Standing in the hauler of a top NASCAR Sprint Cup team as crew guys joke about their driver and eat pasta and baby carrots is not something I thought I would ever do. But that is just what I did Saturday.
I spent the morning hanging out in the pits and the hauler with the No. 12 Alltel crew of Daytona 500 champion Ryan Newman as crewmen set up for the Subway Fresh Fit 500 at Phoenix International Raceway in Avondale.
On pit road, they lay out rows of tires, check lug nuts, set up TV screens, measure the pit box. They all admit it is pretty boring.
Most of the over-the-wall crew members, guys who perform the pit stops during races, do not know anything about cars, jackman Bryan White admits. Trent Cherry, rear-tire changer and pit crew coach, recruits former athletes, not mechanics.
These guys are former college football and baseball players who spend the week working regular jobs.
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"What they've done is recruited us to come in and pit the cars," White says. "So we don't have to have any knowledge of the car, the working parts of it. So we pretty much set up the pit box, and then we go and hang out until the race starts because they won't allow us to touch the car."
I grab a seat on the ground next to front-tire changer Ben Brown as he paints the edges of lug nuts pink so he can see them better through brake dust.
Brown says he was never a NASCAR fan before he started traveling with the Alltel team four years ago.
"I'm from Charlotte, where it's huge, but I wasn't that into it," he says. "I'd go to races just to have a good time, but I didn't have a favorite driver or anything."
The crew members are celebrities just like the drivers. People take pictures of them and ask for autographs. One man even stops and asks if they will pose for a picture with his wife.
An hour before the race, the pit box is empty. As the race nears, crewmen reappear dressed in fire suits. They toss a football around on pit road. They stretch. They practice tire changes.
They line up in the pit box, take their hats off and bow their heads for the invocation and national anthem.
After some high-fives, it is race time, and Newman is starting on the pole.
During the race, they stay loose by running up and down the area behind the pit box and doing jumping jacks.
A caution flag comes out on the 42nd lap, and Newman brings his Penske Racing Dodge Charger down pit road. The pit stop happens so fast. They change four tires, clean off the grill and fill the car up with fuel, all in 13 to 14 seconds.
Every pit stop is recorded. Cherry plays and replays the footage at least five or six times and takes notes to better prepare for the next time Newman pits.
But on the 134th lap, Newman experiences engine problems.
Newman pulls his car behind the wall as his wife, Krissie, climbs down from the top of the box.
I look up at the scoring tower, and the race is only at the 138th lap, and the team is already packing up.
A fan asks one of them, "Can you fix it?" He just shakes his head no.
Equipment is thrown to the ground and kicked, and all I can do is offer a sympathetic smile.
Their race is over.
Alltel MyCircle 500 Challenge
Some lucky rans out there can go head-to-head with the Alltel crew.
From February 24 - May 3, fans can text RACE to 38229 or visit alltelracing.com for the chance to qualify for the only race for fans.
Ten lucky fans and their circles will train like the pros and compete in a pit crew and go kart challenge.
If the fastest team beats Ryan Newman and the No. 12 Alltel team, $500,000 will be waiting at the finish line.
