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How many people does it take to field a racecar? Many more than it used to. Joe Gibbs Racing began in 1991 with 13 employees. Now, 415 people work for the company — not including the drivers, who are independent contractors. JGR, based near Charlotte, is among the larger teams, smaller than mammoth Hendrick Motorsports (550 employees), but far larger than some one-car teams that employ fewer than 50. Here’s what all those people do, how they affect the cars on race day, and what employees of the top Toyota team have in their own garages. SOURCES: Joe Gibbs Racing; Bill Janitz and Joe Crowley of True Speed Communication; NASCAR; Hendrick Motorsports Todd Meredith From Fayetteville, Ark. Vice president of operations Job: Runs the business side, including aviation, human resources and accounting. He is the son of executive VP Don Meredith. Best part of job: Change. “It’s an insanely competitive business that changes very fast. ... You can be on top of the game right now and be out of it in a month. ... We get a report card every week: You either won or you didn’t win.” How would a mistake on your part affect a driver on race day? It wouldn’t affect him this week but could hurt him six months from now. If you could have any other job in the company, what would you choose? Head engineer. “I like to push the envelope.” His ride: BMW. People Who Pave the Way Paige Strickland From Charlotte Receptionist (a.k.a V.P. of First Impressions) Job: Greeter and all-around information source for callers and visitors. Best part of job: “I literally make a new friend every day.” She said 25 of her wedding guests were people she had first met when they walked through the door at the shop. How would a mistake affect a driver on race day? “It wouldn’t. But if I hang up on Joe Gibbs, that’s not good.” If you could have any other job in JGR, what would it be?She would create the position of hospitality coordinator. But “if I could go to Disney and be Goofy, I’d be just as happy.” Her ride: 2004 PT Cruiser. Gwen Roberts From Kingston Springs, Tenn. Human resources manager Job: People-related activities, such as hiring, training and benefits. “My job is to eliminate distractions,” she says. She sometimes works as a backup scorer at races. Worst part of job: Dealing with the minutae of compliance with government regulations. How would a mistake affect a driver on race day? It wouldn’t affect him, but it could affect the mood of his team and crew. Her ride: Toyota Highlander hybrid. Robin Lambe From Charlotte Executive assistant (a.k.a Chief Keeper of Secrets) Job: As the assistant to Jimmy Makar and Todd Meredith, her duties include filing entry paperwork for races and scheduling JGR events such as blood drives. How would a mistake affect a driver on race day? “If I forget to send in the entry blank, we’re in big trouble.” The team would be assessed a huge late fee and would forfeit any points earned in the race. If you could have any other job in the company, what would it be? She would create the position of M&M sampler. (M&M Mars sponsors the No. 18 car.) Her ride: Toyota Corolla. BEHIND THE SCENES AT JOE GIBBS RACING Joe Gibbs Bob Dyar From Columbia, S.C. Chaplain Job: As the only full-time chaplain for a NASCAR team, he also oversees JGR’s charitable giving and filters some of Joe Gibbs’s many speaking requests. How would a mistake affect a driver on race day? “He’s not at all dependent on what I do.” If you could have any other job in the company, what would it be? Truck driver. “I’m sure it would get old, but seems like such fun to drive all around America ... and people wave to you and want a hat.” His ride: a Toyota 4Runner, which he bought six months before JGR switched to Toyota. “I tell them it was a preordained thing.” J.D. Gibbs Team president 40 people ADMINISTRATION Includes Joe Gibbs and the rest of the front office, accounting, marketing, human resources, information technology, sponsor se rvices, buildi The nitty-gritty. This group designs, tests and builds the cars and a majority of the parts inside them. Mark Cronquist From Eagle River, Alaska Head engine builder Job: “Making sure the motors last all day.” Toyota supplies the block, heads and manifolds, and Cronquist and his crew choose and assemble the rest (and make many of them). How many parts are there? He once counted 1,136 per engine. Each motor must be rebuilt after a race and tweaked for different tracks and conditions. The department is responsible for about 100 engines, including some JGR leases to other teams. Best part of job: The challenge of trying to make the motors better under constantly changing scenarios. Worst part of job: “The days we blow up.” Then he has to figure out why an engine failed, which is most often bad material in a part. How would a mistake affect a driver on race day? He’ll be “on the trailer with the announcers going, ‘What happened?!’ ” If the motor breaks, the car doesn’t finish. If you could have any other job in the company, what would it be? “Janitor. A lot less stress.” His ride: Harley-Davidson Fat Boy. Terry Saunier From Canton, Ohio Fabrication shop supervisor Job: Fabricators make and hang bodies on the cars — 13 cars per team. Roofs, noses and hoods are bought from Toyota, then the fab shop makes the rest out of sheet metal to NASCAR’s exacting specifications. A body takes about 10 days to complete and hang. Even after a crash-free race, at least a third of a car’s body must be rebuilt. Saunier recalled one race several years ago when three of his cars were totaled (after two were totaled the week before). “That was the weekend I passed out.” Best part of job: “Seeing the finished product win races and knowing you had something to do with it.” How would a mistake affect a driver on race day? NASCAR could confiscate a car if it doesn’t pass inspection and he would have to drive the backup. This happened to a JGR car once at Texas Motor Speedway due to a slight fab shop mismeasurement. If you could have any other job in the company, what would it be? Jimmy Makar’s job. “You’d know everything that’s going on.” His ride: Toyota Tundra. Nelson CosgroveFrom Buffalo Director of engineering Job: Testing, testing, testing. Engineers design all parts and test many of them on elaborate gizmos they invent to simulate race conditions. Often they abuse a part until it fails to determine its breaking point. They also do aerodynamic testing in a rented wind tunnel. Best part of job: “Coming up with really elegant solutions to a problem” on an extremely tight schedule. If a part breaks on Sunday, the engineers see it Monday and must solve the problem before the cars go back out Wednesday. How would a mistake affect the drivers on race day? “They fall out of the race. They crash. If parts malfunction, parts break — those are the things that keep me awake at night.” His ride: BMW 3 series. Jimmy Makar From Cedar Knolls, N.J. Senior VP of racing operations Job: Formerly an extremely successful crew chief, Makar now oversees anything that has to do with racing: crew chiefs, car building, engines. Best part of job: “Seeing people — drivers, crew chiefs — that haven’t had success at this level attain success at JGR.” Worst part of job: People. “If every person has one bad day a year that I have to deal with, that’s every day of the year for me.” How would a mistake affect a driver on race day? It wouldn’t immediately, but it could be disastrous in the long term. “I could lead the whole company down the wrong path.” His ride: Cadillac Escalade. 30 people 130 people Research & design, engineering and testing Assembly, fabrication, engine building, machine shop and materials Reporting by Bonnie Berkowitz | Graphic byLaura Stanton Currently No. 1 in owner standings CAR MANUFACTURING BE Susan Berry From Staunton, Va. Retail manager Job: Chooses and purchases all products for sale at the JGR gift shop, Web site, and in trailers that travel with show cars. Along with the usual shirts and hats, the shop contains race-worn tires (only from winning cars), barbecue irons that will brand your burgers with car numbers and peanut butter dog biscuits shaped like race cars. What doesn’t make the cut? Things that are priced too high or are of poor quality. Weirdness isn’t a factor. “I’ve been doing this for 16 years and nothing seems odd to me, because as soon as I think something’s odd, someone comes in and buys it.” Best part of job: “I love the fans. They’re fun, excited to be here and thirsty for anything you can tell them about a driver, crew members — any little tidbits.” How would a mistake affect a driver on race day? He would have a smaller payday. “We don’t make the cars go fast, but we put more money in their pockets.” Her ride: Pontiac Grand Prix. y e m Cynthia Clemons From Asheville, N.C. Travel coordinator Job: Arranges for about 100 people to get to and from testing and races every week, including hotels, some flights and rental cars. Worst part of job: Having to be flexible, which goes against her plan-everything-in-advance nature, and having to persuade hotels to be flexible as well. How would a mistake affect the drivers on race day? If they don’t have cars, they don’t get to the track. If they don’t have hotels, they don’t get a good night’s sleep. In fact, she said she once stranded Tony Stewart. “He called me from the hotel lobby saying, ‘Um, I don’t have a room.’” If you could have any other job in the company, what would it be? “I want to be J.D. for a day, just to see the behind-the-scenes things that he has to do each day . ... Plus, I could boss people around.” Her ride: Volkswagen Passat. 