Not Everyone In NASCAR Works Their Way Up.

I had a chance to visit with fellow Bump-Drafts contributor Jeremy Sellers recently. Jeremy and I had never met until a portion of his vacation allowed our paths to cross. The Ohio firefighter was touring the southeastern United States with his wife and the last leg of his journey brought the NASCAR fan to Mooresville, North Carolina.

He was visiting some race team shops when we connected and met for the first time and for some lunch. Lancaster’s was recommended by a few of his guides as he toured around town. This particular restaurant specializing in barbecue, is a race fan’s highlight. The walls and ceiling are covered with genuine race hoods, doors, roofs, helmets and fire suits.

Kyle Petty’s old Mello Yello hood hangs near a Greg Sacks USAir hood. A collection of Dale Jarrett’s race helmets all painted up with NFL team designs from his Joe Gibbs days are across an aisle from a Ricky Rudd Tide driving uniform. This is a stop race fans don’t just bring money for dinner, they bring a camera.

Seller’s enthusiasm spilled over to me and woke up that realization of how we all take things for granted by whatever surrounds us. I live with racing every day. Many fans around the country don’t.

The tall, muscular fan and I traded stories about ourselves as we got to know each other. We spoke of our wives, children, families and careers. Obviously the conversation eventually turned to cars and the bench racing green flag was waving.

I was interested in his experiences and he in mine. Getting back to taking things for granted, I described some stories from my career in NASCAR competition. What is just everyday life to me, was story time to Jeremy.

We got on the subject of my own team experiences and describing one team in particular caught his attention a little bit more than my other tales. Two years ago I was employed with a multi car Cup team with a budget that I would guess is close to the largest in the garage area.

Unfortunately, performance was not reflective of the dollars spent. Working hard day in and day out as a mechanic one could get a feel, and see where our shortcomings were. Many fellow employees offered their daily opinions of what was going on too. The company’s head count was large enough that many did not know everyone else’s names.

But this place was quite top heavy in terms of managers with titles, engineers, department supervisors, legal, and marketing personnel. That total probably outweighed the number of men that assembled, fabricated, painted, and set up the actual racecars.

In my years before, I was happy with my career progress and learning rate. I had spoken to other team managers and some had taken me under their wing, taught me both mechanically and organizationally, and encouraged me to follow my goals. I wanted to climb the motorsports ladder by working my way up and not have anything given to me. I was pleased with my development.

That seemed to come to a halt with this particular team. Learning and progress were stopped in favor of an assembly line manner of car construction.

Being a life long racer the shortcomings of the team were apparent. But still wanting to keep my job, my suggestions were politely offered and then politely ignored. My department was once called into a meeting where we were told in a round about way to shut up and do what we were told to do. And here is where the frustration comes into play.

The team’s on track showings were nothing to be impressed with. A spotty good run occasionally did pop up and give a breath of life to the program. But the daily work turned into what seemed a futile grind that did not have to be that way.

It was engineering driven. I wasn’t sure what that meant at first. But I found out as the job moved along.

People that have been racing for twenty-five or more years were being told what to do by someone that has never even seen a local track. Worse was that their engineering degree’s ink was still wet. Heck, the veterans have more race experience than some of these people had even been alive.

At times the mechanics politely tried to explain some of the computer-based ideas would not work because, well, they had been tried years before. Just without benefit of a laptop, but with good old fashioned ingenuity.

“The idea had been tested years before, here is why it didn’t work.” But somebody’s computer simulation indicated it was worth trying so parts were built. Time was spent preparing a car, loading a hauler, leasing a track, and budgeting personnel payroll to schedule a test. How many times did the answers come back that matched the original discussion? Many.

In baseball one needs to start out in T-ball. Then little league, Babe Ruth, high school, college, and finally the Major Leagues. What this team did was hand a person who has never ever played the game before a baseball glove, and told him to play shortstop for the New York Yankees. And no matter what, they are exempt from any blame or responsibility because of some degree.

To me you need to earn your way here. Where is your mini stock experience? Have you ever changed rear end gears in a muddy dirt track pit area? Where are your knuckle scrapes from that late model or modified you were working on until midnight? Did you used to take all your vacation time from your day job so you could go racing on whatever car you were pit crewing on for free? These are all rhetorical questions that would be responded to with head shakes and shoulder shrugs.

