Pemberton 'fatigued,' absent at Texas
By Dave Rodman, Turner Sports Interactive
March 30, 2001
7:50 PM EST (0050 GMT)
FORT WORTH, Texas -- Penske Racing South crew chief Robin Pemberton has become the first high-level casualty of NASCAR's arduous 38-weekend 2001 Winston Cup racing schedule.
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Robin Pemberton
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Pemberton, 44, was absent Friday morning when 45 Winston Cup teams signed into the Texas Motor Speedway garage area to begin preparations for Sunday's Harrah's 500 -- the seventh of 36 championship points races this season.
Pemberton, a native of Ballston Spa, New York, who was a highly-rated track-and-field sprinter in high school, did not travel with driver Rusty Wallace's No. 2 Miller Lite Ford team to Texas.
Pemberton had a stress test prior to the Bristol race weekend March 23-25 and returned to his family physician last Tuesday where he underwent a heart catheterization.
That test did not reveal any artery blockage, but Pemberton was scheduled Friday to have further examinations by his physician of his carotid artery. Pemberton, who did not rule out the possibility of attending the race Sunday, spoke about his health over the telephone this morning from North Carolina.
"I was really feeling pretty normal as far as being run down and stressed out -- just like about 400 other friends of mine feel like every day," Pemberton said cheerfully. "But when you do the things we're all doing and you get to a point where you can't shake that feeling of being tired and you're out of energy, you need to get checked out.
"Maybe more people will get looked at as a result of this because we're going to more of these things (races) than ever before and it can take a toll on you physically."
The news of Pemberton's absence caused some heads to shake in a reflective Winston Cup garage.
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The grueling 38-race schedule is tough on the entire pit crew.
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"We all are (exhausted)," said Jimmy Fennig, crew chief for Mark Martin's Roush Racing Ford, when told Pemberton was not in the garage.
His reaction mirrored a big concern for his fellow mechanic and manager. "Robin ain't here? I didn't even know that."
"We all knew going in that it's a tough schedule," Fennig said. "The car owners allowed us to get a couple more people to put in place to help out with the situation. What we do as managers, we try to give as much time off as we can to our employees."
Still, Fennig said crew chiefs often feel as if they are walking a knife edge of uncertainty that would plunge off the deep end if, for example, a driver crashed cars badly two or three weeks in a row.
"You never have it covered, you know?" Fennig said, shaking his head in thanks that no more ill luck has befallen his team than has already occurred.
"Fortunately we haven't wrecked any race cars, I mean bad. We started preparing ourselves in the fall of last year by starting to build cars, starting getting going -- getting organized for this year, just so we don't fall behind.
"We're trying to stay about a month ahead of the game. Right now it's working but how long it's gonna work I don't know."
Penske South Racing general manager John Erickson said his organization has already put the elements in place to cover Pemberton's absence. Veteran Wallace crewman Earl Barban will likely serve as spotter and 26-year Wallace associate Jeffrey Thousand, the team's chassis specialist will handle communications from atop the pit box.
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Jeffrey Thousand will handle communications for the No. 2 team to take up the slack in Pemberton's absence.
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"Typically, Jeffrey is on the stop sign and then catching the tire," Erickson said. "But I think what we'll do is I'll handle the stop sign and we'll put Jeffrey up on the box to be in communication with the driver from the pits. Everything else will pretty much stay the same."
Erickson said that by no means would Pemberton be out of touch with the team.
"We'll probably call and give him an update because I'm sure he's going to want to know how we're doing," Erickson said. "But as far as setup goes, Brandon Thomas is here and we brought another engineer, Nelson Cosgrove, to help out.
"As everybody knows, the driver has the final say anyway, but we'll communicate with Robin every night and get whatever input from him that we can."
In typical racer fashion, Pemberton said he might return sooner than the opening of practice for the Virginia 500 at Martinsville Speedway April 6.
"I'm contemplating this weekend, but I don't know for sure," Pemberton said. "It depends on who talks to me and how they talk to me as to what I do, but I do know I'll be at Martinsville for sure."
"It's strictly between Robin and his doctor as to when he comes back," Erickson said. "My understanding at this point is that this may be the only race he misses, but that's between him and his doctor. We'll do whatever we've got to do to make sure he's healthy."
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