NASCAR Hard Card: The annual credential issued to NASCAR officials, drivers, media, and team personnel.
One of the most important articles I bring with me to the race track each weekend is my NASCAR hard card. A hard card is a plastic ID card that is very similar to any school or employer ID card. It’s about the size of a credit card and has my picture, my name, what series I work in, and what team I work for on it. On the back of the card is a NASCAR disclaimer statement, and a place for the holder to sign. This very important piece of plastic grants me access to the infield, garage area, and pit road. Without it, I’m stuck on the outside of the fence looking in.
I’ve often been asked how or where somebody can get their own hard card, or if I will let them buy or borrow mine. I obviously can’t help with either request, but it shows how sought after these credentials can be.
While we are at the track, our cards must either be displayed on our person (as they say) or somewhere very close by. If you get the chance to get into the infield, you’ll notice that many choose to wear their hard card on a lanyard around their neck. When one receives their card from NASCAR, they usually provide a lanyard for you. For some however, the basic lanyard just isn’t good enough. The many wives and girlfriends, along with the many PR and business women are the usual offenders for elaborate and ornate hard card display devices. I guess they figure if they are going to wear a piece of plastic around their neck, they might as well bling it out a little. Bedazzler sold separately.
On the flip side, many crew guys choose to just leave them in their wallets, as wearing it around their neck can cause issues while they are working on the cars. For the rest, the standard lanyard works just fine.
For the young or up and coming crew guy, obtaining that first hard card almost becomes a career goal. It signals that you’ve made it to a solid place in your advancement. Why is this so? It boils down to money. Everyone that works at the track for a NASCAR team must have a NASCAR license. This license costs around $500-$600 a year. A hard card however, costs a few thousand dollars for the year, and means it’s owner can forgo standing in line at the NASCAR credential trailer to get a paper pass each weekend. Only teams with a solid footing can afford to get hard cards for their employees. So having the plastic means you will probably be at the track each weekend and you work for a solid team.
The next logical goal once someone obtains the hard card, is figuring out how to keep it. Racing is a tough, performance driven business, and hanging onto this little piece of plastic can be very difficult. When a guy is fired from a team, the hard card must usually be returned before the last paycheck is given. The reason being that hard cards are transferable, and teams can use it for someone else over the course of the season. Having to give back the card when you aren’t ready to sucks.
The license and hard card are also used by NASCAR as a way to have power over the many team personnel. As a form of punishment for some infractions, NASCAR sometimes pulls hard cards from their holders. NASCAR can also refuse to give people these credentials, if for example, a fine hasn’t been paid or suspension served. No hard card and license, no access.
So as you can see, these pieces of plastic we often wear around our necks carry an awful lot of power. Mine gets me access to places others can’t go, but it can also be used against me. And that’s the mystique of the NASCAR hard card.
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With the Nationwide Series and Truck Series moving to some non-companion events over the summer, it seems that I hear everyday about teams looking for quality crew members for upcoming races. It really makes me wonder if we aren’t almost facing a bit of a shortage of pit crew guys.
There are a good number of guys that have crew gigs all weekend. A crew guy may pit a Nationwide car on Saturday and a Cup car on Sunday. Some are even finding ways to not only double dip, but even add some Truck races! By freelancing themselves out, they can make some very good extra money, get more experience, and gain exposure. Some teams also use guys across the various series. Teams like Gibbs and Penske have guys that are on both their NNS and Cup teams.
When the series separate however, it creates holes for many teams. They are then left trying to put crews together last minute. With travel and license issues arising from these last minute hires, plus the uncertainty about a guy’s experience and abilities, it can make the whole situation very difficult.
With NASCAR imposing hard card limits on teams in the NNS and CWTS, I wonder if they have created an unintended effect. The rules were put in place to help the teams save money on salaries and travel, but they have limited the opportunities for younger guys trying to work their way up the ranks. Many of these kids that come through the various pit crew schools don’t often have the know-how to also be mechanics, so they miss out on opportunities. Teams are forced to find guys that not only work on the cars, but pit them too, so as to be compliant with the credential limits.
What then ends up happening, is that on weekends when holes are created by non-companion races, there just aren’t enough experienced guys available. There are plenty of kids available who “know” how to change tires, jack, and carry, but very few have a ton of experience. And crew chiefs don’t like bringing in some new guy who doesn’t have a ton of races under his belt. It takes time for a crew guy to understand what he needs to do to be successful at the track, and to be able to transfer his skills from practice to the race.
While the causes may be different, the problem is similar to that of many young drivers and the need for fresh talent. For example, the Nationwide Series has become Cup lite, and development drivers just don’t get the chances they used to. Crew guys are no different.
