I work for arguably one of the best teams in NASCAR. We've won multiple championships while I worked there...

I work for arguably one of the best teams in NASCAR. We've won multiple championships while I worked there. Ask me anything.

das cool i guess

Why do you use pushrods when dohc is lighter and makes more hp?

because the rules said so

nailed it. Engine specs are controlled by NASCAR year to year and race to race. Also we don't manufacture our own motors. Toyota Racing Development has a factory in California where they make the engines for all Toyota teams and then ship them out. We install them and then do the rest.

Indy is better in every way

Your thoughts?

How likely are the rumors that Dodge will return to NASCAR? Or that Hyundai will enter NASCAR?
>inb4 you don't know these things

How do you feel about the stage system? Has it made things easier or more difficult for teams?

I completely agree. The "car of tomorrow" that was created as a result of Dale's death in 2001 completely killed the sport. It is all about money now. Indy is much more exciting, I also really enjoy motogp.

Joe Gibbs racing?

I honestly don't know much about that. Everyone said Toyota would never be in NASCAR but here we are.

The stage system is great for NASCAR fans, bad for our team. before the new rules this year we were destroying every race. 4 out of the top 5 finishers were usually us. The new rules were to shut down the monopoly/money direction NASCAR was headed towards (much like baseball today) and it totally worked.

What do you do for said team?

Yessir
>pls dont dox me

I am a half assed machinist, I never went to school but I can read and write g code. My primary job is making body parts for the outside of the car, the roll cage, spacers/ washers, splitters and side skirts. Sometimes if we are extremely behind I'll be made to operate computer controlled lathes/mills to get us caught up. This is usually in the off season.

Cool, Kyle Busch is my favorite driver. He seems like the kind that would be hell on his crew though, like he'd be extremely demanding and difficult to work for. Would that guess be accurate?

WHY ARE YOU DROPPING MY BY KENSETH?

*boy

Is Nascar's governing body ever going to pull it's head out of its ass and quite ruining the cars in the name of "parity" and "safety".

Sounds like an interesting job. If you didn't go to school for it how did you get to where you are?

Serious question: Detractors of NASCAR, especially if they're Formula One fans, say that it's nothing more than "go in a circle, advertise stuff, and crash".But I'm sure there must be intricacies, strategy, and a required level of athleticism that the layperson may not notice, especially since stock cars are often built to very similar specifications (that is, driver skill becomes even more important, similar to one make races in a way). What kind of finesse and nuance in NASCAR e.g. flags, tire changes, refueling, can outside observers miss?

Joke question: How hot is Samantha Busch in person?

The drivers rarely come by the shop. The lower rungs of the team (my department) rarely if ever even see a driver. We work much more with the crew chiefs/pit crew members who then relay to the drivers. So I wouldn't really know if he was demanding or not. I certainly like him. He races hard. They call him rowdy for a reason. The only time I talked to him I was on a bench grinder and he walked up behind me and thanked me for the car that he won in last weekend. He's everyones favorite at my shop though. By far.
We had a team meeting before the announcement was made about him leaving, and Joe Gibbs literally told us nothing. It went something like "you're gonna see some things about Matt leaving later today, I just wanted to tell you before the media does. Eric Jones will be replacing him, continue with business as usual." I've heard rumors around the shop that the sport is dying and paying drivers that are high profile is getting increasingly more difficult. If Matt is making 20 million a year (random guess) and Eric Jones will be making 12 million a year, and the sponsors logos will still be on the car, why not just replace Matt with Eric and pocket that 8 million? This is all just what a hear from time to time. Not 100% sure about it but more often than not shop rumors turn out to be at least somewhat true.

If any of you know anything about Joe Gibbs you'll know hes very big on God and family. Its also in the deep south so family values are core to the atmosphere of the shop. There entire family trees working in my shop. Uncles, brothers, daughters, grand dads, all of it. So my dad was a manager of the shipping department when I was 17 and helped my get my foot in the door. I unloaded trucks full time for a year before I was transferred to the machining department. This was around the time we adopted our sister team, Furniture Row Racing. I was doing shitwork like loading CNC machines and bench grinding parts all day long when we got buried under part orders from taking on 2 new cars from FRR. I was supposed to leave for college at the end of that month but because of the intense workload and my already general understanding of how to load/unload/deburr/grind parts I was offered a night shift job running the most basic CNC machine in the shop a laser cutter. I then taught myself through online resources how to go about machining because I wasn't full time yet, still temp. The work never slowed down and after a year I could hold my own with the people that went to school for machining and they put me on full time. I still work the graveyard shift. My dad left his department and now does the work orders for the shop.

The way you skirt the rules and bend them without breaking them is EXTREMELY important in NASCAR. The typical fan doesn't know this, but teams spy on each other asking for fake tours through other shops, take sneak photos and then report back to their superiors at their shop. The way engenders cheat is unbelievably clever and sneaky, something that a regular joe like me is just blown away by. The very strict rules make the sport different from other racing leagues because it is absolutely about the better driver, not the faster car. Although I do agree that watching races where drivers could get 2 laps behind due to a wreck and still somehow fight their way back to first place due to their superior car was much more interesting than the type of tedious chess-like racing you see today. Hell gaining one position at Taledega could take 20 minutes. Like I said the sport is on a steady decline.

Thanks for the interesting anecdote.

I noticed you didn't answer my question about Samantha Busch...

Just googled her. I'd let her see my disappointing wee wee. Never seen her at the shop tho

Do you think Tony Stewart killed that kid on purpose?

i'm not op but the kid was trying to reach in and slap/hit tony he greatly misjudged his speed and got him self ran over

I'm not gonna say he did it on purpose but when he raced for us all the crew chiefs thought he was a complete asshole. That kid did get out on a live track under the ramining green though. That was extremely stupid. Both were at fault.

Sage