They started on the desert dirt.

Now they race on the toughest tracks pavement has to offer.

Four drivers from two of NASCAR’s top series — Jimmie Johnson, Robby Gordon and Casey Mears from Winston Cup and Brendan Gaughan from the Truck series — have extensive backgrounds in off-road racing.

Long before they tackled the high banks of Daytona, they were racing among the most beautiful landscapes in the world.

“People forget that a couple guys who weren’t bad on the pavement, Parnelli Jones and Rick Mears, grew up in deserts,” said Gaughan, in his second year in the Truck series.

“I can’t say that it is a starting point for getting into NASCAR, but I do believe that it is one of the most difficult styles of racing to master.”

All four have experienced success in off-road racing and all but Casey Mears, a rookie, have won races in NASCAR.

Gaughan teamed with his friend, J.C. Dean, and started in the desert racing circuit in 1991. They raced a Class 10 buggy and took four consecutive championship titles (1991-1994). Gaughan added a SODA (Short-course Off-Road Drivers Assn.) championship in 1995.

“When I first got involved in off-road racing, I didn’t even have a driver’s license,” Gaughan said. “I had to be driven to the racetrack to compete. I think my dad finally took me seriously when I won that first event.”

R0bby Gordon, driving the No. 5 Valvoline Ford, placed third in the '96 Baja 1000.

Gaughan’s move to stock-car racing hasn’t diminished his success.

He won consecutive Winston West series titles in 2000 and 2001 and won two races last year, his rookie season in NASCAR’s Truck series.

Prior to his move to stock cars, Johnson earned six off-road championships including the 1992, 1993 and 1994 Mickey Thompson Stadium Truck series championships.

Johnson won one race in the NASCAR Grand National series before joining Hendrick Motorsports in 2002 as a rookie in Winston Cup.

He won three races and finished fifth in points last season.

“When I was doing off-road, I didn’t think NASCAR was an opportunity for me,” Johnson said. “I thought my future was in Indy cars.

“The sad thing is the off-road industry is struggling now. I didn’t realize how much those vehicles are the ultimate experience.

“They are the coolest things I’ve ever driven.”

Gordon likely has the most recent off-road experience, competing in last season’s Baja 1000 in Mexico.

He won the Baja 1000 in 1987 and 1989, Mickey Thompson Stadium series titles in 1988 and 1989, and five consecutive off-road championships (1985 to 1989).

“Winston Cup is such a hands-on sport and so is off-road,” Gordon said. “You just don’t show up and drive racecars like that — you work on it, maintain it, set it up, make sure it handles.

“Off-road teaches you survival tactics, basically how to take care of your (racing) equipment.

Hands-on, car control — all those things help you in Winston Cup.”

Gordon has flirted in the Winston Cup series several times, first with owner Felix Sabates, then with his own team and now with owner Richard Childress.

He won his first Cup race in 2001 at New Hampshire driving for Childress.

Casey Mears is the youngest convert from off-road to NASCAR.

His background, however, is mostly in open-wheel racing.

But he won three races in off-road stadium Superlites in 1996.

Mears moved to NASCAR’s Grand National series in 2002 and was hired by owner Chip Ganassi prior to the start of this season to drive the No. 41 Dodge in Winston Cup.

“This is the opportunity of a lifetime,” Mears, 25, said. “Guys like Robby and Jimmie and Brendan have opened the eyes of car owners and showed them not everyone has to grow up in NASCAR to be successful in it.”