Over The Wall

A little help from Stewart

  On Sunday we were right in front of the 20 cars pit stall.  We were in stall 11, with the opening in front, and the 20 was in stall 12.  When ever your at Martinsville you want to make sure you have a good team in front and behind you so that everything goes smoothly.  Before the race started Tony came over to check out his pit stall, like all drivers should do, and see who was in front and behind him.  Most of the guys on the 20 and 12 were hanging around in the pit throwing the football and talking.  Tony came over and started talking with us about the race and different stuff.  About this time our rear tire changer on the 12 jumps over the wall and tells Tony, "hey, gonna have a good day in the pits, right".  Tony laughs and says,"oh yeah".  That's important to me and my carrier because if you don't make friends with the driver in the pits behind you he can make your day a real pain.  I didn't think much about the pre race deal with Tony until about the third pit stop.  We were way back in the field due to an early wreck and trying to play catch up.  On the other hand, the boys on the 20 were kick-en butt on the track and in the pits.  There came a situation on the third stop where Tony was going to be pulling out of his stall right when we were coming in.  In this type of situation a driver can really be a jerk off if he wants.  Tony was completely opposite, he got out and we got in with no problems.  He stayed clear away from us in the back and all the guys on the 20 pit crew made sure tires were up and out of the way when we went to do our stop.  It ended up happening a few times during the day when we were coming in and they were leaving and there was never a problem.  It was a tuff break for those guys later in the race, but we appreciate all the help. 

The long weight

  This past week Penske hired a young kid to help with tear down and cleaning cars.  With every new person, especially the younger guys, there is always some kind of trick or prank played.  Last week the new kid fell for the oldest one in the book, the long weight.  I can't laugh to much because i fell for the same one and a lot more when i started.  Here's how it went down.  The kid was working in tear down Thursday afternoon about 2 hours before quiting time.  He was told to go down to the 2 car and ask for a long weight.  So following orders, ol boy went down and asked one of the guys on the team where the long weight was.  This is the kind of trick where you don't have to specify who to ask for because everyone in racing knows this trick and just plays along with it.  So the guy on the 2 car sends him down the shop to the 12.  He then again asks where he can find the long weight.  So the guys ask him how long the weight is and all the other bull &^^%$ that goes along with it.  So finally they send him around the shop a few times asking every department.  He finally gets back to one of the departments and they tell him to go ask our GM because he keeps all the long weights up in his office.  Dam if the kid didn't go slap up to the GM's office and ask for the long weight.  So of course the GM sent him back into the shop looking for it.  He finally figured out what was happening when everyone started leaving the shop after work.  He had spent the whole afternoon waiting a long time for nothing.  Lesson learned.

Interview from Mexico

  I was curious about the Mexico City race, and what it was like for the guys on the teams working down there.  So this morning i hit up a buddy of mine that works here at the shop, Clay Robinson.  Clay is the front tire changer on the 77 Kodak team.  He went down to the Busch race to pit Rusty Wallace's car this past weekend.  I asked him a bunch of questions about the race, facility, and fans.  Here's what he had to say.  "It was like any other track we go to.  The fans were great, the facilities were nice, and never did i feel unsafe.  I only flew in on Sunday morning and flew out Sunday night, but the time i was there i loved it."  Anything that was different down there that you don't see at a normal NASCAR event.  "The only thing that was kind of weird was we had to walk thru a fan area to get from the garage to pit road.  At most of the tracks we race at you can go strait from the garage to pit road without going thru a fan souvenir area.  It wasn't a problem because the fans were really cool, they just wanted to see what was going on."  What about the pre race activities.  Most of the NASCAR races have a fly over or some kind of big show before the race.  What went on down there.  "I personally didn't leave the hauler until 10 minutes before the race, but from what i heard it was pretty funny.  They had a couple of guys on motorcycles riding around the front stretch doing burnouts and tricks on there bikes.  They were all dressed up wearing there goggles and leathers, doing all they could to entertain.  Now that you mention it Trent, i wish i would have seen it instead of hearing about it.  I think that would have been pretty cool."  Well, I think that's about all i got room for on this post, thanks a lot for your help Clay. 

Playboy Mansion

  Aussie Dave, "the thunder from down under", I'm gonna let you in on a little story that happened last year.  The only reason I'm letting you in on it is because i don't think y'all have a Playboy Mansion over in Australia.  If you do, its a good story anyways.  Every year the road crew flies in on Saturday morning into LA.  The company gets us out there a day early so that we can enjoy California.  So every year we think we can talk our way into the Playboy Mansion.  It never happens but we keep trying,and I'm sure this year will  be no different.  Last year we had a guy on the road with us named "Redneck Rodney".  Ol Rodney had never seen the Playboy Mansion but had heard alot about it.  So Buffet Terry, who drives the rent a car every where, decides that he s gonna take Rodney to the Mansion and get him in.   I was at a poker game that night so my story is second hand, but the way it's told is like this. Ol Buffet pulls up to the gate where there is a guard and starts throwing out a bunch of big names guys in Nascar.  Telling the guard that we are meeting them there and supposed to be at the event that night.  So of course the guard was like, "OK,let me call up to the house".  Now here's the funny part, ol Redneck Rodney was in the floor of the back Seat scared to death telling Buffet that he was gonna get him arrested and in trouble.  Think ol Rodney even had em a cigarette burning.  Nervous as hell, said he'd never really been in trouble and he didn't want to go to jail.  So of course, all the guys that were in the car kept telling him that if they got busted that they might miss the race and could get in some real trouble.  So this whole time Rodney was scared to death, not knowing that every year we did this and that the worst that was gonna happen was them telling us no.  Like usual the guard came back and said, "sorry fellas, we don't have you guys on the list".  So for the third year in a row we were denied.  This year were gonna try it a gain and see what happens.   Maybe let some one else do the talking besides Buffet.

Come on Joe

     There are a couple of drivers on pit road who are known for driving like bone heads into the pits.  Joe Nemechek is not one of them, except for Sunday.  He got three penalties for being over the pit box line and he hit the back of our car on another.  I can understand one time over shooting your pit or maybe sliding alittle bit past your mark, but hitting the car in front of you while in the middle of a pit stop, now that's bad.  It was our 4th stop of the day and we had just got to the right side of the car.  The jack was up and the changers had just got the tires out.  I was just about to hang my tire when all the sudden the car moved forward about 16 inches.  I said to my self, "What the #@!%".  I turned around and there was Joe, nose deep into the back of our #12 Alltel Dodge.  Luckily it didn't knock the car off the jack or it could have been a lot worse.  The team kept digging and finished up with a mid 15 second stop.  Thank god Ryan keeps his foot on the brake, if not we might have been shot into the pit in front of us.  Dammit Joe, your better than that.  No hard feelings here, its just part of the deal.  Maybe this week in California will have better luck.