Crew chiefs driving force for Daytona 500 winners

By winning the Daytona 500, the driver gets his name on the trophy and immortality. But it's the crew chief who supervises everything from the construction of the chassis to the split-second decisions on pit road that can make the difference between visiting Victory Lane and winding up an also-ran.

Some of the best in the business have captured stock-car racing's biggest prize on multiple occasions. Here are five of their stories:

50th Daytona 500

• Most memorable
• Winning drivers
• Winning crew chiefs
• History of the 500
• How DIS came to be
• Flashback: Daytona '79

SMOKEY YUNICK

Henry Yunick was anything but the prototypical engineer. Growing up in Pennsylvania, Yunick showed incredible mechanical aptitude but dropped out of school in the 10th grade after his father died. He found an outlet for his talent by racing motorcycles.

Then when World War II began, he found himself in the cockpit of a B-17, flying missions over Europe and the Pacific. When the war ended, Yunick moved to Florida for the weather and in 1947, opened a shop on Beach Street that he humbly called "Smokey's Best Damn Garage in Town." It stayed open for the next 40 years, until Smokey decided there were no more good mechanics.

Local driver Marshall Teague asked Yunick to build engines for Herb Thomas, and Thomas promptly went out and won the 1951 Southern 500 with one of Smokey's power plants under the hood.

During the next two decades, he would go on to win more than 50 NASCAR races with his small-block Chevrolet engines, including a pair of Daytona 500s (Marvin Panch in 1961 and Fireball Roberts in '62). In addition, he put his talents to work in open-wheel racing, winning the 1960 Indianapolis 500 with Jim Rathmann at the wheel. He also was the driving force behind many of NHRA's best.

Yunick

Yunick was easy to spot in the garage area at nearly every major auto race -- a white uniform and battered cowboy hat were his trademarks. And he was never afraid to speak his mind, a trait that landed him in trouble on many occasions.

One of Yunick's greatest achievements was a building a car for Curtis Turner that was much faster than the competition. It wasn't until NASCAR checked the templates that officials realized Yunick had built an exact seven-eighths scale replica of the production car, which accounted for the aerodynamic advantage.

In addition, Yunick was famous for bending NASCAR's rule book by adding extra tubing to the fuel line to expand the car's fuel capacity, using nitrous oxide injection and adding roof spoilers.

After his racing career, he became a consultant for the three major auto manufacturers, then worked with oil companies on energy conservation issues. A prolific inventor, Yunick holds nine U.S. patents.

In 1990, he was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame. He died of leukemia in 2001.

• Also: Fact and fiction obscured sometimes by Smokey

LEONARD WOOD

Every team that gains track position on pit road should thank Leonard Wood. He was responsible for inventing the modern pit stop.

Wood realized early on that efficient pit stops could make more of a difference than horsepower and handling. So he assigned specific duties to different crew members. While one man was fueling the car, another handled the jack. When other teams began to copy their system, the team worked to make their pit stops the most efficient in the sport.

Wood

It paid off handsomely, as the Wood Brothers recorded 96 wins, including four Daytona 500s with four different drivers: Tiny Lund, Cale Yarborough, A.J. Foyt and David Pearson.

Glen and Leonard Wood worked at their father's garage in Stuart, Va., and during that time, decided to form a race team in 1950. Older brother Glen handled driving duties while younger sibling Leonard built the engines and acted as chief mechanic. As they earned more success, the team evolved from a hobby into a full-time business, adding family members and friends to fill out the team.

The two brothers realized that more money could be won at the superspeedways, so they concentrated on building and preparing cars for those tracks, and hired drivers with reputations for winning those kind of races. With Leonard's engines and dominating pit stops, the Wood Brothers' family operation was as successful as any in the sport.

Drivers like Curtis Turner, Parnelli Jones, Junior Johnson, Speedy Thompson, Fred Lorenzen, Dan Gurney and Cale Yarborough won races in the No. 21.

The team's reputation for efficient pit stops even followed them to Indianapolis, where they served as pit crew for Jim Clark's 1965 Indianapolis 500 victory.

