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With Christmas now behind us and New Years coming this week, the 2011 season will quickly be up on us. Only eight weeks stand between us and the 2011 Daytona 500. And teams know the clock is ticking.
This week between Christmas and the New Year is traditionally an off week for the teams. While some will still have employees working, many shut their shops down almost completely. It gives the crews and shop guys the chance to recharge and spend time with family and friends before preparations begin in earnest. This week is literally the calm before the storm.
Starting on Monday, Jan. 3, the race is on. From there, teams will have about six weeks until the haulers are due to pull into the Daytona infield for Speedweeks. Many will be working long hours to prepare everything from race cars and haulers, to pit boxes and tool boxes for the long season ahead. Teams will be running out of time to finish any remaining business deals, hire the last few needed employees, and do things like get firesuits and hero cards made. This time is also used by many sponsors to film commercials and create their NASCAR centric ad campaigns for the season.
These next six weeks will also be the return to a normal training schedule for the pit crews. As I’ve mentioned before, some teams have already begun getting their crews ready for the new style stops, but a regular schedule including practice and plenty of gym time will commence. With many cold days still ahead of us, you can be sure the crews that practice outside will be ready for warmer climates come February.
For myself, I’m going to spend this quiet week relaxing and getting ready to have some fun with friends for New Years. Come Monday however, it’s game on. Daytona will be here before we know it and there is a lot to do.
If there is one thing that is for certain once the season ends, it’s that you won’t find half as much information about the sport to consume. The media/blog/social media coverage of the sport slows way down, which one would expect. Just as an example, over the last few weeks our NASCAR-Media list on Twitter has been home to more tweets about football and partying in Las Vegas then it has about anything regarding racing. But just because the media slows down, doesn’t mean the teams do. While the fans count the days until Daytona, the teams are hard at work.
It will certainly be a bit of a busy off season for Nationwide and Cup teams, as they are dealing with new car configurations. The Cup teams must replace all the noises on their race cars to the new splitter-less piece. This means extra time for body and paint guys, and extra time for engineers working in wind tunnels and with simulations. For the NNS teams, they now must focus 100% of their attention towards turning their entire fleets over to their version of the COT. The new car will be used at all NNS races in 2011.
Besides building and improving on their race vehicles, teams will also take this time to clean and prepare pit boxes, tool boxes, and transporters for next season. Anything that is broken will be prepared, and new and improved systems of organization will be implemented.
Changes to the race cars aren’t the only challenges for teams to work on this off season. With the elimination of the catch can, pit crews in both the NNS and Cup Series will spend their down time learning how to make these new style pit stops as fast as possible. A little time to rest up and maybe heal will precede countless hours in the gym and in the practice areas.
The little bit of team business you have probably heard about over the last week or so involves employee layoffs. Three teams of note who’ve had sizeable layoffs this season are Richard Petty Motorsports, Roush Fenway Racing, and Penske Racing. And while those teams may have made the biggest cuts, other teams have laid employees off as well. This is both a symptom of the economy and of the reality of racing. Teams have always used the off season to make changes to their staffs because of cost cutting, or making room for new hires. One way in which teams can improve is to bring in better or more qualified people, and sometimes that means others will need to be let go. That goes for both the business and competition sides of the sport.
On the flip side, displaced crew members have the next two months to work the phones and use their connections to try and land with a new team for next season. Some will be successful, and others will find homes in other industries.
For teams and drivers that haven’t secured plans for the 2011 season by now, the next two months will be used to try and put deals together. There are always plenty of drivers looking for a ride, and many teams, especially those at the lower levels, are looking to track down sponsors and funding for the future. For many, frustrating days and sleepless nights are ahead.
With very few off weeks during the season, the time between Homestead and Daytona also affords many race team employees the opportunity to finally take vacations. Whether for the holidays to see friends and family, or to just unwind, now is the time for people to get away. In no time, we’ll be back to the grind again.
