Winston Cup Pit Crews

July 25, 1999 – Hello everyone. What a weekend for racing, I took my nephew to his first race Saturday night. He was absolutely enthralled by the action. Not bad for an eight-month-old, okay so maybe his bottle captured his attention a bit more than the actual racing. But give him time, he's still young.

Last time I promised to give an insight to Winston Cup pit crews and the differences from Busch teams, so…

First and foremost the biggest difference between Cup and Busch teams is that Cup teams have as many as 40-50 members. With the well-staffed Cup members having two different crews, a road crew and a shop crew.

The Midwest Transit Racing team, car # 50 with driver Ricky Craven, has 16 employees plus a few contract laborers. However, the Morgan-McClure team, car # 4 with Bobby Hamilton as driver, has 52 people on payroll. Whereas most Busch teams have about approximately 10 members who do everything including race weekend and shop work.

Dee Chapman, PR director for the # 50 team states, "Our team works anywhere from 60+ hours Monday to Friday-not including race weekends. Race weekend can add 30 hours." That is almost half of the hours in a week, including the hours one needs for sleep.

As far as having a road crew and a shop crew the hours break down to "road crew usually 75-90 hours per week, shop crew varies from 50-100" hours per week according to the Morgan-McClure team. Both teams confirm that hours are to work until the cars are ready, or the job is done, and that the team members are on salary.

Chapman asserts that the differences between Cup and Busch are "Not much when comparing the amount of work, the hours, and effort need. Only difference maybe be the salary the employees make."

Now for a question from our readers, Sheila Bauldwin from Bon Aqua, TN asks how old was Jeff Gordon when he first started racing. Well Sheila, I didn't get to ask Gordon but for the record, he was 5 years old when he started in quarter midget racing.

Well that wraps it up for this report. Until next time race fans take care, and remember Safety First!
Nikki

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