My advice to the young crew guys out there is this: network as much as you can and do as many races as you are able. That way, when a hole does open up somewhere, people will know who you are, and have faith that you can get the job done.
There is absolutely no doubt about how important pit stops are to a race. Like I’ve said here before, a team can’t win the race on pit road, but they certainly can lose it. A perfect example of this happened last weekend at Darlington. Jeff Burton brought the field to pit road as the leader with only a few laps remaining. His crew chief, Todd Berrier, called for the crew to bolt on two tires to keep their track position, and hopefully win the race. A mistake during the pit stop though, and the subsequent penalty, killed any chance for a win and saw Burton finish eighth.
In case you missed what I’m talking about, watch the doomed pit stop here. Front tire changer Dan Blizzard struggles just a touch with his on pattern (tightening the lugnuts) and the jackman drops the jack too early. If you watch very closely, you will see that jackman Adam North is watching Blizzard like a hawk. North is waiting for him to make his normal move showing that he’s finished with the lugnuts, which signals North to drop the jack. During his on pattern, Blizzard’s body makes just a small shift in position and North takes that shift as the sign that his front changer is finished. Blizzard isn’t done though and Burton, who is leaving on the drop of the jack, runs over the air hose which results in a penalty.
The normal rule they teach guys on two tire pit stops is for the jackman to drop the jack once the tire changer is at the right headlight. That gives the changer enough time to get out of the way of the car leaving the stall. As a crew works together and becomes more familiar with each other though, those tolerances become much smaller.
Let me show you an example of a very tight two tire stop. This video is of Kyle Busch’s crew, posted to Twitter by JGR Coach Mike Lepp (@mlepp). In the video you will see front changer Nick Odell hit his fifth nut, and make just a small move to leave before jackman Jeff Fender drops the jack. Odell is well short of the right headlight. And the result is Busch leaving the stall quickly, missing Odell by only a few inches.
As you can see from the two examples, the margin for error is very small. A normal two tire stop, which the #31 CAT guys have executed to perfection hundreds of times before, goes awry. Why? The answer lies in the familiarity among the crew.
The jackman sees his changers hit lugnuts everyday. And the majority of the time, they are very good. In this case, both front guys and the jackman were part of the winning crew from the 2009 Pit Crew Challenge. We aren’t talking about amateur or inexperienced guys here. They are among the best at what they do. What can happen though, is the jackman (or any other crew member for that matter) can get lulled into a false sense of security. He’s used to seeing the same thing, over and over, from his guys. This time, a small hiccup changed the normal rhythm. Add to that a little pressure with the race on the line, and you have a small mistake that costs a team the win.
So who’s ready to be a pit crew guy?
Why yes, yes we do.
Once the race is over, crew guys and race fans have one thing in common: we both want to get the hell out of the track as fast as possible. Horrid parking, bad traffic direction, and not enough escape routes are all obstacles we face on the way out. And since we don’t get helicopter rides to the airport like the drivers, sometimes we have to get creative.
At some tracks we go to, crew guys will actually park away from the track and walk in like the fans. In doing so, it allows us to walk past all the traffic around the track and get out more quickly so we can catch our flights or get on the road. Besides the obvious benefit of getting out faster, this parking situation also offers some unforeseen entertainment.
Parking away from the track means we have two long walks to make; one into the track and one out of the track. And in many situations, these walks are done through the same areas the fans inhabit. Here is where the fun ensues.
First, when walking through a crowded area at a race track, why is it that some race fans look at us like we are aliens? If there is one place you’d think we’d fit in wearing apparel that is emblazoned with company logos it would be at a race track. That’s not necessarily the case though. Maybe they are just shocked that we show up wearing long black work pants on days when it’s a bazillion degrees outside. Either way, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched people notice a group of us, completely stop what they are doing, and stare at us with puzzled looks on their faces as we walk by. Psst, you over there, yeah the one staring, we are supposed to be here…
One of the cooler experiences that happens during these strolls, is all the fans that want to meet us. There is never a shortage of folks who want to shake our hands, get a picture, or have us autograph their t-shirt. Even though we are all just normal Joes like the fans, it’s still fun to feel like a celebrity for a little bit.
And then there are the hecklers. These folks love to talk a little trash as we walk by, if we don’t happen to be wearing the uniform of their favorite driver. It’s alright though, we can take it. If we are getting heckled, that means we probably kicked their favorite driver’s butt. It’s definitely worse for some more then others though. Think about who the most hated drivers in NASCAR are, and you can imagine how bad those guys get it.