As the winter days seem to slowly pass, know that the teams are hard at work during this “off season.” There is a lot to do, and the clock is ticking.
In any sport, there is no success without chemistry. A team must have it to work cohesively as a unit, towards a common goal. A lack of it can destroy an organization. NASCAR is no different. And one major obstacle in building chemistry within a race team is finding a way to get the two major factions within the team to work as one; the road guys and the race day guys.
The majority of teams are really two teams in one. The “A” team, as its commonly known, consists of the crew chief, mechanics, and engineers who are at the track all weekend and work through practices and qualifying to setup the race car. Once the race starts, they have various duties behind the wall, and some are also pit crew guys. On the other side is the “B” team, or race day only guys. This group comes to the track on race day only, and consists of pit crew and pit support guys.
What you may (or may not) be surprised to know, is that sometimes these two groups don’t get along. It’s usually not quite as bad as UNC fans vs. Duke fans, but it can get ugly.
Picture yourself as the owner of a race team. And within your race team, you have these two groups of people. For a reason you can’t seem to figure out, your team isn’t performing how it should. The cars are good, the driver is top five, and the people are top notch. There is trouble in paradise though. For whatever reason, the A teamers and the B teamers hardly speak to one another. How difficult do you think it is to overcome the fact that the two halves of your team don’t see eye to eye?
While the previous example might just be a hypothetical example in a random blog post, there are teams that have this problem right now. And some don’t even realize it’s a problem.
It’s easy to see why this rift happens though. The two groups spend a great deal of time working with the people within their own group. For example, road guys spend all weekend at the track together. Bonds are going to be made. The really good teams find ways to break down this wall.
I’d love to be able to give you a specific example, but the nature of my position just doesn’t allow it. And unfortunately, this isn’t something that the fans can see on TV or by taking a stroll through the garage area. If your favorite team struggles though, has done so for a while, and seems to have a lot of turnover, maybe they need to look a little harder at the relationship between their own A and B.
One of the most frequent questions asked of myself and Journo by readers, is how one can go about getting a job in racing. In email responses and our many posts on the subject, we try to be as helpful as possible, while hopefully keeping people’s expectations realistic. Racing, at the highest levels, is a very difficult industry to break into. It takes a ton of sacrifice to do it, and some get started, only to realize they don’t have the stomach for it.
Over my own career, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been talking to a friend in the sport and said “hey, what happened to so-and-so, I haven’t see him around in while,” only to be told they packed up their stuff and moved back home to go back to work doing what they were doing before the racing bug bit them. It’s a very common tale.
If you read last Saturday’s “The NASCAR Week That Was” post here at TNI, you may have seen the link to Patrick Reynolds’ blog post from Bump-Drafts.com entitled “Walking Away From NASCAR.” Reynolds is a former race team employee who was one of the many victims of the massive layoffs the sport underwent before last season. In his post, Reynolds talks about his recent decision to take a job with a company that wasn’t a NASCAR team. The need to support his family, along with a more stable work environment were his main reasons for taking the job.
Knowing a little about his story, I respect Reynolds a great deal for doing what he did. The guy loves racing, and was able to make his passion a career for a while. But when push comes to shove, some things in life are just more important.
Reynolds post got me thinking about discussions I’ve had with Journo and some other friends before about working in racing.
Racing is a tough business. There is no way around it. It might appear to be all fun and games, but working 60-70 hours during the week in the shop, then heading to the track to continue working all weekend can be very grueling. Working that much is also not very conducive to a healthy home life.
And trust me, nobody is getting rich doing this. Some guys definitely make a very nice living, but it could all go away in an instant. Job security in racing is nearly non-existent. If a team’s funding dries up, the organization could be here today and gone tomorrow.
What makes the lack of job security even worse, is the competition for positions. A guy used to be able to lose his job on Monday, pack his toolbox in his pickup, roll down the street, and be back working again by Tuesday or Wednesday. This just isn’t realistic anymore. Teams that have open positions are now inundated with qualified applicants. All of whom will work more hours for less money then their peers. It can be tough dealing with the pressure of knowing that if you screw up just a little bit, there are 100 guys waiting in the wings to take your spot from you.
