Over The Wall

Pictures from the VJGC

  This was one of the best things Ive ever been apart of.  If you have never been there you need to check it out.  All the wives that went up there with us and all the guys on our team all agree it was an unbelievable night.  Here are some of the pictures of last night.

The first pic. is at dinner time doing some dance that all the kids knew except us.  Bryan White a pit crew member was having a good time with the thumbs up sign.  The second picture is Matt Borland with a camper who wanted a dance partner and called on Matt.  The third picture is me and my wife Ashley with one of the campers who told me I can't dance for squat.  He was right.  Picture four is our team doing a stop for the kids.  We ended up doing three stops during the night.  Picture five is a camper changing the left front tire.  When we got done with our stops all the kids that wanted were allowed to change a tire before we went on to the next stop.  The last two picture are group shots with some of the campers after all the stops were done.  All and all it was a cool experience and we will definitely do it again.  Enjoy the pics

Another Martinsville challenge

By Dennis Terry

Ask most pit crews about their favorite track and you’ll find that short tracks usually rank near the top.

Frequent cautions mean more pit stops. Often you have a lot of body damage to contend with and the pit stalls are much smaller then at larger tracks. All are factors making our jobs that much more challenging.

As anyone can appreciate, the bigger the challenge… the bigger the reward! I always look forward to Bristol and Martinsville for that reason.

Our Bass Pro Shops pit crew left Bristol with a 13.55 second average (not counting stops resetting the alignment or changing a shock). Our goal is 13.00 per race, but a 13.55 is pretty respectable considering that we are a rookie team still searching for the perfect chemistry.

As we prepare to head north across the Virginia line for Sunday’s race, we hope to better last week’s average. However, Martinsville’s pit road offers its own unique challenges that you may not notice during the broadcast.

Most everyone can see that 1/3 of the pit stalls at Martinsville are in the turns making it impossible to see your car until it is only a few feet away. What few do notice is that pit road is very narrow for the cars entering and leaving the pit boxes. Also, the dimensions of the pit boxes that the cars stop in are, second to Bristol, the smallest on the circuit.

Another little known fact about Martinsville that pit crews have to contend with is the slope of pit road. The pit boxes have a steep slope back toward pit wall.

This slope, combined with low left side air pressures, causes the car to sit lower on the driver’s side making jacking up the car very difficult.

Look for several pit crews to struggle to overcome some of the Martinsville unique pit road challenges on Sunday.

Click here to see how the pits at the different tracks measure up for the teams.

The weekend off was nice

By Trent Cherry

  Well, I just got back from the mountains with my wife and realized how cool it really is to have a full weekend.  We headed up to the smokey mountains in NC and spent two days just relaxing.

Most of the guys on the team like to stay at home on there weekend off because they travel so much.  This brings me to my point for today.

Every track we go to there are people who tell us how much they would love to have our jobs.  As much as I believe them there is something that a lot of people don't know about our jobs.

My job is a lot different from most of the other guys on our team.  Me and five other guys just show up on Sundays and pit the car.  If the race is out west we will leave on Saturday.

The real guys who make it work are the guys that prep the car and work Thursday thru Sunday 40 weekends a year.  Most of these guys have families and leave it all behind to go race.

They commit over 100 days of the year on the road working there butts off.  That's not counting all the testing our team does.  I personally don't see how they do it.  I leave once a week and love coming home after one day.  We got some guys on our team that have been doing this for 15 or more years. 

Even more amazing is the women who put up with it.  I've had lots of buddies over the years who have come off the road because there wives wanted nothing more to do with racing.  They loved their job, but time away was killing their family life.

It's a very rewarding business to be in.  Don't get me wrong.  I love what I do and I would like to keep doing it for as long as I can, but there are lots of sacrifices that have to take place before it can all come together.

This weekend coming up is one of the better places we go.  I will be sad to leave Vegas, even after being there for a couple of days.  OK, that's all.

We'll take that 15th-place finish

EDITOR'S NOTE: New ThatsRacin.com blogger Dennis Terry of Dale Earnhardt Inc. reports in on his return from California Speedway.Terry, a former teammate of Over the Wall's Trent Cherry, will be a regular contributor in this space.

By Dennis Terry

It’s back to the real world today after a long weekend and a 15^th place finish in California.

Truex was gunning for a top 10 finish and got shuffled back to 15^th on the last lap.

I’m happy with that finish and I would much rather settle for 15^th with a driver who is aggressively trying to get into the top 10 than walk away with 11^th or 12^th with a driver who is content with cruising to the finish.

Pit crews like California because of the wide and long pit boxes, some of the biggest on the circuit where there’s plenty of room between you and the teams around you.

One complaint that I have as a front tire changer is that the flat tracks like California, Indy and Michigan require the drivers to use much more braking to help control the car getting into and out of the turns.  This causes a pretty significant build up of brake dust on the wheels, especially in the front.  When you fire up the air gun it blows a brake dust cloud back into your face, making hitting five lug nuts that much more of a challenge.

We even resort to applying a heavy coat of PAM cooking spray on the wheels before each pit stop to help keep the dust down.

Now it's off to the Keys for a little R-N-R before the schedule picks back up in two weeks at Vegas. I usually have a poor showing at the blackjack tables, so I'll be betting on good pits stops and our first top-1o finish at the track.

West Coast, here we come

EDITOR'S NOTE: New ThatsRacin.com blogger Dennis Terry of Dale Earnhardt Inc. reports in on teh West Coast and changes in the NASCAR schedule. Terry, a former teammate of Over the Wall's Trent Cherry, will be a regular contributor in this space. So stop by and see what he has to say.