To all of you who choose to enjoy a few (or many) cold, adult beverages while at the race, do me a favor please? Either stay in your motorhome, or get somebody else to drive you home. I’m all for having a good time, and would probably be doing the same if I were at the race to watch, but watching you stumble out of the stands while yelling “Jimmie Sucks!” makes me a little nervous. Especially because you were wearing a Jimmie Johnson hat…
So the next time you are at the track doing a little tailgating, and a stream of crew guys comes walking by, don’t be skerred. We’re just here to do a little work. Oh, and to all of you who have offered me a beer, I’d love one, but let me get a rain check. I don’t think the boss would think too highly of me drinking on the job.
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.
If you got to watch the races on Monday from Texas you may have heard the TV guys talking about the drivers who had to do double duty. Guys like Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano, Greg Biffle, and others got out of their Cup rides and had to immediately jump into their Nationwide cars for another 300 miles. It can be a tough thing to do as it requires the drivers be in top shape, and have the ability to re-focus their minds after 500 grueling miles. But what the TV folks probably didn’t talk about a lot, was all the crew guys who did the same exact thing.
Just like there are drivers who run in multiple series, there are also quite a few crew members who work in multiple series. Usually it’s not a problem to do, because the races aren’t on the same day, but Monday was different.
Following the Cup race at Texas, crew guys had to pack up their pit box and then run to their Cup haulers to strip off their firesuits. They then had to head over to their NNS haulers to put firesuits back on and proceed back to pit road to set up their NNS pit box. Teams had about an hour to work with following the first race to get changed and set up their pit stalls for the nightcap.
One example of what I’m talking about is the Furniture Row pit crew. Those five guys pit Regan Smith’s car on Sunday, but on Saturday they work for KHI and service Kevin Harvick’s Nationwide car. Some more examples include three of the five guys that work on Kyle Busch’s Cup car. Both front guys and the rear changer also work on Kyle’s pit crew on Saturdays. And there are certainly others.
What this really means for these crew guys is being 100% focused. It means doing 10 pit stops during the Cup race, then getting a quick break, followed by four more pit stops in the Nationwide race. Oh yeah, and don’t screw it up.
Another group that did double duty on Monday that I wanted to point out was the spotters. The double header for the Cup guys running in the Nationwide race also meant twice the work for their spotters. They had to work for 500 miles, take a quick break, then get ready to work 300 more.
What really sucks about double duty though, is having to do it again a week later. With the way the forecast is shaping up for Talladega, it may be deja vu all over again.
It’s been a big week for change in the NASCAR world. In the span of a few days we’ve had Kelly Bires get replaced at Jr. Motorsports and Kasey Kahne announce his defection from RPM to join Hendrick Motorsports in 2012. And it’s funny, because I heard somebody say early in the week that it was a slow news week because the John Wes Townley story was getting some decent run. Besides the big changes you’ve been hearing about all over the place, this time of year means other changes for teams too.
The changes I’m referring to are those that happen within the teams. When the season starts, many teams have new faces. Sometimes that might mean one or two new guys, and in other cases it means the whole team. But as we get through the first few races of the season, team management expects those new faces, and the old ones, to start having some chemistry.
Let me give you an example. Every pit crew guy knows that he is only as good as his last race. An established guy can go from being comfy in his job, to on the street real quick. It only takes a few missteps on pit road to get the ax. Through the first few races of the season, coaches and crew chiefs understand that there is going to be a bit of a transition period going from the off season to running races every weekend. It will take the pit crews a few races to work out the small kinks and to get really comfortable together. But once we start getting into the fourth, fifth, and sixth races, the important people expect those kinks to get worked out. If they don’t get fixed, heads will roll. We’ve seen a few of these changes across all three series already this year, and its only April.
Pit crew guys aren’t the only ones at risk either. One story this week that didn’t get a ton of attention was Roush Fenway Racing making a crew chief change for young Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Crew chief Ben Leslie was replaced by Mike Kelley, who himself had been replaced by Drew Blickensderfer earlier in the season atop Carl Edwards’ NNS pit box. Leslie will now move into the role of Nationwide Series Competition Director for RFR, the position most recently held by Kelley. If a driver/crew chief combination isn’t working, team owners like Jack Roush are not going to wait long to make a change. There is too much at stake. Especially with a young driver, Roush wants to know if these kids have what it takes to get it done. Pairing Stenhouse with a veteran guy like Kelley should make that picture a little clearer.
As the saying says, the only constant is change. And change is certainly on. Teams are trying to get better every week, and Kahne’s move signals the start of yet another Silly Season.