For those of you who are reading this that have thought about trying to break into NASCAR, I’m not trying to scare you away. If you want something, go get it, and don’t let anyone tell you something can’t be done. What I am doing though, is trying to educate you on some of the difficulties that lie ahead.
Like we’ve said here many times before, if you want in, be prepared. Learn as much as you can about the sport and which position you want, do what you need to do to make your resume as strong as possible, and network like nobody has ever networked before. Those connections with people in the sport will be your life line.
Working in racing is unlike anything I’ve ever done previously. It seems like all the rules that apply to normal jobs and job searching are completely irrelevant. Resumes aren’t as important as your reputation. There are no job boards or websites. Sometimes you can get hired without ever even meeting a crew chief. What your past experience and achievements are don’t matter as much as what you can do right now, today. And job offers are sometimes only valid for a few hours.
Movement and turnover happen in every business and industry in this country, and racing is no different. Some guys are able to find a home and stay there for many years, while others seem to work for a new team every season. But at some point, we all come to that crossroads.
As a young tire changer, all you are looking for is a chance. And if you are smart, you will pit anything and everything you can. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a Cup car or a go cart; or if you are making a few hundred bucks or doing it for free. The only way to advance is to learn on the fly and make a ton of connections. But as you move along in your career, the priorities change. Is winning more important then money? Can I have both? What is best for my family? Is there any semblance of job security with a new team (there never really is)?
And as we move along, we all get to that point where we’ve got to take a chance and make a move. Just like anything else, sometimes it works out, and sometimes it doesn’t. And it doesn’t matter whether you are working for a team currently and a better opportunity comes along, or if you lost your job and are mulling a few different options. In racing, you better not mull too long. Because if you wait and hope to maybe get more offers, or you aren’t sure what is the best path, you might get left behind.
I think for most folks, having somebody offer you a job out of the blue isn’t usually realistic. I know before I worked in racing, nobody ever called me up one day and said “hey, you want to come to work for me?” The only jobs I was ever offered were those I applied for. Racing is different though. All it takes is one phone call to change everything.
But just like every other decision in life, you’ve got to think on your feet, weigh your options, and make the best possible choice with the information you have to work with. Beyond that, all we can do is hope for a little luck.
2010 Just as a little side note, I want to say that I’ve been blessed and am really excited to be heading out for another year in racing. The season officially kicks off this weekend, and both myself and Journo are excited about bringing you along for the ride in 2010. We think we offer something you can’t find anywhere else in the NASCAR media, and we will keep bringing you the best in inside information and insight. Enjoy the races!
Amid all of the hub bub from last week’s Media Tour, it was announced that NASCAR was adding the drug policy to it’s rule book for each series. The 2009 season was the first for a hard and fast policy against substance abuse for NASCAR, and needless to say, it didn’t go so well. An actual written policy or list of banned substances was never really published, so the news that NASCAR is finally putting one out is certainly a step in the right direction.
Since we started this site in April 2008, we’ve written about drugs and testing no less then seven times (and that doesn’t count the majority of the Mayfield posts). You can see those old posts by browsing around this link. One of those posts I wrote in May of last year addressed this issue specifically. In it, I wrote:
As a NASCAR licensee and hard card holder, I’ve suddenly realized that my career could be in serious jeopardy because I don’t know what I can and can’t use. I’m not a doctor, and I’m not up on what is against the rules and what isn’t. I’m certainly not using any performance enhancers, and I don’t use recreational drugs, but this really scares me.
Now, that the official policy has been put out there, I feel a ton better about the testing program.
I’ve actually seen the full version of the policy and while I won’t recreate it here (not sure if it’s allowed) I will tell you that the text covers prohibited substances, medications, alcohol, supplements, testing, disciplinary action, and self-reporting among other things. The policy applies to drivers, crew members, and officials.
