Tyler Clary’s feet tapped and his voice raised with each word as he explained the biggest ancillary benefit of leaving school early.

The former Michigan swimmer left Ann Arbor to try to fulfill his one passion — qualifying for the 2012 London Olympics — and he rediscovered another. Racing.

Clary is one of the best swimmers in the United States and perhaps the world. Yet what he really wants to do is get behind the wheel of the off-road truck he is building, head into the desert close to his Southern California home and race.

“I kind of grew out of it for a little while,” Clary said. “But the gasoline that was poured into my bloodstream as a little kid has kind of awoken again.”

Swimming, for now, prevents that. He can't risk his immediate future by chasing something he can go after once swimming ends.

The swimming part, so far, has gone as planned since he left to train full-time in California.

In doing so, old hobbies replaced days of schoolwork. So while he still practiced twice a day and spent most of his time in the pool at the Janet Evans Swimming Complex in Fullerton, Calif., Clary has also traveled to Brea twice a week to work on an off-road truck owned by La Paz Party Mixes and driven by Tim Casey.

There, for four hours twice a week, Clary becomes a grease-stained, foul-smelling mechanic, working on the car and preparing it for an April 30 race in North Las Vegas, Nev., which he is hoping is his first experience as part of a pit crew.

Clary has always worked well with his hands and this is its latest manifestation.

“The thing about it is, I really, really, really, really want to find a way to race after swimming is over,” Clary said. “Whether it is Formula 1, Rally, any kind of off-road stuff, I want to do that.

“I can’t think of something that would be more fun than hauling ass in the desert at 125 m.p.h. over rough terrain.”

That’s in the future. Now, he has something close.

Clary spent the past year training with former Michigan coach Jon Urbanchek. It is there where Clary has made even more progress and now looks back and wonders how he swam as well as he did when he was balancing school and swimming full-time.

Urbanchek actually encouraged Clary to return to school for his senior year instead of turning professional. A Michigan graduate, Urbanchek reminded Clary of life after swimming — and said even now he plans on making him return to Michigan after the Olympics to complete his degree, something Clary said he plans on doing.

For now, the focus is in the pool, where Urbanchek said he is making continual progress.

“He’s done a little bit with training, getting improvements,” Urbanchek said. “Every 4-6 weeks we go to one of these Grand Prix meets as a yardstick to see where we are and he’s doing quite well.”

Urbanchek said that last week, before Clary returned to Ann Arbor to swim for the first time since leaving Michigan last year. And his progress showed.

Clary won three events: the 400-meter individual medley (4:16.74), the 400 freestyle (3:51.57) and set a pool record winning the 200 backstroke in 1:56.61. He also finished third in the 200 IM (2:00.50) and 200 butterfly (1:57.56).

Meets like that reaffirm Clary’s decision to leave Michigan a year early. He called it an extremely tough decision — the hardest part was telling his teammates — but one he figured he had to do for his future.

And in doing so, he rediscovered perhaps his first love, the one he had riding in the back of his grandmother’s car when he was a toddler.

Linda Marino let a car pass her. In the back seat, young Clary started rocking back in his car seat.

“I wanted to go faster,” Clary said his grandmother told him. “So for some reason she decided to speed up and we passed the car that had passed us.

“She looked back and I had a giant smile on my face.”

That was a small victory. Now, he’s going after much larger ones. It’s why he’s so good in the pool and why the self-described “adrenaline junkie” won’t be able to give that rush up easy.

“I’m a racer at heart,” Clary said. “Every coach I have ever had has told me it is my biggest strength, that I love to race.”

Michael Rothstein covers Michigan basketball for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at (734) 623-2558, by e-mail at michaelrothstein@annarbor.com or follow along on Twitter @mikerothstein.