At the center of penalties, Darby remains steadfast

There was a time in John Darby's NASCAR career when he had maybe two or three know-it-all, smart-aleck reporters parsing his every move and decision. He was the Busch Series director back then, and things just seemed to be simpler.

Not that Darby is complaining. He's not. He's now the Nextel Cup director, a big fish in a big pond, where, as he puts it, people play with "different colored chips."

Heavy hitter

Brian France said that NASCAR isn't afraid to levy harsher penalties if need be.

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What he means is that the stakes are decidedly higher on this side of the fence. These days, literally hundreds of media members pick apart his and NASCAR's every move. The money is a hundred-fold bigger, the spotlight glaringly bright.

For Darby, though, it all still comes to putting on a race.

Darby, a native of Rockford, Ill., sat down at Daytona to discuss his career, recent penalties handed by NASCAR and a variety of other subjects.

Q: What's the biggest difference between what you do now and what you did in the Busch Series?

Darby: It's the obvious that's changed. It's more exposure, more media, more of this, more of that. Purses are way higher, so there's more pressure to win those purses. Sponsorship is at a much higher level.

Although at the end of the day, you still open up and inspect the cars. You qualify, you practice and you race. All of that stuff hasn't changed, but each process is probably a little warmer water than what we had in the Busch Series.

Q: In a nutshell, what is your job description ... or does it change from day to day?

Darby: Parts do, because one of the most fun things of this job is you never know what's gonna be around the next corner. The basic responsibilities, obviously, are organizing the event through employment of 50 officials and (managing) the technical inspection procedures. The days in between Event A and Event B are usually, for the most part, spent in the office at the tech center, working on going forward.

Q: How delicate a balance do you have to have between having a good relationship with everybody in the garage, at the same time knowing that eventually, chances good are that you'll have to drop the hammer on them for something they've done?

Darby: There's parts of that that's extremely difficult. When we're inside the cage, meaning the garage, everybody's got a job to do. Everybody's got an agenda. If we can respect each other for our individual responsibilities, then life is good. But as soon as we walk out of the cage, that's when you have to shut the door on the office and we go back to enjoying the relationship that we've had numerous years.

Ironically, it seems sometimes that the guys you communicate with most, the guys you work with the most, the guys you lean on once in a while for advice, somehow getting caught up in the whirlwind of guys that you -- as you put it -- drop the hammer on. That's part of the business.

There's a mutual respect there. I'm always trying to make sure that both parties (NASCAR inspectors and team members) are comfortable in understanding that. The uniqueness of every personality in this garage is what you have to spend tremendous time in learning and understanding. We're talking about human beings. Understanding personalities, even more than knowing first and last names, is a great asset. (Continued)