While I can’t pronounce most of the substances listed (see dehydryochlormethyltestosterone), it’s comforting to know that we at least have something we can refer to in the event we have a question about a substance or the testing procedure. NASCAR cannot claim to have an effective policy without having a list of banned substances and a published version of the policy for all to see.
Now that we’ve gotten a list though, I still think NASCAR should take more from the other sports leagues’ policies and implement things like a drug hotline. I’ve heard that the drivers can call the infamous Dr. David Black with questions about the policy, but there needs to be a liaison for the crew members as well. They need to give us every opportunity to make sure we are doing things right and not putting substances into our bodies that may cause us to test positive.
After a rough rookie campaign for the drug policy, we certainly have to give NASCAR credit for continuing to improve on it. The nature of substance abuse is constantly changing, and NASCAR needs to be diligent in making sure their policy changes with it. They now have a solid base to work from, but more improvements are still needed.
After a nice (but brief) vacation, both myself and Journo are returning to action this week. As Journo said last week, we are going to cut down our posting frequency during the off-season to a post for Monday, Ask The Insiders on Wednesday, a post for Friday, and the Saturday links post. If something interesting pops up along the way, you might certainly see us add to this schedule. But those will be the standard days moving forward. Once we get closer to the start of the season, we will go back to our normal schedule.
I want to take a quick second to thank everyone that stopped by the site, dropped us an email, or hit us up on Twitter over the last week or so. We got a ton of messages from people, and I just want to say that it’s been a pleasure running this website and we are glad people are enjoying it. It’s always great to hear that we are doing a good job! On top of that, I hope everyone enjoyed their Turkey Day.
By the time most of you read this post, it will already be Monday. This will be the first full week of the off-season, and many guys will be back to work after some vacation time (like us!). For many team employees, tomorrow could be an anxious day, as many don’t know what their own future holds within their respective organizations. It will certainly be an interesting and pivotal week for many teams and the sport in general.
With 2009 in the rearview, teams now shift towards preparing for 2010. Many questions still exist for some teams with sponsorships, drivers, and crew members in limbo. Even for teams that have solid sponsor and driver plans, changes will take place.
I think at this point, most race fans have heard about the situation regarding the Richard Petty Motorsports/Yates Racing merger. With the teams combining, as many as 200 employees are either gone, or will be gone very shortly. Going from six teams down to four will require cuts anyway, but the newly formed organization will be looking for ways to streamline, and cutting salaries is one way to do it.
While more cuts and layoffs are certainly on their way, probably this week, one team didn’t wait to start making changes. I heard last week that Roush Fenway Racing had already begun shedding employees, particularly at their Nationwide/Truck Series shop. Since RFR will end their Truck Series program before the 2010 season, cuts were in order. I don’t know an exact number, but I do know a few of the guys who lost their jobs. I just want to say good luck to them, I hope they land on their feet somewhere else.
The Silly Season this year was more subdued than it has been in the past, partly because of the down economy, and partly because of the lack of free agent drivers. But even so, there are still many pieces of the 2010 NASCAR puzzle that are yet to be put into place. Expect teams to continue making announcements regarding sponsorship and driver plans for the future. This will especially be true for smaller teams. Those in the Nationwide and Truck Series still have much to figure out.
I encourage you to stay tuned to your favorite racing news organization over the next several weeks to see what develops. While I don’t think it will be as bad as last off-season, this could again be a very tough winter. And as the 2010 picture becomes more clear, The NASCAR Insiders will be right here to answer your questions and break it all down. Only 76 days remain until the Daytona 500!
After years of complaints from fans (and drivers for that matter) over the looks of the Cup Series COT, NASCAR undoubtedly didn’t want a repeat as they developed the Nationwide COT.
This weekend we got our first glimpse of all four stickered up Nationwide COT’s. I don’t know how you feel about the cars, but in my opinion the manufacturers and teams (of course with NASCAR) did a good job making the cars look more like a production model.