30 people 30 people AVIATION MARKETING i ng services. Everyone involved with licensing, advertising, public relations, consumer products, the Web site and show cars, which are non-racing cars displayed at events. This division functions like a small airline. JGR owns three planes, with flights nearly every day ferrying management, crew and others to and from tracks. These folks work primarily at the track: haulers, spotters, pit crews, scorers, mechanics. Michael Lepp From Charlotte Athletic director Job: Trains pit crews much like a football team, with weight work, nutrition, practice and film review of the previous race’s pit stops. The shop’s fitness center contains rows of fitness machines and a training room for physical therapy and sports medicine. Lepp also sets up fitness routines for other shop employees and handles preventive medicine for road crews whose travel makes scheduling difficult. He also scouts for potential new pit crew members. Best part of job: “You get to see every Sunday, whether good or bad, the fruits of your labor.” At a recent Nationwide race, the two lead cars came into the pits simultaneously. The JGR crew got its car out first, and it won the race. Worst part of job: “When you come out [of a pit stop] and lose six places.” How would a mistake affect a driver on race day? Just as a fast pit stop can win a race, a slow one can lose it. If you could have any other job in the company, what would it be? Engineer. “I view myself as a human engineer,” and he likes problem solving. Also, “parts don’t talk back.” His ride: Toyota RAV4 with 130,000 miles on it. Peter Jellen From Stafford Springs, Conn. Primary hauler driver for Kyle Busch’s No. 18 car Job: Hauling the two No. 18 cars (a primary and a backup — although ideally only the primary car is used) and their equipment to the track each weekend, plus cleaning and stocking the truck. “I’m the shop on wheels,” he says. Trucks usually arrive at the tracks three days before the race. Jellen also does some mechanic work and even cooks for drivers. Best part of job: Driving. “The truck is my sanctuary.” Worst part of job: Being away from family, especially his 2-year-old daughter, for 210 to 230 days per year. How would a mistake affect a driver on race day? “He doesn’t race because his car’s not there.” His ride: 2002 Ford F-250 Super Duty. Heath Cherry From Belmont, N.C. Rear tire carrier on Denny Hamlin’s pit crew and sponsor services manager Job: Like many pit crew members, Cherry has two positions. He splits time between courting new sponsors and working on Denny Hamlin’s pit crew. As a rear tire carrier, he has to be strong with quick reflexes and excellent hand-eye coordination — some of the same requirements from his college days playing linebacker at Lenoir-Rhyne. Best parts of jobs: The hunt and the acquisition of a new sponsor; the athletic outlet and camaraderie of the pit crew team. How would a mistake affect a driver on race day? Two ways, since Cherry wears two hats: If he makes an error on pit road, the driver loses potentially critical seconds in the race. And if sponsors aren’t happy, the driver may not get to the race at all. His ride: 1993 Toyota 4x4 with 225,000 miles on it. Ivan Beach From Pikeville, Tenn. Director of aviation and pilot Job: He flies planes and oversees the department, which also maintains the planes: a Learjet 31A and two 43-passenger Saab 2000 Turboprops. Best part of job: “I get to fly two days a week, then manage and organize. ... I like the responsibility of being given a mission and let run the department as I see fit.” How would a mistake affect a driver on race day? If race-day team members showed up late or not at all, the driver would have a very tired crew at best. And if they didn’t think they were going home quickly afterward, they’d be grumpy as well. If you could have any other job in the company, what would it be? “Driver. Any of the three cars would be fine.” His ride: Chevy S10 pickup. Distributor of a racing motor oil developed by JGR's chief engine builder and made by Lubrizol. Motocross division run by Gibbs’s son Coy Nationwide is NASCAR’s second-tier series, similar to Triple-A in baseball. JGR MX TWO NATIONWIDE TEAMS JOE GIBBS RACING Four main divisions (415 employees): THREE SPRINT CUP TEAMS: 330 employees 65 employees 14 employees 6 employees JGR DRIVEN Departments within the Cup portion: 1 2 3 4 70 people Home Depot Driver: Tony Stewart (8th place) M&M Mars/Interstate Batteries Driver: Kyle Busch (Currently 1st in points race) FedEx Driver: Denny Hamlin (4th place) No. 11 0 2 . o N 8 1 . o N No. 18 No. 20 cs. The JGR teams will compete in the Coca-Cola 600 at 5 p.m. Sunday in Concord, N.C . RACE DAY NEXT SPRINT CUP RACE: BE NEFITS Dave Alpern From Oakton Vice president of marketing Job: Anything related to the Joe Gibbs Racing brand or trademark goes through him, including all product licensing. He also deals with driver contracts and other projects. Best part of job: Meeting and interacting with different people. Best example: At the 2004 Daytona 500 when musician Kid Rock was visiting friends, President Bush attended and actor Jim Caviezel was there promoting “The Passion of the Christ.” Said Alpern: “I’ve got President Bush, Kid Rock and Jesus standing there and I’m saying, ‘This is the greatest job ever!’ ” How would a mistake affect, say, Tony Stewart on race day? “He’d have a plain white car, plain white uniform, no one in the stands wearing orange, no media obligations. . . . Whoa, we better not give him any ideas.” His ride: 2008 Toyota Sequoia, his company car.