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.
Hope you all enjoyed our little joke earlier, we certainly had fun doing it. This is my real post for today, and don’t worry, none of this is an April Fools prank.
If you will remember, at the start of this season, NASCAR introduced a new style fuel can for the Truck Series that eliminated the need for a catch can guy (See the fuel can in action here). Because of this new can, NASCAR limited the number of over-the-wall crew members in the Truck Series to six: two tire changers, two tire carriers, a jackman, and a fueler. Teams could still technically use a catch can guy, they would just have to eliminate one of the other positions.
We are hearing now that NASCAR is seriously considering bringing this new style fuel can to both the Nationwide and Cup Series for the 2011 season. If this happens, it would mean the elimination of the catch can man for both of these two series as well.
I’m not 100% certain about NASCAR’s rationale for the change, but I’m guessing they would say it is a safety issue and will save the teams money. It basically removes 43 people from pit road and means teams don’t need to bring (or pay) a catch can guy.
In my opinion, I don’t think this change would really accomplish anything. If teams aren’t spending that little bit of money on a catch can man, they are just going to spend it somewhere else. It isn’t like a NASCAR team is going to be broken by the few thousand dollars it takes to have a crew member catch gas during a pit stop. When we are talking about $15-$20 million budgets, what is a few thousand?
As for the safety issue, I’ve heard some say it’s more dangerous for the catch can man, because he has his back to pit road during the pit stop. But to be honest with you, he is not really in any better or worse position then the rest of us over the wall. When I’m hitting lugnuts, it’s not like I’m looking around to see if I’m going to get hit by another car. I’m focused on my job. You could make the argument that tire carriers and jackmen are put in much worse spots.
On top of that, it isn’t like we’ve seen a recent outbreak of catch can guys getting hit on pit road. I can’t honestly remember the last time it even happened. So this couldn’t be called a reactionary change by NASCAR.
From a competition stand point, the rule with the fueler in the Truck Series is, that he cannot make any adjustments during the pit stop. I would imagine that NASCAR would carry this part of the rule over to Cup and the NNS. If you watch stops in the Cup and NNS Series, you will often see catch can guys making track bar and wedge adjustments. Teams build extra long adjustment wrenches specifically for this.
If the catch can guy goes away, pit stop times will be affected considerably. Any adjustments will now have to be made by tire carriers, which will slow stops down. It will certainly give crew chiefs fits, as the question becomes “do I lose time on the stop and get the adjustment, or leave the car as it is, and take the track position.”
We will keep you posted as we know more about this rule change.
In case you don’t know what I do, I will take this opportunity to tell you. I’m on pit road every weekend changing tires for one of the many NASCAR teams. If you’ve watched a race live or seen one on TV, you have no doubt seen me work. You probably didn’t know it, but I was there. Working in racing is certainly a unique career choice, and sometimes I don’t know if people actually believe me when I tell them how I earn a living.
We’ve all been in those situations. You are talking to a friend whom you haven’t seen in years, or you are in one of many different social situations where you are meeting new people. At some point, the topic of what everyone does for a job comes up. When it comes to be my turn, it usually goes like this:
“Oh, you sell tractor parts, good deal. What do I do? I’m actually a tire changer in NASCAR. Yeah… Really.”
When I’m asked what I do, I’m already prepared for a lengthy explanation and the many questions to follow. Once they hear what it is that I do to earn money, they then want to know who I work for, how long I’ve been doing it, how I got into it, what I think about that one guy flipping the other guy at that one race, and so on and so forth. The questions always start out being centered around me specifically, and then they turn towards more general questions about NASCAR and racing.
For those of you who have friends who aren’t race fans, you probably know what I mean about the questions. When something big happens that they hear about, they come to you with questions because they know you are a NASCAR fan. But when they ask one question, you end up having to give a ten minute explanation, because they don’t know the back story and how it all works. And once you answer their question, they most likely have more. That is exactly how it goes for me in these situations.
But, I’ve been doing this long enough now that answering the questions is almost automatic. I’ve even got different versions of my explanation depending on how much I think this person knows about racing. Answering questions and talking with fans has probably helped me with this, as has doing this website.
I always wonder though, especially when I’m meeting new people, if after they find out what it is that I do, if they think I’m completely full of crap. Do they actually believe me, or do they maybe think I’m trying to impress them or screw with them? Or maybe they do actually believe me, but think I’m completely crazy for not having a “real” job.
Either way, I always get a kick out of the look on people’s faces when I say “tire changer.” You’d think I’d just told them that I play in traffic for a living or something crazy like that. Oh wait…