After barely getting a chance to catch their breath for the past 10 months, you’d think a NASCAR crew would savor the opportunity to relax in the shop without worrying about the next trip.
But, when normal is go-go-go every weekend, kicking your feet up doesn’t come easy, even at the end of a gruelling 36-race season.
“It’s hard to get used to; you get kind of anxious,” says Brian Vickers’ No. 83 Red Bull Toyota team crew chief Ryan Pemberton. “During the season, we have all these deadlines we have to meet and there are so many things that have to happen every day. When you don’t have that it’s definitely a little weird.”
In any case, with the 2010 season only two months away, there’s really not much spare time anyway. With a mid-January test in Texas on the horizon, the team has much to do before they get back on the road and start the season all over again.
“We are wide open as of right now,” Pemberton explains. “There are a lot of deadlines but not the way there is during the season where you have all these things that have to happen every single day. Things still have to be done, but nothing is set in stone and things are a little more flexible until you get to January.”
“We have the Christmas break and when we come back we have 10 working days to put two brand-new race cars in the trailer, complete with all the data and test plans and components that we are planning to test," Pemberton points out. "And that will be here before we know it.”
From there it’s just another few weeks to the annual February pilgrimage to Florida for the traditional Daytona 500 opener. And, when the No. 83 Red Bull Toyota hits the track at the Daytona International Speedway, expectations will be high following a successful 2009 campaign.
“The bar has been raised, but I believe it being higher in 2010 is more realistic than it was in 2009,” Pemberton said. “We know we are capable of doing all the things that we need to do: running up front, sitting on poles, winning races and making the Chase. If we can put some polish on some of those areas and clean up one or two of those things, we will be in good shape.”
Needless to say, the way the team finished the season in the Chase for the Cup was disappointing. Vickers never really found his feet, although he started with a couple of decent finishes. But, things went downhill from there and he ended the Chase in 12th place, 723 points behind champion Jimmie Johnson.
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Although the outcome of the 10 Chase races was much different to that of the previous 10, which had seen the No. 83 Red Bull outfit score the most points of any team, Pemberton takes a bit of a pragmatic view of their first appearance in NASCAR’s championship play-off.
“It’s just what happened. The guys right in front of us had kind of the same thing. You can’t have three or four DNFs in the last 10 races, that just kills you,” he says. “There is some value to being there and doing it and, whatever that is, we will use it up. I don’t think the experience necessarily makes you a whole lot better, the thing that makes you better is that we were there, we know we can do that, and now we are expecting ourselves to do it.”
One of the critical areas that Pemberton feels will bring further success is keeping the core group of the crew together. The idea is to build on the knowledge, experience, and the history of being together as they go back to racetracks for the second, third, and fourth times and deliver better results on race weekends.
Many of the teams that Red Bull is up against have been working on creating a tight knit group for years and it doesn’t take an engineering whiz to figure out that it’s a good idea to copy that model. Pemberton likens it to building any sports team where the coach needs to find the right players for the team and recognize who fits where on the roster.
“There are role players, supporting cast and stars; we have all that and that’s what makes a good race team. The key to being successful is having a great bunch of guys — it’s like your family. Sometimes you spend more time with them than you do with your family,” he says.
“You can’t put different people in there and start over every year, but you have to keep it fresh, keep it intense and keep pushing all the time. And they know the driver and they know how to keep him happy, and when he’s happy, the rest of us are happy.”
For more info, check out the Red Bull Racing website.
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