For JGR's engine builder, it's been really early to rise

HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. -- It may have seemed difficult to get in touch with head engine builder Mark Cronquist of Joe Gibbs Racing during the recent offseason, but that was only if you didn't know what time to attempt contacting him.

The ideal hours for that were between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m., when he could be found sifting through e-mails and phone messages, and otherwise simply doing some necessary solitary thinking behind his desk at the JGR shop.

Cronquist

In January, team president J.D. Gibbs called Cronquist "maybe the busiest man in motorsports." That's because Cronquist was in charge of making sure the switch from the Chevrolet engines JGR had been running previously to the Toyota engines they will run in 2008 went smoothly.

It has not been an easy task, to say the least.

"This was the worst offseason I personally have had in a long time," Cronquist admitted. "Just because it was trying to get the pieces and the parts and where they go and what they are, and a part number to go with them ... just so I can give to my guys [the JGR engine assemblers] what I need to give to 'em, you know?"

It required long hours.

"I was coming to work at 3 or 4 in the morning and working until 5 or 6 at night most nights. And that's Saturdays, too," Cronquist said.

The offseason is always busy for any organization fielding Cup teams, but this one was made even more so for Cronquist because of the JGR manufacturer switch. He said that the engineers and other folks at Toyota Racing Development were eager to work with JGR, and vice versa, which made for a good flow of information back and forth.

But sometimes, it was almost too much of a flood of information for Cronquist to handle.

"It was a little overwhelming at times for me," said Cronquist, a native of Eagle River, Alaska, who got hooked on racing as a youth while watching his father race snowmobiles. "It's like they do so much on the Toyota side and have so much going on, sometimes I just needed to say, 'Stop! Slow down. Let me digest some of this stuff. Let me get caught up.' Because I've got my side going on and their side going on, and it's all coming right at me."

Even when they were racing Chevrolets, JGR would break down all engines for its cars at the end of each season. Then Cronquist would oversee the building of 105 new engines for the next season, so it's not like his offseasons weren't busy in previous years. (Continued)