By Dennis Terry

Our flight for Ontario California, is scheduled to leave Statesville at 8 a.m. Saturday.  If all goes well we will make it back around 2 Monday morning. That’s a pretty long weekend and we’ll get to do it five more times this season.

In 1996, just 10 years ago, NASCAR had only one West Coast race, at Sears Point, Calif.  There’s a rumor of a second Vegas date coming and the Northwest has become a bull’s eye for a future track. In 10 more years the West Coast could have 9 races or more.  NASCAR, a national sport with deep southern roots could have 25% of it’s races on the West Coast.

Except for the long trip and the extra time away from home I don’t mind the West Coast races.

The fans that I’ve seen in California and Phoenix are just a passionate as the fans in Charlotte and Rockingham. (Well, maybe not Rockingham.)

What do you think about NASCAR potentially having 25 percent of the races on the West Coast? 

Even Mike Helton recently stated, "We (NASCAR) strongly believe that the old Southeastern redneck heritage that we had is no longer in existence."  I know all of my Mooresboro buddies who keep up with the races and commercials at Charlie Hamrick’s would strongly disagree with Mr. Helton.

It's Daytona and, yes, it IS a big deal

EDITOR'S NOTE: New ThatsRacin.com blogger Dennis Terry of Dale Earnhardt Inc. reports in. Terry, a former teammate of Over the Wall's Trent Cherry, will be a regular contributor in this space. So look for him this season.

By Dennis Terry

Ask around the garage and one of the most exciting events that crew members experience is our fist trip to Daytona.  Driving down into the tunnel and emerging out the other side into the world center of racing not only marks the beginning of a new season but serves as a reminder of the racing history that Daytona has been a part of.

For me this trip marked the beginning of a new season with my new team.  A lot of new faces and names, but the same race day excitement along with the hassles of getting fitted into new uniforms, working out the bugs of our radios and figuring out the new pit boxes which get more complex by the year.  All of the little things that will become routine for the rest of the season.   

We finished 10^th in the Gatorade Duel and will start in 19^th on Sunday.  Not bad at all for a new team in the Daytona 500.

Visiting the B2 bomber

  Last year when we went to Kansas for the race we took a pretty cool trip to visit the B2 bombers.  We got hooked up the year before at the race with one of the guys that is way up at the base and he told us that if we dropped him an email he could get us a tour of the B2 and shoot some M16's.  So last year we dropped this guy an email and everything went through.  We met up with a 2 star general and took a tour of the bombers, the hangers there in, and got to shoot some M16's.  This year we are heading back to the base for some more action.  Its about a two hour drive from our hotel but it will be worth it.  This year there going to let us fly a simulator.  Ive never flown *&^% before so this should be cool.  Along with shooting the M16 and seeing the bombers last year, we got to visit a bomb shelter on base that controlled the launching of some major missiles.  Now as you can tell by my choice of words I m not a very educated military type guy.  So I'm just telling you what I can remember.  Any ways tomorrow should be pretty cool visiting the base and everything, and then its back to racing.  Ill try and post some pictures from our trip and let you guys see what I'm talking about.

A real athlete

The only good thing to come out of the race Sunday was getting to meet Shannon Sharpe.  Shannon was the grand Marshall for the race and came down pit road to throw football with us before the race started.  If anyone doesn't know, he is considered to be one of the best tight ends to play in the NFL.  He won two Superbowl's, one with the Denver Broncos and another with the Baltimore Ravens.  He has since retired and is now working in the broadcasting booth.  We got a group picture with him before he left so I thought I would put it on here for everyone to see. 

Back row: Ben Brown (changer), Micheal "Meat" Warren (carrier), Shannon Sharpe, Nascar Nation chick,  Topher (Mechanic), Dennis "Buffet" Terry (changer)

Front Row: Rodney "redneck" Eldridge (tire guy), Me, Jerry "jun bug" Moody,    (mechanic), Britt Goodrich (jackman).

You always here me talk about these guys so now you can put a face with a name. 

TV announcers

  I really haven't had a chance to listen or watch a race on TV in about five years.  This past weekend Dick Bergren made a comment about me getting married.  My wife wanted me to see it when I got home Sunday so she brought up the Tivo thing and replayed it for me.  After I got done watching it I started listening to the announcers during the race.  Its been a while since I ve watched a race so it was kind of interesting to here what the announcers where saying.  I got one neighbor who cant stand Larry Mac.  All he does is complain about him and says he ruins every race by saying stupid stuff.  So I thought I would listen in and see what the big fuss was.  I didn't think it was to bad but there sure are alot of fans out there who love some of those guys and who cant stand them.  So I guess I'm more curious to know who is the best announcers and who they need to get rid of.  I know a couple of years ago when Monday Night Football hired Dennis Miller I was so pissed cause that guy sucked.  He was a funny guy in general, but after that year of announcing I couldn't stand to listen to him.  Needless to say Monday Night Football canned him.  It didn't matter how famous he was, what mattered is that he wasn't any good at announcing football.  So just cause you know alot about a sport doesn't meen your going to make a good announcer.  Point being, who should stay and who should go. 

Getting Married!

   Not that anyone really cares what's going on in my personal life, but this Saturday I'm getting married.  Everyone keeps asking me where we are going on our honeymoon.  Well, Sunday is the race in Dover and I plan on being there.  So my fiance Ashley agreed that a December honeymoon was OK when the season was over.  Thank god she understands.  Now I just hope we can win Dover.  That could help make the first night of marriage a little bit easier.  Especially since I'm leaving her less than 24 hours after the wedding.