All photo were taken by me (Brian Vermette) at New Hampshire Motor Speedway this past Sunday (June 29, 2008) throughout the garage area, pits and during the race except for the pitbox photo which was taken by my father (8racingfan.com) of me sitting on top of the #29 pitbox.
It’s Sunday, race day at New Hampshire Motor Speedway for the Lenox Industrial Tools 301, oh yeah, I love it, it’s 8am and my father and I are checking in at the press credentials office to pickup our press passes. (A hot pass to the garage area and pits, a media parking pass and a press pass to the media center and racetrack, and one incredible seat on top of the #29 Shell-Pennzoil Richard Childress Racing Pit box for the race day is what makes up Shell’s Best Seat in the House program on this Sunday.)
I’m not much for parking in the infield media parking, so again we parked in the overflow parking outside and up from the tunnel. While we are walking through the infield tunnel, the three RCR racing teams which include last year’s winner Clint Bowyer, the fall 2000 Cup race winner Jeff Burton and the fastest car in practice, qualified 3rd and the winner of the Sylvania 300 back in 2006 Kevin Harvick, are already hard at work in the garage area since around 7am making the final preparations on their racecars.
Each race team normally uses a two or three-page check list with each team member assigned a particular task to do, from setting up the frontend, checking the engine, transmissions, rear-end gears and etc, checking each nut and bolt, and once finished marked with that team members initials as complete. In walking through the garage area, it didn’t take me all long to find all three RCR race teams, the #31 Lenox Tools Chevy of Jeff Burton was in the second set of garage stalls, the #29 Shell-Pennzoil Chevy was in another garage just after the claw (inspection station) and the #07 Jack Daniels Chevy was either two or three garage stalls down from the #29 car.
All three RCR race team crews had their cars inside their garage stalls, one thing that will make just about anyone walking through the garage area jump, is when the racecars are brought outside the stalls, the rear-ends are put up on jack stands, the engine is running and they hit the gas, the rear tires are spinning, humming at full song, you can hear it all over the garage area, but try standing a couple feet behind the car, what a high pitched sound, that’s cool.While walking through the garage, I could help but notice just how many things each crew member has to do besides working on the racecar and on Sunday in New Hampshire, mist or light rain was just adding to that list. After checking out the #29, #31 and #07 Chevrolet’s, yes, for some reason I am a Chevrolet man, at least when it comes to NASCAR, we began to head out on pitroad, where all three teams where currently setting up the pit stalls. Bring out those pitboxes, what a setup, open it up, lift the seats in to position, check the air lines, clean the pit stall or in on this day, dry the pits with a blower and yes, a leaf blower, nice touch and lay out the tires behind the pitbox.
Meanwhile, in the garage area, once each team is done setting their cars, it’s off to three inspection stations, we sat next to the third inspection station that was on pitroad, what a sight in itself, up goes each car, just another step. Ironically enough, the first two cars in the third inspection station on pitroad was the #07 and the #31, the #29 Shell-Pennzoil Chevrolet came out not too long after. From there, it’s simply just putting your car on the grid on pitroad and you get ready for driver intros and the green flag (believe me, not that simple.)The drop of the green flag is next… at this point we are standing at the #29 Shell-Pennzoil Pitbox, headsets on and getting ready to turn them loose. Green Flag is in the air, one help on pitroad is the Sprint-Nextel vision screen behind me where I watched Kevin Harvick go from his starting spot of 3rd to take on the lead on lap 5. From here on out, I was watch the man himself Kevin Harvick and his #29 pit crew including his crew chief Todd Berrier. Just after the first pitstop of four-tires and two cans of fuel, it was my turn to get on top of the pitbox, sitting next to some of the Shell guys, including what looked to be a father and son.
What a sight on that pitbox, there’s nothing like it, you can see the entire front straightaway, most of the pit stalls, pitboxes, the tires laid out and thousands of people walking on pitroad, not to mention the sold out 101,000+ race fans that invaded on New Hampshire Motor Speedway. On the pitbox, I sat in one of the back seats, behind the two pit crew members, the crew chief Todd Berrier and Kevin Harvick’s wife DeLana. Above the front seats are five monitors, two timing and scoring, a Directv Hotpass which had the #31 Jeff Burton covered and two TNT broadcasts (I think), I watched three screens, the Directv Hot pass, the TNT broadcast and the Sprint-Nextel Vision screen behind me.I watched the crew chief Todd Berrier while I was up on the pitbox, he reminds me of Chad Knaus (#48 crew chief) who follows his racecar around, Todd does mostly the same, walking to the back to see the monitor and his racecar and back to the front. If you notice the picture on the right, my father took that of Berrier, next to Berrier are two guys in the back seat, first is a guy in the white shirt and next to him is another guy in a dark blue shirt with black headset on, that’s me in the blue shirt by the way…
I watched Kevin Harvick all day long, he drove mainly in the top 5 and top 10 most of the race, leading 54 laps, that’s cool, the pit stops during the race where quick and amazing all day including a four-tires, fuel, a trackbar and widget adjustment, boy hats off to the pit crew guys, that was fast from what I saw above. Sadly though, it would be the final pit stop of two tires and fuel which I thought was the right call and still think was the right call, while other cars either got fuel only or stayed out on lap 271, but Kevin Harvick wouldn’t have the chance to get back after it as another caution would came out for another wreck and it rained…hard. The race was called on lap 284 and Kevin Harvick and the #29 team finished 14th, they had a great run all day long, but the 14th finish didn’t do it justice. After the lightning off in the distance, I was jumping off the pitbox and heading to the media center, for our day with Shell that was it.What an incredible day, I would like to first thank Kevin Harvick, Richard Childress, the entire #29 Shell-Pennzoil RCR Race team and RCR Racing for leading my father and I in for the day, also I would like to thank Shell, Edelman PR, Sam Brown for leading my father and I take in Shell’s Best Seat in the House for a second time and a special thanks to Judy and a nice women in the media center, who fixed the little problem we had. See yeah!
- Racedriven