But the team's greatest success may have come with Pearson behind the wheel. The South Carolina native was a perfect fit. His driving style was perfect for NASCAR's superspeedways and his ability to preserve his equipment until the final laps was legendary.

In a seven-year stretch starting in 1972, Pearson scored 43 victories while driving selected races for the Woods, including three consecutive Firecracker 400s at Daytona, two World 600s at Charlotte and the 1976 Daytona 500. In 1973, Pearson won 11 of the 18 races he entered.

The original brothers have retired, handing the reins to a second generation of Woods. Glen's sons, Eddie and Len, handle the day-to-day shop duties while sister Kim Wood Hall is the team's office manager.

DALE INMAN

Dale Inman was there at the start of The King's reign. A cousin of Richard Petty, Inman and a couple of friends became his "crew" when he first ran a convertible at Columbia, S.C., in 1958.

By the time Inman left Petty Enterprises two days after Petty's seventh Daytona 500 win, he had been involved in nearly 200 victories and seven Cup championships. Inman then added a eighth title with Terry Labonte in 1984.

Inman

Inman admitted in an interview with Rick Houston last season that the role of crew chief has changed significantly in five decades of racing.

"At the time I came along, I drove the truck, changed the right-front tire, made the calls, argued with NASCAR, argued with Richard ... the whole ball of wax," Inman said. "Now, they've just got so many designated people that do a particular job. I used to use the phrase, 'It ain't always been this easy.'" (read more)

In 1967, Petty and Inman combined for 27 victories -- including 10 races in a row -- all of which were achieved in a single Plymouth that had been built the year before. Even at the pinnacle of Petty Enterprises, the team rarely had more than two or three cars in its stable at any given time.

But that shouldn't deter from what the team was able to do with those limited resources. With Maurice Petty's engines and Richard Petty's driving ability, Inman parlayed those strengths into unrivaled success.

And at times, he made the right call at the right time. Consider the 1981 Daytona 500 -- Richard's seventh and final win. Knowing that the tires would last the distance, Inman brought Petty in for a fuel-only stop with 24 laps remaining, allowing him to wipe out a 6-second deficit and build enough of a cushion to hold off Bobby Allison for the victory.

"We just out-thunk 'em there at the end," Petty said.

Inman retired from the sport at the end of the 1998 season. During his time away from racing, Inman was one of many who worked tirelessly to get the Victory Junction Gang Camp up and running.

"It was a joy to work at that camp for a couple of years," Inman said. "I was on bulldozers, dump trucks, backhoes and things I'd never seen before and didn't know how to operate. I really enjoyed it. It's been a pleasure to go over there and know that I helped with the building of the operation."

He spotted for Adam Petty in the fourth-generation driver's final race at Daytona in February 2000, a race he finished sixth.

Inman returned to Petty Enterprises as a consultant in 2004.

"I don't like the travel, but the garage area and being at the racetrack, that's my thing," Inman said. "I'm not consistent around the shop. I kindly come and go as I want to. I still enjoy the racetrack. It keeps me from becoming a complete couch potato. I still enjoy working with the boys, the sounds.

"I still hang around and mingle with the troops. I still enjoy racing. It's a disease that's hard to get rid of. I'm as busy as my body will let me be. This old body's got a lot of miles on it. I still enjoy being around the crew. They like to hear the old stories that we tell. Some of them are hard to believe."

TONY GLOVER

The pairing of Sterling Marlin and Tony Glover as driver and crew chief wasn't just a great professional match -- it was personal.

Glover had a reason to appreciate first-hand what the Marlin family meant to racing.

Glover

"I knew [Sterling's father] Coo Coo basically all of my life," Glover said. "He was a good man, a good racecar driver. One of the first memories I had of him was in 1967, when my daddy crashed in a modified race at Nashville and was injured really bad. Coo Coo pulled him out of the car."

Glover certainly repaid that kindness, guiding Coo Coo's kid to consecutive Daytona 500 victories. Both times, Glover made decisions not to pit that led to Marlin's wins.

