Gladeville, Tenn. ? Anyone with a job knows the pressure of trying to make the boss happy. Now, what if he’s also your stepfather? And the head of the entire company where you work?

Ed Carpenter drives for the new Vision Racing team, which is owned by his parents, Tony and Laura George. Tony George also is chief executive officer of the Indy Racing League, where Carpenter races in the IndyCar Series.

How Carpenter deals with this situation is the question people ask more than any other. But to the 23-year-old Carpenter, it’s all in the family.

“I think the fact that he is my father makes it that much easier. Early in my career, early in everyone’s career, you pretty much race for your parents,” Carpenter said. “I’ve raced more years with Tony and my mom owning my cars than I have not.”

Tony and Laura George paid for Carpenter to start racing quarter midgets when he was 8, and they picked up the tab as he raced his way through three-quarter midgets, full midgets and then sprint cars through 2001.

So what’s the big deal now?

“If I was running for the CEO of the series and I wasn’t related to him, I think the pressure would be greater,” Carpenter said. “But we’re so comfortable with one another and what we’re going to do with this team, it really doesn’t affect me at all.”

Racing always seemed destined for a guy whose hometown is Speedway, Ind. Carpenter tested his first IndyCar Series car in 2001, moved up to the IRL’s entry-level series in 2002 and finished third in the points race with six top-five finishes in seven races. He completed 454 of a possible 455 laps and was the only driver to finish each event.

He ran three IndyCar Series races in 2003 for PDM Racing, finishing third on the Menards Infiniti Pro Series. He also made history at Chicago by becoming the first driver to run in both series on the same weekend.

In 2004, he finished 16th in the IndyCar Series for Red Bull Cheever Racing with three top-10 finishes, including a career-best seventh at Kentucky.

Carpenter had been testing with Panther Racing, expecting to run the Indianapolis 500 and a handful of races this year. Then George told him in January that he had decided to buy all the assets of Kelley Racing.

“My first reaction was, ‘What’re you doing that for?’ He’s like, ‘I don’t want a bunch of teams to come in and pick the place to pieces, then lose a team. It’s a great facility. All the equipment’s there,”‘ Carpenter said.

Once he learned his parents weren’t buying the team to give him a job, Carpenter wanted to be their driver.

“I thought it would be a fun adventure. I have a college degree (in marketing), so I could get involved in the team in a lot more ways than driving,” he said. “Then I could look for his interests. He’s a busy guy. He’s not able to be around all the time. I can be there and make sure things are going the way he wants them to go.”