Back in the swing of things

Hello All,
At this point in the season we have dusted off the cob webs. Teams are starting to establish their identities on pit road and on track. The newness that everyone experienced in Daytona is gone and now its crunch time. To the casual observer we are just a hand full of races into a 38 race season (36 point races). However, to the teams every point matters every pitstop is critical.
When you sit down on a weekend and watch a race or even better get to experience one live you come for the whole event. You have to fight the traffic, navigate through a sea of other fans, and spend money for that one hat or die cast that no one else has. To us its like a scene from the movie Gladiator! Ok maybe not that extreme obviously no one is gonna get stabbed or eaten by a lion, but put yourself in our shoes for a minute. We walk amongst the crowd getting praised and booed, treated like celebrities one minute and then ridiculed the next (depending on the fans favorite driver). Ultimately we end up in our own colesium with 43 roaring beast to contend with! This is the first big battle in a war for a championship.
In the past few weeks there has been some spectacular racing and pit work. However, there has been quite a few mistakes on pit road. We have seen an epedimic of lug nuts falling off and even a few air hoses getting run over. On friday the 13th in Texas I got a tire so wedged in the fender on the right side of the car I almost needed a crow bar to get it out. What Im getting at is no one is immune to mistakes, especially with the level of competition on pitroad these days. Pit crews are like place kickers in football. We are called upon only a few times per race but you either get it through the uprights or you miss, there is no gray area.
When the spotter or crew chief says the caution is out or we are gonna pit soon its a Pavlovian Effect. Just as the dogs mouths watered at the sound of a bell our hearts race at the sound of “caution is out” or ” we will be pitting in 10 laps”. As a tire changer you go through a mental check list, how does my air pressure look on the regulator? How does the gun feel in my hands? Is it vibrating or smooth? All of this goes through your mind before you even set foot on the pit wall. Now you stand on the wall, everyone has their own technique for getting focused. Some are a thousand miles away while others are so focused on what lug nut they are going to hit first they couldnt tell you what town they were in. Now the cars are on pit road, a thundering herd like a sheetmetal stampede. You pick out your car, the same hood you’ve seen time and time again. You jump off pitwall and stride to the far edge of the pit stall, there is no turning back at this point. Once the car slides to a stop you key up your gun and hit your knees making contact with the first lugnut…..

And So It Begins

Since the last time we all talked, the midnight oil has been burned and Saturdays have been worked. I have frozen my butt off at 8:30a.m Janurary practices and done cardio circuits till I thought I would throw up or drop dead.I have gotten to experience the “first day of school” feeling we all get when we arive to Daytona in all our new gear, and caught up on an offseasons worth of gossip. I got the opportunity to be on Fox and Friends with Anna Kooiman! What a neat experience that was, but I know I still have some work to do before my broadcasting career begins! I have logged more sky miles in 3 weeks than the average American earns in a year. All of that being said I have failed to keep up with my blog. I am thankful for all of my twitter followers and the few of you who have left comments on my blog. Since I began my new job I have been priveledged to work with new team mates. I have seen many of them in passing on pit road but never gotten to know them. I feel like this offseason I was led to this destination, like I was meant to be here.. I’ve been blessed to work with a strength coach who is more intense than I have ever have experienced and who doesn’t accept excuses. I have met tire changers who have won less but lived more, and above all I am working with the pit coach who gave me my start, the guy who 8 years ago said you can do this…..Now lets get beyond all the sappy stuff and talk about the fun things! My favorite things about what I do is the opportunity to meet and work with some amazing people. Just a few examples, I work with a guy who was a Dartmouth hockey player, He played semi pro and is still an incredible athlete…..however! he is from Canada! so he is always quick to show his pride, and im always quick to give him a hard time. Another guy has been on Nitro Circus (tv show) and has jumped out of airplanes and flipped bikes, but you would never know it by meeting him. Once the season starts however my favorite thing is Thursday nights. I get together with a group of friends every week like clockwork, just as many of us do. Some of us work in racing and some of us have real jobs, but we always have fun. Last Thursday we sat around the fire pit and ate beer can chicken then we raced around on my motorized cooler which i’ll explain in later blogs Even though we all work on different teams we all are family. When you tune into a race on sunday you see 43 different teams and I get asked weekly, “do you guys like the other teams?” My answer to you is this. We are all on the same team! at some point in time you will be on another team or work with someone who has been on a rival team. As much as any of us wants to win…none of us wants to see the other fail, because we know at any point it could be us.

 

My name is Kyle…

Hello All,

I’m new to the blogging world. As bad as my grammar and punctuation may be, I have a great story to tell. I got into the NASCAR world at 19 years old. Despite the struggle and obstacles I faced, most viewed my progression through the ranks as seemless! I started out in the Cup series with Kasey Kahne, I had the honor of being a part of his first win ( my second race). Winning was like a drug, it was addicting. Once it was in your system that was all you ever wanted, and anything less was not good enough.

I thought I had made it……But boy was I wrong! I had won a race. Then the next week I was part of the first Nextel Pit Crew Challenge, and I won! But with all that success came heart ache. I have learned that this is a humbling sport. After telling everyone how great I was in the shop on Thursday, I was humiliated on Sunday and ridiculed on Monday. I was pulled on national TV, and feared for my job…

That was 6 years ago….Since then I have worked for several big name drivers and been a part of 17 Cup wins. I almost won a championship in 2009! However last year I decided to chase the money. I left a team that was successful for a bigger contract. When I went to the 29 I realized that I may have made a mistake. Not only was this guy a hot head on the track…..he was a hot head in general! Every week you stood on the wall waiting to make a mistake, and wonder if you would survive the cut for the next race. Unfortunately, I didn’t. I made a rookie mistake on a stop in Michigan and I paid the price. Since that time I was “released” and found my place at Micheal Waltrip Racing. This is my story. Follow me in 2012. This is a redemption year. This is a year I prove to myself and my critics that I can make it.