In 1994, Marlin was able to get 59 laps out of his final tank of fuel, having just enough to hold off a furious charge by Ernie Irvan on the final lap.

The next year, Marlin became the first driver to win back-to-back 500s since Cale Yarborough when he refused to be intimidated by Dale Earnhardt. Even though Marlin was on old tires and Earnhardt on fresh ones, track position -- specifically the result of Glover's decision not to pit with 10 laps remaining -- proved to be the difference.

"On that last caution, I asked Tony what he wanted me to do," Marlin said. "He told me to stay out there because there were so many cars on the lead lap, it might be hard to get back up there."

That same strategy nearly paid off with a Brickyard 400 victory in 2001. Running ninth, Marlin was the only one of the leaders not to pit during the final caution. And if not for Jeff Gordon's pass immediately following the final restart, it could have been Marlin kissing the bricks.

"I'd do it again a million times," Glover said. "We had one option to try to win Indianapolis, and that was to stay on the racetrack. If we pit, we come out 10th and we come out somewhere between fifth and 15th. I'd make the same call next week, next month and next year."

Glover also played the fuel-mileage game to perfection in the 1991 Daytona 500, as Ernie Irvan rallied from a stop-and-go penalty to avoid a late-race, multi-car accident which decimated the field.

By 2000, Glover was the team manager for Felix Sabates' race team -- and when Chip Ganassi purchased the organization, he continued in that role. He begins his 36th season in the business in 2008.

LARRY McREYNOLDS

Larry McReynolds may be most recognizable today as one of the veteran voices on the FOX television broadcasts, but he may be best remembered for winning the Daytona 500 with both Davey Allison and Dale Earnhardt.

Growing up in Birmingham, Ala., McReynolds worked at an auto salvage yard in high school and helped with a street stock hobby team at Birmingham International Raceway. He then advanced to Late Models, preparing cars for Dave Mader and Mike Alexander.

McReynolds

"I used to go to high school from 8 a.m. to noon," McReynolds said. "Then I'd work at the salvage yard from 1 to 5 and then spend as much time afterward as I could on the racecars.

"There were many weeks that I'd stop at McDonald's or Burger King, go right to the shop and work all night long, just in time to get freshened up for my job at the salvage yard."

Realizing that he could work less hours for more pay -- and get more sleep -- if he went into racing full time, McReynolds moved east in 1980, taking a position with South Carolina-based Rogers Racing. Within a year, he was preparing cars for the likes of Tim Richmond, Donnie Allison and Neil Bonnett.

McReynolds landed his first job as crew chief in 1985 and a year later, was on the pit box with Kenny Bernstein's team. His first win came at Watkins Glen in 1988, with Ricky Rudd behind the wheel.

But his career really took off early in the 1991 season, when he was hired by Robert Yates as crew chief for Davey Allison. The two Alabama natives immediately hit it off. They won the 1991 Coca-Cola 600, one of five victories that season.

Then in a backup car after crashing his primary in practice, Allison dominated the 1992 Daytona 500, leading all but five of the final 102 laps.

If that was McReynolds' highlight, his career low came 18 months later. McReynolds was working in the shop when the phone call came in from Alabama: Allison's helicopter had crashed in the Talladega infield. The driver whom McReynolds said "made the biggest impact on my career" died the following day.

McReynolds remained with Yates through 1996, recording seven wins with Ernie Irvan driving. Then he moved to Richard Childress and teamed up with Earnhardt. They failed to win a race in 1997 -- but got things off to a perfect start in 1998 as Earnhardt finally broke his Daytona jinx, getting McReynolds a second 500 championship ring.

"When you win the Daytona 500 you feel like your career is complete," McReynolds said. "Finally in 1992, I got to experience that feeling with Davey Allison and I was privileged to have a second opportunity with Dale Earnhardt in 1998."

McReynolds left the team at the end of the 2000 season for a career as a television analyst. In all, McReynolds won 20 poles and 23 races as a crew chief.