Management is where all these decisions came from and it is a shame. The principals for racing are the same on a Sprint Cup team as on a street stock. There is a budget and work deadlines. Travel, inventory, and people management are part of the plan too. Just one of the projects is on a larger scale.

In today’s top series of NASCAR, if you do not have a top engineering staff you will get your rear handed to you week in and week out. They are an extremely valuable part of all the Cup organizations. But it is a race team not an engineering team. Some people lose sight of that fact.

I recall a recent Cup event this season where I visited. I said hello to some of my old friends who were very busy swarming over their car like ants on a sugar cube. It was early Sunday morning on race day and there was a long pre race checklist to accomplish. The racecar then needed to be pushed through tech inspection, the car gridded, the pit area set up, and many sets of tires to be aired to the correct pressure.

Off pit road behind the haulers in the infield, I caught a glimpse of the team’s lead engineer. One hand was in his pocket, the other clutching a cup of coffee, all while chatting with another gentleman. I passed by the same spot twenty minutes later and his conversation was still in full stride. It’s a good thing the mechanics realized there was a race to be run that day.

The team has seen victory lane in the Cup Series. So I won’t pretend I know everything. I don’t. Far from it. But I have been around this sport for thirty-three years and I think I could have helped the performance and organization to be further along than what they were. And possibly avoided many of the struggles they went through. Some of my friends that remain there have offered up their own similar opinions. One of their Cup entries struggles to stay in the top thirty-five in points.

I am not bashing engineers. I have met and worked with plenty that are intelligent and real racers with real experience. Unfortunately I have met and worked with more that do not fit that description. Just because someone has a college degree, that doesn’t make them smart. And just because someone only has a high school education, that doesn’t make him or her stupid.

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series is the highest form of stock car racing in the country. It draws the same parallel as any other professional sport. Pick any stick and ball team players. They are the best of the best to make it that far. It is based on talent. From my experience, believe it or not, racing is not that way. Some are fortunate to walk right in and start at the top. I don’t agree with that by any means. But it usually shows up on the stopwatch.

This is my real experience, not a fabricated story. Jeremy seemed to be fascinated by it. But when you are here, it is just another day on the job.

UPDATE FROM JEREMY T. SELLERS

If it wasn’t for our boss, Mr. McCoy, Patrick and I would have never met for that luncheon. I had completely forgot he lived in Mooresville, and I was so excited about going there, my brain farted and I was like a kid in a candy store. I had mentioned to Jim via email early in my trip that I would be jolting through the race shops and if an article would be appropriate if I stumbled upon something exciting. In a response, he suggested giving Patrick a hollar, and I did so via email and not long after, arrangements by phone were made. After I was literally, but politely, kicked out of the Penske stable due to NASCAR being there for an inspection, I was sitting across from a man who knew more about the ins and outs of our beloved sport than I could ever hope to have dumped upon me.

Certainly for Patrick, there had to be a high element of surprise. I couldn’t begin to tell you how a typical NASCAR fan is suppose to appear, but surely I didn’t meet the criteria. (It’s okay to laugh here) My hair is buzzed, all of my teeth are present (plus two wisdom), I have seven piercings in my left ear, and ten tattoos. A freak of nature, perhaps? Any doubt put to rest as I had my Dale Jr. National Guard t-shirt donned along with my Jr. Nation ball cap. Regardless, we exchanged a warm hand shake and he educated me to some of the best barbecue pork I have ever consumed.

Though I am disgruntled at the current state of NASCAR, my thirst for knowledge is unmatched. However, talking with Patrick, it was evident that by living in Ohio, I am far removed from some of the darker aspects that made my eyes as wide as petris dishes. I read, I listen, I watch, yet nothing prepared me for the plethera of racing politics he had a first-hand take. If it wasn’t for the fact I that I had more race shops to sprint away to before they closed for the day, it’s a brain I could have infinitly picked. As it was, our lunch lasted nearly 2 1/2 hours (where did the time go?). My eyes burned from lack of blinking in response to some issues in which Patrick enlightened me.

However, Hendrick and Stewart-Haas racing awaited me. I had already visited the North Carolina Racing Museum and JR Motorsports. I assured Patrick I would look him up on my way through in February when we make our annual journey to Daytona. With that, we said our goodbyes and parted ways. Next time, I am bringing a tape recorder! Thanks for cuing in a boy from the midwest on what “John Q Fan” will never know about NASCAR and see you in February!

Note from Jim- Glad you enjoyed your meeting boys! I’ll have to make sure I find a way out there when the February meeting takes place!