 333 SP marked Ferrari's official return to sports car racing after a 20 year absence...

 for Pilot Motorsports and funded three appearances in the CART Champ Car

Champ Car

Champ Car was the name for a class and specification of open wheel cars used in American Championship Car Racing for many decades, primarily for use in the Indianapolis 500 auto race...

 series for Dale Coyne Racing

Dale Coyne Racing

Dale Coyne Racing is a motorsports team in the IndyCar Series owned by former driver Dale Coyne. It was founded in 1986 with Chicago Bears great Walter Payton as Payton/Coyne Racing. The team fields the No. 18 Acorn Stairlifts and No...

. Coyne

Dale Coyne

Dale Coyne is an IndyCar Series team owner and former Champ Car auto racing team owner and driver.-Driving career:Coyne made his CART debut in 1984 at Portland and failed to qualify...

is particularly proud of the progress Nearburg made while with the team, stating in a 2004 interview: “Charlie Nearburg is an example I love – he was a guy that was older, he was married, he had kids and always wanted to do these races. So he came with us, and did three races, and we pushed him a little bit, but the by the time he got to his third race, he was very respectable – and he’s got that to carry with him the rest of his life.” Nearburg retired from professional racing after his Champ Car experience.