I was fortunate enough to see a Challenger COT early in development and I was happy to see through the process there weren’t any major changes to it’s overall look. By far I think it’s the best looking of the new cars. The Mustang turned out well too.
I think Chevrolet missed out here though in not bringing the Camaro into the sport; though I understand their position. Mark Kent, Director of GM Racing said earlier this year:
“At the end of the day, because of the quest for very close competition and the need to have templated bodies in that series, we felt that by forcing the Camaro into the Nationwide templates that we were compromising the body lines of an iconic car. So at the end of the day we just could not get the Camaro in the Nationwide series to satisfy our requirements.”
It’s understandable they didn’t want to murder the body lines of a car they’ve been working on for many years. Still how cool would that have been?
I digress. NASCAR though now has a problem on its hands. They have visually attractive and realistic looking Nationwide cars competing with the less than handsome Cup Series COT.
After meetings this past week with drivers and team officials, NASCAR said they would make changes in 2011 to the front fascia of the Cup Series COT, presumably to make them look a little better up against the Nationwide COT. Let’s hope the changes are enough.
Now I know many of you aren’t fans of the COT and from the comments I have read elsewhere people are still complaining that this new car is still “cookie cutter”. In NASCAR’s and the team’s defense though these things could help bring down costs and will certainly make the racing safer; the hope of course is that racing will be better. Whatever the case, it’s hard to complain about the looks of the car; this is the closest we’ve seen to a production model (in my opinion) since the late-80s or early-90s.
With these new good looking cars though, let’s just hope competition isn’t the cost we all pay.
So any thoughts on the new Nationwide COT? Anything you would have liked to have seen done differently? Any hopes for the Cup Series COT? Talk amongst yourselves.
This post may end up sounding self serving, but hear me out first. I think it’s time that NASCAR and the media partners start putting more of the spotlight on the faces behind the drivers. If the fans knew some of the people that work in the garage, shop, and on pit road every week, I think it would make the sport more compelling.
I’m personally not much for attention, and tend to like working behind the scenes. This blog may make you think differently about me, but one of my reasons for remaining anonymous is that I don’t necessarily want the attention. I want to bring you into the sport, but I don’t want or need any credit for doing it. Anyways, I digress.
Everyone knows who all the drivers are. You know where they are from, how they came up, and what they are involved in. The sport and the media coverage revolve around them.
Now, outside of the main players, how many crew chiefs can you name? How about crew chiefs outside of the Cup Series? What about pit crew guys? Can you name the car chief for your favorite driver? I’m betting you can’t.
Years ago, crew guys were given a little tiny piece of the spotlight. For a brief time, pit crews were featured on trading cards, and at various times during the TV broadcasts. But since then, the crews don’t get much air time.
With the recent advent of the pit crew helmet cam, a few names have started showing up during the broadcasts. Guys like DJ Copp and Dennis Terry come to mind (if you don’t know, Dennis Terry is the front tire changer for Martin Truex Jr. He has a blog over at That’s Racin that he updates regularly regarding his own experiences. Check it out). And while that is a good thing, I think it’s time to start featuring more people.
I believe it was NBC who used to intro pit crews at various points during the race. That should be brought back (for all three NASCAR series). Also, it would be cool if during the pre or post race shows each week, maybe a team or a few crew members were featured. Maybe talk about where they are from, how they got into racing, and what they do. The group of people that we are around from February to November is a very diverse bunch, and there are people from every part of this country and some other countries. And they all have a story to tell.
Wouldn’t knowing that there is somebody from your town who works on Carl Edwards team make you more interested? I know it would for me.
And this concept doesn’t have to just be the team members, as NASCAR officials could be included.
We currently have one of the best championship battles in the history of our sport brewing, and yet many headlines still continue to focus on the negatives like sponsorships and TV ratings. Letting fans get to know the real face of our sport would only benefit it in the long run.
Let that roll around in your head, and let me know your own thoughts.