Urban Legends: RIR

Think you know NASCAR and its teams? Bootie Barker, crew chief of the No. 66 Chevrolet, dispels some common myths about Nextel Cup racing every Friday on NASCAR.COM.

Myth: NASCAR hates French people, especially Jean Girard

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Fact: You see, the French seem to be against America on every one of our foreign policies, they don't support us when the cause is just, and they won't even let our planes use their airspace at times. So, as far as I'm concerned, no, NASCAR doesn't like French people.

Myth: Drivers don't wear glasses or contact lenses

Fact: In general, you don't see a lot of drivers wearing glasses these days, but I'd say that's due to Lasik surgery being available.

So, either the driver has had Lasik, he didn't need glasses in the first place, or he's wearing contact lenses.

Johnny Benson is the only exception to the "no glasses" rule that I know of in NASCAR right now. Not every driver was born with 20-20 vision, though.

Myth: Crew chiefs know when they're about to get fired

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Fact: Yeah, usually you do. What you'll find is that upper management, whether that be the team owner, the general manager or others, don't speak to you in quite the same way.

Then, when they're having meetings to discuss the future and planning for it, you don't seem to get included in those meetings.

Inevitably, the guys in the shop may start treating you differently as well, because someone usually leaks it to the team that you're on the way out.

If you see any of these signs as a crew chief, you better be making contacts and updating your résumé.

So, do you usually have someone come up to you and say, "Hey, man. I hear you're about to get fired?" No, not usually. If you're paying attention, you'll figure it out, though.

Myth: All crew guys have colorful nicknames

Fact: Most crew guys do. It seems to be a trend to nickname the guys.

When you spend as much time around a group of guys as you do with your team members, you're going to discover their tendencies, whether it be some habit they have that is hilarious, or maybe something they aren't proud of that they'd like to live down that you find out about them.

On our team, we have several pretty good nicknames. We have a guy named "Hot Sauce," which is just because the guy loves hot sauce on everything he eats, and one of our truck drivers is called "Scarecrow."

I know of some other good nicknames, but I can't really repeat them here.

Myth: Teams throw away the used parts from the engines after a race

Fact: Unless they've got something special about them that the team would rather keep secret, they'll eventually make the parts available through wholesale parts houses.

You can find some of those parts places by looking on the Internet. In the case of the engine block and the crank, it sometimes gets re-used by the team.

Now, even the parts that become available through the parts houses aren't exactly taken directly from Jeff Gordon's engine on a Sunday and sold on a Monday.

The teams are going to hold on to their parts until the technology is a little outdated. You're not going to get the latest and greatest, because the teams aren't going to give up the newest technology.

Myth: NASCAR visits the same tracks twice every year because it makes financial sense to do so, and because of the track's location

Fact: It's for both reasons. The reason we go to places like Loudon and Phoenix twice each year is due to location.

Those races hit a section of the country that is heavily populated, and that is going to hit a certain segment in terms of TV and merchandising.

The right location means money. That's why we're no longer going to places like Rockingham and North Wilkesboro. That's just a fact of the sport these days.

It's sad, because those two tracks had better racing than some of the other places we go, but that's the way it is.