(FORTUNE Small Business) – Some of Andrew Moeck's fondest teenage memories involve Anheuser-Busch, but not for the usual reason. At 17, Moeck would sneak out of his parents' house in Fort Collins, Colo., not to drink beer but to race cars at the local brewery, which had a flat four-lane road ideal for driving fast. In his 1972 V-8 Chevy Vega, he'd race from midnight to 4 a.m., then creep home. His parents never caught him; neither did the police.

These days Moeck, 33, races on a different level. The founder and CEO of Andruw Inc. in Huntington Beach, Calif.--which has 55 employees and $4.5 million a year in sales and provides software consulting to the telecom industry--competes in the National Hot Rod Association's Competition Eliminator category (the little brother of the NHRA Pro Stock circuit). Next month Moeck and his racing partner and crew chief, Duane Harmon, will be at the O'Reilly NHRA Summer Nationals in Topeka.

Moeck has never won a competition--last year he and Harmon tied for 229th in the standings for Competition Eliminator--but he's had a few second-place finishes and earned about $50,000 in career winnings. That doesn't sound bad for a hobby, until you consider that it would buy barely one new motor for his car, and most racers burn through two or three a season. Competition Eliminator cars start at about $40,000 and go up to about $200,000. He and Harmon race in a 1997 dragster for which they paid $60,000. "Believe me, we race on a budget," he says.

Back in 1998, Moeck was in good position to get his first win at a race in Boise. He was one of four drivers left in contention, but the day was windy and the car was light. When Moeck crossed the line and pulled his parachute, his car lifted into the air, hit the car next to him ("My tire left a skid mark on its roof," he says), and rolled.

Moeck woke up in the hospital with a concussion. (The other driver, who was unhurt, won the race.) "I don't remember much from the week before the wreck to a month after it," he says. But he keeps the top of the car in his office--"They had to use the Jaws of Life to get me out"--and has a tattoo on his forearm listing race data from that day (including his speed: 171 mph). "I look at it as a reminder to make the most of every day," he says. "I should have died that day, and I didn't."