Bobby East, the Andrew Luck of racing, grew up in Gasoline Alley and is gone too soon.

Before Bobby East was a racing star on the rise, he was a wide-eyed kid in Gasoline Alley living his dream.

He spent countless hours in his dad’s garage watching his heroes shoot the crap. There was Tony Stewart. Jeff Gordon. Kasey Kahne. Maybe one day, he could be like them, too.

He went to basketball games with Gordon and had conversations with Stewart. One day, his dad — Hall of Fame car builder Bob East — told him that when it comes to a relationship between a father and son, a father would err on the side of gentleness. Kindness. Timidness.

“He looked up at me and he said, ‘That's not when you told Stewart,’” East told IndyStar in an exclusive interview on Tuesday. “He was listening to every conversation from Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, all of his heroes. He really looked up to all the people that won a lot of races. You didn't realize how much he was paying attention at a very young age.”

Last week, the younger East was fatally stabbed at a gas station in California. He was 37.

East won plenty of races, then he walked away nearly as quickly as he’d ascended. Not many understood. Even his dad isn’t quite sure why he stepped away from the wheel. But what he remembers about his son is that relentless pursuit of perfection.

“His intensity level was second-to-none,” East said. “More than wanting to win, he couldn’t stand to lose. He worked very hard at it from a young age, from when he started in quarter midgets and Kenyon cars. That intensity level was second to none, and I don't think anybody would disagree with that.”

* * *

Bobby East’s story doesn’t happen without his dad. The elder East grew up racing, before deciding to trade the wheel for a set of tools. He built midget cars for decades, and was wildly successful. He built Ron Shuman’s cars, helping him win six Turkey Night Grand Prix titles from 1979-1987. He moved his family to Brownsburg in 1988 to build midget cars. His Beast chassis won 16 USAC titles in 17 seasons from 1989-2005. His talent brought in some of the biggest names in racing to drive for Steve Lewis’ team.

“You never know what young people take in, but he was afforded the opportunity to see racing done right. Bob raced correctly and was very good at what he did,” Lewis said of Bobby. “He had that golden opportunity that not a lot of kids have.”

Bobby wanted to try his hand at racing, and was an instant success. He ran his first midget car race at 16. His USAC National Midgets win in 2001 at Illiana Motor Speedway made him the youngest USAC national feature winner ever. He won three more races by the time his rookie season was done, winning the series’ Rookie of the Year award.

In 2004, East had one of the most successful seasons of his career, winning the Hut 100 in Terre Haute, the Belleville Midget Nationals and the Turkey Night Grand Prix on his way to a series title.

It didn’t take long for Ford Racing, which had a relationship with Bob East, to be interested in the up-and-coming driver. They signed him to a five-year deal.

“When Kasey Kahne moved on to NASCAR, Ford approached him and told him they wanted him to move up, and they expected him to win the championship,” East’s dad said. “He won quite a few races that year and won a championship by almost 200 points.”

East competed in 42 races in the Camping World Truck series and the Xfinity Series from 2005-2008. He returned to the USAC series in 2008, winning the Night Before the 500 at Indianapolis Raceway Park.

In 2011, East picked up what was the most impressive of his 11 USAC Silver Crown career wins, coming from dead last to win Wisconsin’s Milwaukee Mile.

“It's a place where it's really hard to pass. It's really fast. Iit was unbelievable,” his dad said.

East won consecutive USAC Silver Crown series championships in 2012 and 2013 while racing for his childhood idol Tony Stewart. In 2014, he led 54 laps at the New York State Fairgrounds in the Silver Crown season finale. He finished third. He’d never race again.

* * *

It was a shock to his father. He had no idea his son would walk away from racing before his 30th birthday.

“He just said he went to Tony Stewart’s shop and told him that this was gonna be his last year,” East said. “I was really, really surprised. You can't do what he did before the age of 30 and expect that somebody's going to quit.”

East’s career accolades are numerous: 22 USAC National Midget feature wins and 48 USAC National victories.

East said his son never talked in-depth about why he walked away from racing and moved to California, but he suspects concussions might have played a role. He remembers Bobby getting a concussion when he was 8 years old playing kickball. He got another one hitting his head on the wall in quarter-midgets. There might have been more. There probably were.

East drew the comparison to Colts quarterback Andrew Luck, who walked away from the NFL at the age of 29.

“I think the concussions started bothering him, and he knew he couldn't concentrate well enough to do it at his level,” East said of his son. “He almost won his last race, but it was getting harder and harder. I don't know how to explain it.”

East had made enough money from his racing career that he had time to explore his options, and what he wanted to do next. Tragically, that exploration came to an end unexpectedly.

The racing community remembered East’s impact.

“Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park mourns the loss of Bobby East,” the iconic speedway tweeted. “Bobby earned three A.J. Foyt Championships from 2007 to 2009 at IRP, and helped further establish the East name in open-wheel racing. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the East family.”

Todd Bodine, a two-time NASCAR champion, tweeted that East was “one heck of a wheelman. Thoughts and prayers to his family.”

East is a quiet man who tends to avoid the spotlight. When asked what he wanted people to know about his son, he said:

“Everybody that I know knew what he was about,” East said. “When he went to races, he went there to win.”

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Bobby East, NASCAR and USAC racer, Brownsburg native, fatally stabbed