Visine Racing Parking Lot Practice Decreases Distance to Victory Lane

DENVER, N.C. (June 8) -- It’s by far the most unattractive car you will find in the Reiser Enterprises stable in Denver, N.C. However, it serves as much purpose to the team as the fleet of No. 17 Visine Chevrolets that run week to week on the NASCAR Busch Series circuit. Though it never leaves the back lot of the shop, it’s the ever-faithful black machine for pit stop practice.

Surprisingly, this ordinary piece of machinery comes from extraordinary lineage. Built in 1986, Dale Earnhardt originally drove the car before it was sold to Neil Bonnett in 1993. Neil’s son David drove the car for several years until John and Robbie Reiser purchased the car at the end of 1997 to utilize for team pit practice.

“To better the team’s performance we knew we needed a car to practice with each week,” John Reiser said. “We tried to practice with a race car but when we tore the door up on one before it had to leave for a race we knew that wasn’t going to work.”

Reiser Enterprises was one of the first NASCAR Busch Series teams to dedicate a car solely to pit training. As other teams followed suit, it was apparent the extra time spent perfecting their craft was paying off at the track.

“When we started we were doing good with pit stops of 23 seconds,” Reiser said. “Now a 15 second stop during practice translates into about a 16 second stop in real conditions at the track.”

Although its days of glory have faded, each day the black machine is fired up just before lunchtime for practice. Visine driver Jason Schuler, also known as “Joe Shoe Jr.” as noted by the name above the driver side window, takes the wheel as the team makes four complete practice runs. The crew of seven change left and right side tires and fuel the car with water. Schuler has a release valve to unload the water while the team takes a breather and gets set for the next round.

“We even let the air out of the tires to simulate flat tires so our jack man has to get that jack under the car,” Reiser said. “We don’t want to keep it easy even during practice.”

The driver seat comes from a local junkyard and was pulled out of a regular street car. It sits so high, Schuler must bend his head down to fit in the car. The automatic transmission is welded to the frame, the Grand National axles are welded to the car axle because the car axle is smaller, and the oil gets checked about once a year despite none of the gages working.

Well-suited for its parking lot duties and not the showroom floor, the practice times have paid off. The Reiser Enterprises team has taken Matt Kenseth in the Visine Chevrolet to victory lane twice this season at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway and California Speedway. It’s also the same Reiser Enterprises crew assembled by Robbie Reiser in 1997 that was part of seven victories and a second and third place finish in Busch Series point standings in 1998 and 1999, respectively.

The crew knows race cars will come and go but their old, reliable black machine will always be waiting for them back at the shop. They’ll continue training and hope their quick pit stops will pay off and take them to another victory lane this weekend.