Inside how the pit crew of Carl Edwards was assembled
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HUNTERSVILLE, N.C. – When Joe Gibbs Racing officials began putting together the over-the-wall pit crew for a fourth team during the latter portion of 2014, five of the six crewmen the organization hired came from Hendrick Motorsports. And three of the five came from the No. 88 team of Dale Earnhardt Jr.
It wasn’t a raid, Darian Grubb said. It was an opportunity.
“No matter what it is, you’re always looking for the best talent,” Grubb, who made the transition from crew chief for Denny Hamlin and the No. 11 JGR team to the No. 19 of Edwards, told NASCAR.com recently.
Three members of Edwards’ 2015 pit crew – front tire changer Clay Robinson, front tire carrier Kevin Harris and rear tire carrier Matt Ver Meer – handled the same duties for Earnhardt in ’14.
Rear tire changer Kip Wolfmeier spent only the first half of ’14 with Hendrick teammate Kasey Kahne while jack man Trey Burklin returned to JGR after a one-year hiatus working with Kahne on the No. 5 team.
Fueler Kenneth Purcell was the only JGR over-the-wall crewman to make the transition from the No. 11 to the 19.
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Grubb said he had plenty of input into the buildup of the “A team,” the mechanics and personnel that arrive at the track days before the race, but the over-the-wall group was already in place when he was named crew chief in December.
Todd Meredith, COO at JGR and a former pit crewman, made those hires, according to Grubb.
Bringing in his pit crew from the No. 11 team would have been ideal, he said, “because I know how good those guys are.
“But I can’t ask for a better bunch of guys that we ended up picking up. … It’s just one of those things they wanted to keep (the 11 crewmen) together and of course Denny did too.
“After it was all said and done and I knew who the guys were, I’d worked with Clay before,” Grubb said. “I did not know Ver Meer and Harris; I’d never met them. Kip Wolfmeier … I knew him; I’d worked with him over there (at Hendrick) as well.
“So two of the five guys total that came from Hendrick I knew but had not had any dealings with for four or five years.”
While Greg Ives stepped in to replace Steve Letarte as crew chief for Earnhardt Jr., the change had little impact on the crewmen’s decision to go elsewhere. Letarte announced early in the season that he would be stepping down at the end of ’14 to join NBC’s broadcast team for its NASCAR coverage in ’15.
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“I think we just saw there was a good opportunity with Carl, with brand new sponsors, and obviously up and down pit road you hear nothing but unbelievable things about Joe Gibbs Racing and how they treat their people, how happy guys are,” Harris said.
“I think we just all looked at our current situation and thought it was an opportunity to improve that and that’s what we did. It wasn’t a collective decision, but we all kind of knew whose contracts were up.”
Harris, an accounts manager at JGR during the week, said the ability to work elsewhere within the organization played a big role.
“I work in the front office as well and they offered that,” he said. “They actually welcome that – they want you to have dual roles and wear many hats at Joe Gibbs. So I jumped on it immediately.”
The opportunity to work for team owner Joe Gibbs was a key factor as well.
“There’s not one person I’ve run into in the past four and a half years of working in NASCAR that’s had one bad thing to say about that company or about Joe himself,” Harris said. “I felt like I wanted to be a part of that.”
With the Sprint Cup Series headed to Sonoma for this weekend’s Toyota/SaveMart 350 (FOX Sports 1, PRN, SiriusXM), Grubb said his crew “hit the ground running” back in February and hasn’t disappointed.
In his opinion, they’re one of the top five in the series and their quick work on pit road this season backs up his belief.
“I think we still have our fastest recorded pit stop during a race event, I think it was a 10.44 (seconds) at Auto Club Speedway,” Grubb said. “The guys were phenomenal. That was not even pushing to try hard or anything. … Knowing that they have that speed potential, they have had some really impressive stops but they are also able to get all the adjustments I need to get done every week as well.”
Of course, there have been situations when everything didn’t go exactly as planned.
During the team’s first live pit stop in this year’s second Budweiser Duel qualifying race at Daytona International Speedway, Edwards shot through his pit box and had to back up before the crew could begin to service the car.
“I jump off the wall … and Carl blows through the box,” Harris said. “And I’m like high-stepping to get out of the way. It was hilarious. In my four years with Dale, he never did that. He never blew through the box like that.
“In my mind, I was just thinking about making sure the sponsors could all see and were good to go; you want them to be excited about their first race and their first pit stop. Then it was, ‘Whoa, I hope this doesn’t keep going every weekend.’ But we had a brake issue that week so it wasn’t that big of a deal.”
At Dover in May, a broken piece in the car caused a wrench to become stuck when making a wedge adjustment, and as a result, Edwards had to make an additional trip to pit road.
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In the heated rush of pitting a car, such mishaps are “becoming more commonplace,” Grubb said.
“Because you’ve got guys trying to do all this in an 11-second span,” he said. “Before, with a 13-second stop, those two seconds gave you a lot of extra time to do things. Now, if we want to put tape on the grille, the guy basically has to lay his life on the line to lay in front of the car because that car is going to drop and go. It’s tough.”